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Recent News and Legislative Updates

Senate File 1233, the Senate's version of the House's 1503, has stalled in the Senate Health, Housing, and Family Security committee. Following a hearing on Monday, March 15, 2010, the bill failed to secure a vote and was held over without further action. The bill is considered dead and will…

If passed, House File 1503, would create a voluntary registration credential for massage therapists and create the Registered Massage Therapist Advisory Council to advise and assist the Board of Nursing in implementing the law. ABMP cannot support the bill in its current form; however, we are…

Senate Bill 364, authored by Senator Cecil Staton, would amend the Massage Therapy Practice Act. If passed, the bill would amend the licensing law in three primary ways:

  1. If convicted…

AB 588 was passed favorably out of the Assembly Committee on Health and Healthcare Reform with two small changes.

  • The Examining Board was changed to an Affiliated Credentialing Board. A credentialing board has similar responsibilities to an examining board. Members…

For the last two years, the Kentucky Board of Licensure for Massage Therapy and a few representatives from both ABMP and the AMTA-Kentucky Chapter have been discussing changes to the Massage Therapy Practice Act. House Bill 180, sponsored by Representative Ruth Ann Palumbo, is the result of…

Les Sweeney, NCTM
President, ABMP

The blogosphere has heated up lately regarding implementation of statewide massage regulations in California-we think that's healthy. The massage community needs to be engaged in offering its opinions. It took six years to get a bill passed; how the…

Senate bill 786, sponsored by Senator Sanborn, was approved by Governor Granholm on January 4, 2010. The law amends how proprietary schools are licensed and regulated in Michigan as previously defined by law. ABMP became involved with this effort a few years ago when we were contacted by several…

As reported in November, The KDHE Occupational Credentialing Technical Review Committee has been evaluating the American Massage Therapy Association's sunrise document to determine whether the profession meets the criteria for regulation in Kansas. On Friday, December 11, 2009, the committee…

Assembly bill 588, sponsored by Representative Berceau, would make a number of changes to the regulation of massage and bodywork therapists. Under current law, a person who is not certified as a massage therapist or bodyworker by the Department of Regulations and Licensing may not designate…

The American Massage Therapy Association (AMTA) and the AMTA Kansas chapter submitted a sunrise document (essentially an application to license massage therapists in Kansas) to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE). The KDHE Occupational Credentialing Technical Review Committee…