State Registration - Executive Summary for Massage and Bodywork Therapy Practitioners
The Minnesota Massage & Bodywork Therapy Act
In Brief Creates a voluntary Registration credential for Massage and Bodywork Therapists
1. Title protection allows clients, employers, other health care providers to easily see that a practitioner has been vetted by MN’s standard criteria
2. Creates an Advisory Council to work under MN Board of Nursing
3. Establishes fees budgeted to completely cover the cost of the regulation
4. Exempts those with the state Registration from being to be doubly regulated by the state and local city massage therapist licensing ordinances
5. Establishes Grounds for Discipline specific to the profession
A Bit More Detail:
Voluntary Registration - As we have talked about in AMTA newsletters and at our chapter conference/business meetings, the bill we are going for is a voluntary credential called a 'title protection' act or what MN currently calls a 'Registration'. This provides protection for the public (which is by law the only reason to pass such a law) by giving consumers of our services, (including not just potential clients, but also employers, other health care providers, insurance companies, law enforcement agencies, local municipal governments, and others) a standard, state-backed credential to look for when choosing or referring to a Massage and Bodywork Therapist.
Once this bill passes, those consumers will be able to look for the credential 'Registered Massage and Bodywork Therapist' or RMBT and know that the practitioner has been vetted by all the standard criteria that goes into a state credential. That includes education, having passed a competency exam (such as the MBLEx or National Certification exam), having current malpractice insurance, passing a relevant criminal history background check, etc. Those clients can also know that in addition to this proactive vetting process, if something does go wrong during a session with a RMBT, that there is an efficient and effective means of handling the issue(s). It is of course voluntary for the clients though, too. If they choose to go to a practitioner has chosen not to get Registered, that is their choice. This is sort of a free-market solution to credentialing in that it is voluntary for the practitioner and voluntary for the client as well.
Grandfathering and Reciprocity - For those of us practitioners who are already in practice, there is a 'grandfathering clause' that creates a pathway to Registration for those cases where a practitioner has been in practice but never took one of the national exams, or didn't go through what is nowadays considered the standard 500 hour curriculum of massage school. They can waive the education and/or exam requirements by showing one or the other, or showing membership in a professional association (like the AMTA for instance), or showing documentation that they have been in practice for 2 of the last 5 years. Along those same lines is a clause often called reciprocity, (MN calls it 'endorsement') for practitioners moving into or out of MN, and our bill is written to work with the majority of states with a proactive professional credential (43 states plus Washington DC now do) to make those moves across state lines a little less stressful.
Advisory Council – To have our own board was our top choice but would have been way too expensive and that expense would have been passed along to Registrants in the form of higher Registration fees. That coupled with the fact that MN is not in a political mood for creating new regulatory boards. As a result, our bill creates an Advisory Council made up of three practitioners (our colleagues) and two public members. This Advisory Council will work under the auspices of the MN Board of Nursing. Doing so saves us money and allows us to have an oversight board who wants our Advisory Council to do all the work. The Advisory Council will not only approve our applications and create the state code of ethics through a transparent and input-seeking 'rule making' process, but then moving forward, the Advisory Council will field complaints from consumers of Massage and Bodywork Therapy services. And it will be this council of our peers who will make the decision about whether what an accused colleague of ours has done warrants professional discipline. This will be as opposed to the current state of regulation (under the CAM Law) where a state employee, who has potentially never had a massage in his or her life, much less gone through training to be a practitioner will decide what is within or not within the standards of practice for our profession. The Advisory Council positions for practitioners will be able to be applied for through the MN Secretary of State's website soon after the bill is signed into law. All that is required to qualify to volunteer beyond a willingness to serve your profession is having lived in MN for 3 years prior to application, being able to qualify for Registration and becoming Registered as soon as the applications are available.
City Practitioner Licenses and the CAM Law - With the Registration credential being voluntary as currently defined by MN Statute 214.001, there will be some practitioners who choose to sign up and get Registered, and there will be some who do not. For those who do, they will be exempted from having to hold whatever city-level Massage Therapist licensing there is where they practice in MN. So for those who choose to sign up, it will be a case of One State - One Credential. They will also no longer be liable to the regulations of the MN CAM Law. For practitioners who decide not to get Registered, they will still be operate under the MN CAM Law and whatever city Massage Therapist licensing ordinances exist for the locations where they practice. Those who do not Register with the state will still be able to advertise that they do massage and still be able to refer to themselves as Massage Therapists. The only thing they will not be allowed to do is refer to themselves as "Registered Massage and Bodywork Therapists" or as an RMBT.
Fees- that will be collected for the Registration will go into a special account with all other professional licensing fees in MN, and will be used to cover just our credential's operation costs. This is by law in MN, so in other words, the fees do not go into the state's general fund. Our fees will pay for the operation of our law. The law is budgeted for the first 5 years of operation to completely cover its own costs, also by MN law. This means the cost of the credential is divided up among those with the credential. We have estimated that over the first 5 years of the credential being operational, there will be 1500 practitioners who will choose to step forward and be qualified as an RMBT. If we get more than that, (and based on the experience of other states with this same type of voluntary, title protection Massage law, we fully expect that we will) we can go back to the legislature and ask for our fees to be lowered, since while the operation of a professional regulation is not allowed to cost the state money, it is also not allowed to be a money-maker. Currently with our estimate of 1500 practitioners signing on over a five year period, the fee is drafted to be $185 per year with the first year having an extra $100 application fee. Looking at the cost of many city licenses being higher than that just for one city, we are confident there will be enough folks who will look at being able to work anywhere in the state for one fee and sign on. (Statistically speaking we estimate there are probably about 5100 practitioners in MN altogether, so 1500 is a pretty conservative estimate and is based on the numbers of practitioners who signed up in CA and IN when those states recently passed similar laws.) Some practitioners who practice in a city with no license, or in a city with a less expensive license who do not travel to other cities to work may think it is not worth for them. That is the beauty of a voluntary credential and is of course their decision. The fees are of course tax deductible and give a practitioner a state backed credential to show when advertising and looking for work, as well as another web list where clients can go to find a practitioner. But each practitioner can and will get to decide for themselves if it is right for their practice and their individual situation.
For more information, contact AMTA-MN Government Relations Committee Chair, Jeremy E Miller at jmillergrc@gmail.com or 612-483-5858.
You can also visit the website for the Alliance for Licensing Massage Therapists or ALMT at www.almtmn.org.
The ALMT is a grassroots organization of volunteers working to pass common sense legislation for the Massage and Bodywork Therapy profession in Minnesota.
updated: 2/12
