On February 21, 2013, leaders of the Northern California Acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine profession, including  Ron Zaidman,  President and CEO of Five Branches University, held a press conference in San Francisco, California to announce the benefits California residents will receive with the inclusion of Acupuncture in Obamacare (effective January, 2014). This is an important and significant development, as Acupuncture joins Western Medicine as an essential healthcare benefit to be included in private insurance plans.

This development started in California in 1975 when Governor Jerry Brown signed into law the profession of Acupuncture as primary healthcare. The growth of the profession was made possible through high and rigorous standards of education and training, and state and national licensing and certification exams.

The leaders of the Acupuncture profession also announced the United States will be hosting the 10th World Conference on Chinese Medicine, for the first time, in Silicon Valley, in September, 2013.  Every year The World Federation of Chinese Medicine Societies (WFCMS) organizes a worldwide Chinese Medicine Congress to provide a platform for Chinese Medicine specialists from all over the world to publish their clinical findings and to present the latest development of Chinese medicine to the world. The 9th World Congress of Chinese Medicine was held in Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia , with prior conferences held in The Hague, and London.