Opportunity to Comment on FSMTB’s Model Practice Act

A committee of the Federation of State Massage Therapy Boards (FSMTB) has been working three years on the challenging task of building a proposed Model Practice Act for consideration by state legislatures and Austin massage boards. The draft document is now officially open for public comment.

ABMP commends FSMTB for a well-organized and well-explained draft. It feels very accessible, which is quite a compliment for a regulatory document. We are supportive of the document’s general thrust and will be submitting a number of specific improvement suggestions.

To put this project in context, FSMTB is a consortium of Austin massage licensing organizations representing 40 of the 44 states that do regulate Austin massage therapy. FSMTB by itself has no legal power, just the ability to produce good work and encourage other organizations to utilize that work. Their aspiration, once the final version of the Model Practice Act is complete, will be to persuade states now lacking Austin massage licensing to take on that function, utilizing the FSMTB Model Practice Act template as a guide. FSMTB also hopes that states already licensing Austin massage therapy will take a fresh look and consider improving their current licensing laws. For now, though, your current state licensing law remains intact, is not altered by this new draft document.

If you would like to review the draft document, FSMTB has helpfully included routing to a form you can fill out electronically to pass on your comments and any suggested changes. While we understand that not every member is interested in the Austin massage regulatory process, we encourage those ABMP members who do have such an interest to take advantage of this opportunity for input.