In Switzerland, there are three groups of professionals who practise TCM:
1. doctors with a TCM speciality certificate
2. non-physician TCM therapists
3. TCM doctors from China
TCM doctors:
Medical TCM people have enjoyed appropriate training. You can find the conditions here: fa_akupunktur_d.pdf (siwf.ch), fa_akupunktur_LZK_d.pdf (siwf.ch).
After completing their training, doctors regularly attend further training courses. Over time, some specialise in the treatment of certain diseases.
Relatively often, TCM doctors only treat with acupuncture and do not use TCM medicines (herbs, etc.), even though they have learnt them. Billing takes place via the basic insurance, but the TCM remedies (herbs) themselves must be billed via the supplementary insurance.
If you are looking for a doctor who practices TCM, you can find one in the register of medical professions at https://www.medregom.admin.ch/. There, tick the box for the profession of doctor and then tick the box for 'Acupuncture - Chinese medicinal therapy - TCM (ASA)' in the 'Other qualifications' section.
Further sources: SACAM :: Medical Association for Acupuncture, Chinese Medicine and Auriculomedicine; ASA: ASA - Association of Swiss Medical Societies for Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine (akupunktur-tcm.ch)
Non-physician TCM therapists:
This professional group now has a higher professional examination and federal professional recognition, organised by the OdA-AM Home : OdA AM (oda-am.ch). It is to be expected that in time most non-physician TCM specialists will have this title. This does not necessarily mean that TCM specialists who do not have this title work less well than those who do. There are many TCM specialists who gained many years of experience with TCM before the time of OdA-AM. Some people do without the new title because of the bureaucratic and financial effort involved. It may be that certain supplementary insurers insist that this title must be held in order for a service to be reimbursed. There may also be cantons in which the title is necessary. Billing takes place via the supplementary insurance.
The fact that non-medical TCM therapists are not doctors does not mean that they know less about TCM than doctors. There are very good people in all three groups.
Professional organisation: TCM Association | Traditional Chinese Medicine
TCM doctors from China:
People have come from China who have done a proper TCM medical degree there lasting around 6 years and some of whom have worked in clinics for many years. However, there are also Chinese who have not had such a long training programme and there are those who first trained in Europe. Some TCM people from China still need translators so that they can communicate with patients here. In the foreseeable future, however, they will be required to have knowledge of one of our national languages. Billing takes place via supplementary insurance.
There are also very good TCM specialists in this professional group.
