The Georgia bill revised the current Practice Act and will promote massage therapy as a therapeutic health care profession, improve state regulation and enforcement of illicit activity, amend continuing education credits, and enact standards for city and county ordinances relating to therapeutic massage.

Specifically, the bill aims to establish board regulation of massage therapy educational programs; authorize the regulatory board to permit continuing education credits in reflexology, structural integration, and other modalities and increase enforcement authority. The revisions to the Practice Act came about through a close collaboration between the AMTA, its Georgia Chapter, its lobbyist and other relevant stakeholder groups in the state.

The Florida legislature recently passed into law a requirement for the state’s Department of Health to develop and publish on its website an educational pamphlet on the use of nonopioid alternatives for the treatment of pain, including massage therapy. The publication will need to include information about the advantages of each of the non-opioid approaches, with references on its efficacy.

Visit www.massagetoday.com to see how other states are enacting legislation for massage therapy.