AMTA, AMTA-KY and KBLMT WORKING TOGETHER!

Massage Therapy Bill Talking Points for 2021

The Kentucky Board of Licensure for Massage Therapy, (KBLMT) has been working closely with licensees, massage educators and other boards to find ways to ease burdens on licensees, generate revenue to keep the board funded and maintain high quality of public protection.

This bill proposes:

  • New!! Animal Massage License.  Developed in conjunction with Veterinarian Board and with incoming schools and existing practitioners.  Eliminates need for “Direct Supervision” by a licensed veterinarian.  Requires specific training for large or small animal massage license.
  • Reduction of Continuing Education Requirements: At 24ce every 2 year renewal cycle, Kentucky is on the high end of requirements for continuing education.  This is very burdensome for the many part-time therapists, using a higher percent of their income for maintenance of a license than found in many other professions.  The bill passed the reduction to 12ce every 2 year renewal cycle.
  • Removal of requirement to have a school owner or director on the board. An advisory committee is proposed.  There are a very limited number of school owners or program directors in the commonwealth and this has resulted in long or repeated terms on the board.
  • Adds a reinstatement clause so that therapists who let license lapse for a “life event” can regain their license even if they were ‘grandfathered.’ Currently, the statute only allow late renewal up to 90 days, and then the licensee has to renew under the current standards.
  • Creates and establishment license for practices with 2-4 or more than 5 therapists. The Board has no recourse against a business using unlicensed practitioners.  Once a practitioner receives a cease and desist, the business often simply hires another unqualified person, delivering unsafe and unsatisfactory treatments to the clientele.  Human traffickers have been involved in some of these cases.
  • Addition of an AA degree route to licensure. As more Kentuckians seek non-opioid relief for pain, massage therapists are being asked to work with more people under medical care for a variety of reasons, often with co-morbidities such as diabetes.  It is becoming necessary to know how massage affects medications and tissue damaged by chemotherapy or radiation treatments.  This route is in addition to the existing education for the therapist more interested in restricting themselves to spa or sports work.
  • Removal of fee caps in statute, allowing the fees to be set by the regulations process.
  • Allows LMT’s to use pulsed electromagnetic and microcurrent devices marketed for in-home use to better serve clients recovering from soft tissue damage.

 

For more in-depth discussion, please contact the KY Board of Massage administrator Tammy Sharp tammyk.sharp@ky.gov
or Denise M. Logsdon, MS, LMT at dmlogs06@gmail.com.