“Acupuncture is a long standing effective form of medical therapy that involves the insertion of filiform needles into specific neuromuscular points of the body for healing benefit. Recognizing this benefit, the Physical Therapy association has attempted to redefine the nomenclature of these already established techniques to circumvent existing licensing requirements. Here is a recent peer-reviewed publication that argues that Dry Needling initiatives are in fact an attempt to bypass Acupuncture standards: http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/acm.2016.0066
Licensure to practice Acupuncture requires a Master's Degree with over a thousand hours of education and hundreds of hours of supervised practice, as well as successfully completing the NCCAOM national board exams. Compare this to the fewer than 60 hours of education and zero supervised clinical work required to practice Dry Needling and the inequity becomes obvious.
Not only has Dry Needling been voted out of the scope of practice of Washington Physical Therapists twice already, and as recently as last February, the Washington State Attorney General has also ruled that "The practice of dry needling does not fall within the scope of practice of a licensed physical therapist". http://www.atg.wa.gov/ago-opinions/scope-practice-physical-therapy
Anyone with half a mind can see the Physical Therapy Association's attempts to incorporate Acupuncture technique are greed driven nonsense, and for the Department of Health to allow "Dry Needling" within the scope of Physical Therapy practice would be a corruption of justice.
I might also add that according to the American Medical Association in regards to Dry Needling:
"Lax regulation and nonexistent standards surround this invasive practice. For patients' safety, practitioners should meet standards required for licensed acupuncturists and physicians". http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/news/news/2016/2016-06-15-new-policies-annual-meeting.page
and according to the American Academy of Medical Acupuncture:
"it is inadvisable legally to expand the scope of physical therapists to include dry needling as part of their practice".” Page 335

Reference: 

https://www.doh.wa.gov/Portals/1/Documents/2000/PTDraftReportAppendices2of2.pdf