URGENT Say No to Licensing Alternative Therapies in Massachusetts!
PROVIDE ORAL AND WRITTEN TESTIMONY SAYING NO TO LICENSING!
The proposed legislation S.191/H.282, An Act Regulating Alternative Healing Therapies, affects therapies such as Reiki, Asian bodywork therapy, Reflexology, Feldenkrais Method, Trager Approach, Ayurvedic Therapies, Polarity or Polarity Therapy, Structural integration or Rolfing, Qi Gong, and Body/Mind Centering. This bill creates a licensing board (with members who do not have the expertise in each of our practices - 3 massage therapists and 2 alternative health practitioners). This board will establish professional and ethical conduct, will direct us how to practice and teach, and mandate continuing education generally beyond the scope of our practices. If this bill passes it will increase the cost of practicing, reduce the number of practitioners, increase the cost to consumers, generate unnecessary barriers with higher fees to practice, increase unemployment, discriminate against low wage earners, people of color, and women.
PUBLIC HEARING DETAILS
Public Hearing Date: Monday, July 10, 2023
Time: 1:00 p.m.
Location: Gardner Auditorium and Virtual
The State House
24 Beacon Street
Boston, MA. 02133
The public is invited to participate in this hearing.
Oral Testimony
Registration to present oral testimony, both virtually and in person, is required.
To register, please fill out your contact information on the form on this link: CLICK HERE
Deadline for registration: Friday, July 7 at 5:00 PM
If providing testimony virtually, you will receive an invitation to the hearing with instructions via email after the deadline closes.
Please note that there is a time limit of 3 minutes per person for oral testimony.
Instructions for testifying and/or submitting written testimony may be found on the following webpage under the heading Event Details: CLICK HERE
Written Electronic Testimony
Please submit via email to:
jointcmte-consumerprotection@malegislature.gov, John.Cronin@masenate.gov, susan.moran@masenate.gov, edward.kennedy@masenate.gov, Jacob.Oliveira@masenate.gov, Bruce.Tarr@masenate.gov, Walter.Timilty@masenate.gov, Tackey.Chan@mahouse.gov, Mary.Keefe@mahouse.gov, Joan.Meschino@mahouse.gov, Christopher.Worrell@mahouse.gov, Dawne.Shand@mahouse.gov, Kate.Donaghue@mahouse.gov, Estela.Reyes@mahouse.gov, david.leboeuf@mahouse.gov, Danillo.Sena@mahouse.gov, joseph.mckenna@mahouse.gov, Steven.Howitt@mahouse.gov,
The subject line of your email should be:
Testimony in Opposition to S.191 and H.282, An Act Regulating Alternative Healing Therapies
Further, the Committee may schedule an executive session to coincide with this hearing, and Joint Committee members would expect to be provided any further advanced notice and materials to review. Do not hesitate to contact Marissa Dakin (Marissa.Dakin@mahouse.gov) and Dana Mascari (Dana.Mascari@masenate.gov) with any inquiries.
SAMPLE LETTER THAT YOU CAN USE TO WRITE FOR YOUR WRITTEN TESTIMONY
The email should be addressed to the following individuals: jointcmte-consumerprotection@malegislature.gov, John.Cronin@masenate.gov, susan.moran@masenate.gov, edward.kennedy@masenate.gov, Jacob.Oliveira@masenate.gov, Bruce.Tarr@masenate.gov, Walter.Timilty@masenate.gov, Tackey.Chan@mahouse.gov, Mary.Keefe@mahouse.gov, Joan.Meschino@mahouse.gov, Christopher.Worrell@mahouse.gov, Dawne.Shand@mahouse.gov, Kate.Donaghue@mahouse.gov, Estela.Reyes@mahouse.gov, david.leboeuf@mahouse.gov, Danillo.Sena@mahouse.gov, joseph.mckenna@mahouse.gov, Steven.Howitt@mahouse.gov
Sample Email:
(Month) (Day) (Year)
The Joint Committee on Consumer Protection and Professional Licensure
The State House
24 Beacon Street, Room 42
Boston, MA 02133
RE: Testimony in Opposition to S.191 and H.282, An Act Regulating Alternative Healing Therapies
Dear Chairs, Senator Cronin and Representative Chan, Vice Chairs Senator Moran and Representative Keefe, and Members of the Committee:
My name is (your first and last name) (or I am writing on behalf of a business or organization) and I am a (type of practitioner, teacher or consumer) who resides in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. (Do not add where you reside if you do not live or work in MA. Please note, that anyone in the US can join in writing a letter of opposition)
State why you oppose the bill or other issue here. Include a personal story. Tell the Committee why the issue is important to you and how it will affect you, your family, and your community (and/or organization or business).
Also, choose up to three of the strongest points that support your position from the Talking Points for Testimonies below and state them clearly.
Example: I want to voice my strong opposition to S.191 and H.282 as it affects over 100 holistic modalities (or 150 different styles of Reiki practice) that will not be fairly represented with the proposed Board of Massage and Alternative Healing Therapies. There is no risk of harm to the public from these modalities. The restriction that you can only be licensed if you receive training at a program licensed by the state will put many holistic health care practitioners and teachers out of business and on unemployment because of the burdensome fees. They will limit healthcare choices for consumers, raise prices of sessions, and close hospital and hospice volunteer programs.
Please vote no on S.191 and H.282. I would greatly appreciate a response. Thank you for your time and consideration of this issue.
Sincerely,
Print your name
Street address
Town/City
An Act Regulating Alternative Healing Therapies
S.191 And H.282
(Identical bills – one was filed in the State Senate, the other in the House
Talking Points for Testimonies
This is the sixth time alternative health licensing bills have been filed in MA. S.191 and H.282 are the exact same bills as S.221 and H.350 word for word and line by line that were filed in 2021.
The last time in 2021, the MA Attorney General’s Office filed it with Senator Montigny and they said the purpose of the bill was to create a regulatory structure for alternative healing therapies to prevent criminals from using these currently unregulated practices as fronts for human trafficking.
· S.191 and H.282 seek to regulate holistic healthcare occupations, including Reiki, with no evidence that these professions by themselves present any health or safety risk to the public.
· The majority of the practitioners are sole practitioners who hold instructional programs in their living rooms and basements.
· To have a teaching program approved by the state will be cost prohibitive, in excess of $8,000 ($5,000 bond, $2,500 application fee, and $1000 application fee for each instructor), which will force many programs to close and will limit the number of Reiki volunteers available to hospitals and hospices.
· This bill will put thousands of practitioners and teaching professionals out of business, and they will be forced to go on unemployment. Many of these are woman.
· Pandemic lockdowns have forced many practitioners to stop seeing or teaching their clients, ruining their livelihoods. Does wise governance burden these with further restrictions
· S.191 and H.282 would greatly reduce citizen options as almost 50% of Americans utilize alternative medicine and it would increase the cost to consumers.
· According to the Polaris Report, “The average illicit massage business connects to at least one other illicit massage business as well as non-massage venues such as nail salons, beauty shops, restaurants, grocery stores, and dry cleaners. Overwhelmingly, these connected businesses are used to launder money earned from the illicit massage business.” Licensing sole practitioners will not stop organized crime
· The most effective legislative tool for addressing trafficking operations is to focus on business owners and operators, not individual practitioners.
· The Massachusetts Interagency Human Trafficking Policy Task Force convened by Maura Healey in 2013 did not recommend occupational licensing as a means to combat human trafficking. Neither did The Uniform Act on Prevention of and Remedies for Human Trafficking drafted by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws in 2013. Nor does the United States Department of State.
· The last three presidential administrations, Obama, Trump and Biden, issued white papers or executive orders for state policymakers to enact reforms reducing the prevalence of unnecessary and overly broad occupational licensing that hurts workers and consumers.
· No data exists that licensing has ever meaningfully reduced sex trade.
· Legislators have confused the facts: there was prostitution, not human trafficking in the incidents regarding Robert Kraft in Florida and the GA incident.
· There has not been a conviction of a Reiki practitioner for human trafficking in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for more than 15 years if ever.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Rita Glassman, Executive Director
MA Coalition of Holistic Practitioners
617-633-3654
Reiki Unified Co-Founder