AFMTE Opposes SB568 – Please share with your colleagues
Bill SB568 to Eliminate the Wisconsin Massage Board – A bill is being proposed to eliminate the Wisconsin Massage Therapy and Bodywork Therapy Affiliated Credentialing Board and transfer its functions to the Medical Therapy Examining Board (which was formerly the Physical Therapy Examining Board). While the Alliance for Massage Therapy Education believes that consolidation of licensure bills can be of benefit in terms of streamlining processes and government oversight, we maintain that the profession of massage and bodywork is unique, diverse, and within that paradigm, the specific expertise of a separate examining board offers the best public protection at the lowest level of government licensure oversight.
Also, reducing the number of members representing massage from six (or seven) down to one will greatly reduce the ability of the board to govern massage and bodywork. The field of massage and bodywork is quite diverse and it is vital to have a variety of people on the board with direct experience of the breadth of curriculum and its encompassing components.
As the industry stakeholder organization that represents the education sector of the massage and bodywork profession, we hope that our opinions will be of benefit to the legislators as they contemplate this change.
Here’s the actual text from the bill:
“3. Elimination of certain boards and transfer of their functions to the Medical Therapy Examining Board.
Under current law, occupational therapists and occupational therapy assistants are regulated by the Occupational Therapists Affiliated Credentialing Board, athletic trainers are regulated by the Athletic Trainers Affiliated Credentialing Board, and massage therapists and bodyworkers are regulated by the Massage Therapy and Bodywork Therapy Affiliated Credentialing Board. Also under current law, physical therapists and physical therapy assistants are regulated by the Physical Therapy Examining Board.
This bill eliminates the Occupational Therapists Affiliated Credentialing Board, the Athletic Trainers Affiliated Credentialing Board, and the Massage Therapy and Bodywork Therapy Affiliated Credentialing Board and transfers their functions to the Physical Therapy Examining Board, which is renamed in the bill to be the Medical Therapy Examining Board. Under the bill, the membership of the Medical Therapy Examining Board includes, in addition to the members under current law, one representative of each of the professions to be newly regulated by the board.”
Statutory Language: http://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/2015/related/proposals/sb568
Contact: Senator Stroebel: Sen.Stroebel@legis.wisconsin.gov
Website: http://legis.wisconsin.gov/senate/20/stroebel/contact-me/
Important Links: http://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/2015/proposals/sb568
http://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/2015/proposals/AB726
AMTA-WI Response: