On July 31, the Association of Accredited Naturopathic Medical Colleges (AANMC), along with the American Association of Naturopathic Physicians (AANP), and the Naturopathic Medicine Student Association (NMSA), filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Education and the Secretary of Education in the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon.
The lawsuit challenges the Department’s recent rule limiting the amount of federal loans that students pursuing an accredited Doctor of Naturopathic Medicine (ND) at AANMC member institutions can borrow. Beginning July 1, 2026, “graduate students” can borrow substantially less, annually and in the aggregate, than “professional students.” A “professional student” is a student enrolled in a program that awards a “professional degree.” The Department’s rule excluded the ND degree from the definition of “professional student.”
According to the AANMC, AANP and NMSA, the final rule creates unjustified barriers to health care education during a growing deficit of health care workers, despite the fact that an ND has long been considered a “professional” degree. Like many other degrees that are classified as “professional” under the rule, an ND is awarded to graduates who successfully complete a rigorous, doctoral-level program at AANMC member institutions, enables graduates to sit for a national entry-to-practice licensing examination (NPLEX), and is a prerequisite to seeking licensure as naturopathic medicine doctors. Naturopathic medicine has been recognized in the Department’s own tables as a professional degree since 1999.
The Department’s rule, however, now excludes an ND from “professional degree” status. Prospective students are therefore unable to borrow the federal loans that many desperately need in order to pursue an ND and achieve their career goals of becoming licensed naturopathic doctors. Many students currently enrolled in naturopathic medical school will be unable to borrow enough to complete their degree due to the final rule, and will be left with already-incurred debt and no degree to launch their careers.
The impact of this rule will be felt most by people in need of health care, noted the AANMC, AANP and NMSA. Restricting access to education will worsen provider shortages and limit health care options at a time when interest and demand for integrative medicine is growing. This regulatory overreach contradicts national goals to expand primary care access and is inconsistent with broader government efforts to expand access to preventive and whole-person health care, reducing chronic diseases, and reducing costs to the health care system that is central to naturopathic medicine.
The AANMC, AANP and NMSA said that they are seeking immediate injunctive relief in court that requires the Department to properly classify an ND as a “professional degree,” enabling students to borrow federal loans at higher “professional student” levels.
For more information, visit https://aanmc.org, https://naturopathic.org or https://naturopathicstudent.org.
