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Government Relations Report:
Update September 4, 2022
Ann Boone, LMT
Government Relations Chair
On 8/31/2022, AMTA’s Government Relations and our lobbyist team, Babbage Cofounder, spoke with Commissioner of the Department of Revenue, Thomas B. Miller, and his team regarding House Bill 8 (HB8). Commissioner Miller’s team is made up of Richard Dobson, senior staffer responsible for HB8's implementation, Gary Morris, long-time Revenue Department manager and Barbara Barnes, Revenue Cabinet Deputy Commissioner. They are dedicated to the industry’s thoughtful input in order to gain some clarity on how to move forward as this law goes into effect.
As the law stands on 1/1/2023, many services will be subject to a state sales tax. Massage Therapy is included in this law. The exception is in cases where there is proof of “medical necessity” for massage. As a profession, we would argue that ALL massage therapy is “medically necessary". We all have clients who are seeking massage therapy for very different reasons although the outcome is essentially the same: better overall quality of life. Whether seeking a respite from their daily stresses, pain management or support as they seek to eliminate the necessity for opioid medications, one might argue that all of these reasons justify “medical necessity”. This is only a short list of the many reasons, as professionals, we are seeing an increase in medically complicated clients. The reasons aren’t always purely physical. Depression and anxiety are at an all-time high. I, personally, have clients who are referred by their psychologists and psychiatrists for massage therapy to help with mitigating these often life-alternating conditions.
Our meeting was a fact-finding, jumping-off point for both the AMTA and Revenue Cabinet teams. In addition to those Health Care Professionals (HCPs) who are already licensed to prescribe (e.g., PCPs, Chiropractors, Osteopaths), we are seeking to expand the list of those who may prescribe massage therapy to include athletic trainers and other professionals who are trained to understand how massage benefits their clients/patients. We explained that the feedback we’ve received from physicians is that this law will place an unnecessary burden on an already stressed medical system as they will have to see more patients due to increased prescription demand. In addition, many PCPs are not educated about the benefits of massage therapy nor are they aware of the plethora of current research on opioid mitigation and general pain management.
Both teams expressed gratitude in gaining clarity on what we do and what may be expected around this law. Our team is assembling evidence-based information to present to the Revenue Cabinet and its team when we next meet.
Our next meeting is to be announced.
If you have any questions and/or would like to join our GR team, please contact me at: GRchair@amtaky.org
In health, Ann
Ann E. Boone, LMT, BCTMB
AMTA-KY Government Relations chair
Remember:
Please continue to check the KBLMT website for any updates (bmt.ky.gov).
We will share updates as we receive them as well.
If you have any further questions, please contact Ann E. Boone, LMT at grchair@amtaky.org.
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