Today’s Board of Massage Meeting was just finishing up and fine tuning the latest draft of the proposed rules(PDF).
The latest revisions are in the Phase 1 of rule making. A CR 101 was filed with the Department of Health Filed September 6, 2017, 11:25 a.m. This phase is a follow up or continuation of the rule making process that created rules that became effective July 30, 2017.
The biggest changes with the latest round is an increase in the number of hours of initial education that is required for basic massage school and also a change in CE that now will make it so CPR is a required class. (It has been and is right now OPTIONAL.)
The rule making process (PDF From BOM that explains rule making) requires that the Board go through each section of the rules line by line and create new language where needed. This process has had an an incredible amount of influence by those in attendance to the board meetings including many massage school owners, representatives from AMTA-WA (www.amta-wa.org) and WA State Massage Therapy Association (www.mywsmta.org).
The Rule Making Process will be moving to the CR 102 process where the BOM will review the proposed language:
Our policy advisors review federal and state laws and rules, gather data, conduct analyses, collect feedback from interested parties and the public, and circulate working drafts of the rule to interested people and technical experts. This feedback helps us develop alternative options, draft text, as well as cost-benefit or small business economic impact statements.
It is my understanding that the CR 102 process does open the rules up to public comment but not much will be changed during this phase. The big changes came in the CR 101 process where the BOM and interested parties drafted the rules and language.
The BOM is working on a timeline for the massage schools and massage therapists to have enough time to make the changes in their school programs to adopt new courses and syllabi to meet the new requirements.