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Education Career Programs Massage School Massachussetts Massage License
Massachusetts Licensing UpdateAs of the beginning of 2008, the new massage license for Massachusetts is in place. To find out more go to www.mass.gov/dpl/boards/mt as it has been updated. Since the regulations will be going through constant changes, it is best to review the above link often. There will be some confusion with various cities and towns but I emphasize that municipalities do not have jurisdiction anymore. If you are a massage therapist, the grandfathering period expires on 5/1/2008 so please get started on getting your license ASAP. Good luck and may this lead to a new level of prosperity in your professional practice. Sincerely, A few additional items on this from Tim Starkey who has been active on the process for years. For people who have held a massage license anywhere in MA within the past two years, they will want to use the grandfathering application. For all new licenses or people with out of state license who wish to get a license, there is an initial license application and there is a list of needed items to accompany the application. (reference letters, transcripts, certificate, insurance, etc). It is important to note that this is a massage license. For people in the future who do only Polarity (and other exempted modalities listed in the law), they are not included in the regulations unless the person holds a massage license. The exempted modalities will need to approach their local municipalities to get a license or to get told that there is no license, or to get a variance. If they are told there is no license then they can just get a business license and open up. APTA used to have a great written statement available to help with this situation. I will try to get it from them again. Facility Licensure: This will be written and in place within the next 4-8 weeks. Then the state will be doing the licensing of facilities. Currently some towns in MA may tell people to still renew their massage licenses with them. YOU DO NOT NEED TO DO THIS. They have no authority to do it. Refer them to the website and get your state license in place. For students graduating in the months to come, we will refer them to the website to get the information on getting their state license. I will update the orientation form about licensure prior to the next start. The “emergency regulations” are on the website. Tentatively their will be a public hearing on these on Feb 1st in Boston and again on February 8 in Springfield. This is the opportunity for individuals to come before the board with concerns about anything in the proposed regulations or to send email comments. Expect that ABMP and AMTA will be sending out information on the above in the next few days. I spoke with ABMP this morning and they will be communicating with their membership and AMTA’s representative said on Friday that they will be sending something out. There is a DEADLINE for grandfathering. It Is May 1, 2008. Please get your application in and postmarked prior to this. If you have questions on the process let me know. The critical piece is to get people who hold a license to start the grandfathering process as the time is limited on it. As of 1/12/2008 Within the next 4-6 weeks the facility regulations will probably be written. The board is working on some preliminary drafts right now. Also, it should be noted that the new law did not eliminate one right on the municipality level. In all municipalities the police department still retains the right to do spot checks for any massage establishments. It was located in a different area of the state regulations so when the committee that wrote the bill revoked most of the municipalities rights, this one was overlooked. Not a big deal. Have not come across any municipalities where this has been abused.
Q&AQ: The license requires insurance... but what if you work for someone who is insured? Is that the same? A: People often think they are covered fully by an employer. This is not the case. This is why the board wants each individual therapist to have professional liability insurance. Your best bet is to join ABMP or AMTA and get your insurance with them.
Keep checking this page as we will include additional updates as they become available. |
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