Submit Your Comments on the Interstate Massage Therapy Compact

Dear AMTA Family,

Since the summer of 2021, AMTA has been working with the Council of State Governments (CSG) and FSMTB as part of the Technical Advisory Group to help guide the direction of drafting the language of the Interstate Compact. We are pleased to announce that on June 8th, the draft language was made available for review and public comment.

What is the Interstate Compact? 

The Interstate Compact’s purpose is to support the mobility of licensed massage therapists across the country and to ease the existing burdens of license portability. AMTA fully supports the rights of massage therapists to freely move from state-to-state without excessive administrative and financial burdens. 

AMTA’s Concerns with the Current Interstate Compact Draft

We want to make you aware that AMTA is concerned with some elements of the current Interstate Compact draft language. One key issue is the requirement of at least six hundred and twenty-five (625) clock hours of massage therapy education for therapists to participate, when nearly half of the licensed states in the country have a 500-hour requirement. While we support standards for the profession, this 625-hour requirement specific to the Interstate Compact could potentially exclude massage therapists practicing in the 500-hour states, or those that were grandfathered in years’ ago, from being eligible to participate.

We believe that if a massage therapist has met the requirements for licensing in their home state and is in good standing, these should be the only requirements to participate in the compact. AMTA will be requesting that this specific language be modified to make the compact more inclusive for our massage community.

Take Action and Make Your Voice Heard 

We strongly encourage all massage therapists and stakeholders to review the draft language and submit your concerns, support or opposition of it. The compact draft and the survey for feedback can be found on CSG’s webpage. To learn more, you are welcome to attend a virtual weekly compact review meeting. 

We also encourage you to reach out to our Government Relations team with any questions regarding the Interstate Compact draft. As always, we continue to advocate for all massage therapists as we work with CSG and FSMTB on this important initiative. Your AMTA Team