EVENTS:

REGISTER NOW:

–The Big Float: July 13th, 2019 Please volunteer now- equipment and supplies provided. We just need you to come have a blast with us!

-Summer Social @ Oaks Park. Sunday August 25th, 2019. Family and dog friendly.

–SAVE THE DATES: OBMT Traveling Board Meeting:  Medford, OR September 13th & 14th with an AMTA hosted Member social: Friday 13th evening – location and time to be announced.

AMTA-OR 2019 Traveling Board Meeting: coming to Eugene, OR. November 2019 -Date to be determined.

Keep your finger on the pulse of coming board meetings and CE opportunities with our click here: Events Calendar

I just returned from AMTA national president’s meeting in Evanston, Illinois. The GR chairs were invited to attend for some networking and training. It is always so enlightening to hear what issues both at the federal level and the various state levels our various chapters are dealing with.

One GR goal for National AMTA is to have every state have a lobbyist working for each chapter. We are lucky in Oregon that we have had a great lobbyist, Cindy Robert for many years, making my volunteer job a much easier task. Cindy tracks all the bills during session and notifies us of anything that may affect our profession.

This year Oregon AMTA has been in an ongoing battle with the OBCE (Oregon Board Chiropractic Examiners) over issues regarding the use of CA’s (chiropractic assistants) to perform massage for 60 – 90 minutes with little to no training – just direct supervision – meaning the chiro has to be in the building. Our stance has been that CA’s are not educated or trained with their 12 hours vs our 625 hours. We feel it is encroaching on our scope of practice and could potentially be a public safety risk. The chiropractors have found a loophole in our practice act that allows them to legally do so – even if we think it unethical. Unfortunately, we have the words: or persons working under the direction of any such person in our act that was written and passed back in 1950’s. (https://www.oregonlegislature.gov/bills_laws/ors/ors687.html)

We attempted to submit a housekeeping bill to the Senate to clean up the language of our practice act and remove the loophole. Unfortunately, the Chiropractic Lobbyist fought us and strategically pulled a fast one on us citing that a good number of Oregonians are on the Oregon Health Plan and that the OHP doesn’t pay out much for massage – so if we were to pass this and CA’s couldn’t perform massages – it would be prevent 1/3 of Oregonians from getting massage. When we testified about our concerns for Public Safety the committee asked for proof of public endangerment and we have no concrete evidence. Likely if someone made a claim that a CA injured them or acted inappropriately during a massage, the Chiropractor’s liability insurance company would settle such case and we would never know. The chair of the Healthcare Committee essentially killed our bill however she did tell both the lobbyists to “work this out.” We had begun to strategize on how to approach this situation when two things happened. First, the former chair of the OBCE ended his term. He was the driver of the policy changes allowing and even encouraging chiropractors to use CA’s to do full body 60 and 90 minute massages. Second, another former OBCE chair and very respected DC wrote a public letter to the OBCE and Governor admonishing both the former chair and the OBCE for this very issue. Her letter was submitted for public comment at the OBCE Board Meeting in May. Here is a quote:

The process of changing CA educational requirements should start at SQUARE ONE to ensure this process is done without conflict of interest from start to finish, public notice has been sufficient & discussion minutes are presented to stakeholders timely.

For now – we will see what the OBCE’s response is to this letter while we strategize how to move forward with our bill. AMTA also notified the OBMT of the current status.

The second big GR issue in our State is in regards to the OBMT wanting to change the CE (Continuing Education) requirements for license renewal. The current board chair is driving these proposed changes. AMTA OR has worked hard to keep you all apprised of the situation and called for Oregon LMT’s to contact the board if they had concerns about these changes. Lots of LMT’s stepped up voicing their opinions. Over the course of 3 board meetings, we encouraged the OBMT to follow proper procedure and consider using committees to help decide the best course of action. Gratefully, the OBMT created two committees – one on Education and one on Rules. The committees are now filled and ready to begin work. AMTA has members on both committees.

As we move into summer and the legislative session comes to a close – we will be hard at work being a watchdog for both boards and continue to strategize with our lobbyist on ways to close the loophole in our practice act.

As always – if you have any interest in getting involved in Government Relations – our committee is always grateful for volunteers, please contact gov@amtaor.org.

Thanks to Don Schiff and Imuya McDaniel for your time and efforts on the GR Committee.

Julie Crispin, Government Relations Chair