Massage Statute – Who’s Covered, Who’s Not, Who Should Be?

This article was written by Lisa Barck Garofalo, an OSM staff member who follows legislative issues and regularly serves on Oregon Board of Massage Therapy committees.

In the early 70s Oregon massage laws were a very general set of guidelines and the scope of practice was defined broadly. Just about everyone who touched the body for the purpose of non-sexual relaxation and well-being was covered by the laws. Early exemptions were athletic trainers and other healthcare professionals whose licenses included the practice of massage.

I remember attending OBMT meetings in the early 90s and when a question about a new modality came up – should it be covered by the massage law – the phrase was “If it walks like a duck & talks like a duck we’ll assume it’s a duck.” In other words, if the new modality involved touch it should be held to the massage laws.

This blanket definition of scope of practice for an ever-increasing range of modalities began to irritate some practitioners. Why should every discipline be held to 200 hours of health science and 300 hours of massage & bodywork when they only touch the feet or just lay hands on client to balance energy? Finally, and quite suddenly, in 2006 exemption language was proposed by a group of reflexologists with the help of their local senator. This language, despite objections from OBMT and individual practitioners, was passed into law (ORS 687.031 (1) I) in 2007.

The success of the reflexology exemption language caught the attention of other disciplines. The Oregon Legislature directed OBMT to form a Task Force to address all touch disciplines so each group wouldn’t come up with their own bill and take Legislative time to deal with them individually. The Multi Discipline Task Force, representing a variety of disciplines, was formed in 2009 and began to meet. OBMT’s Education and Scope of Practice Committee also took on the charge of reviewing language about exemption from other states. In 2010 OBMT presented to Legislative Committee the findings and requested more time to deliberate on the correct language of exemption.

Again, an individual practitioner, with the help of a senator, proposed Senate Bill 454 to the Legislature requesting exemption for quite a few disciplines who primarily use touch to re-educate the body on movement patterns or for energy balancing and who do not claim to be massage therapists. This Bill was reviewed in the past Legislative session and has been passed into law effective January 1, 2012.

To read the complete language of the new ORS 687.031 go to http://www.oregonlaws.org/ors/687.031