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March 2005
After five thwarted attempts, Indiana massage therapists are hoping to see a bill establishing state standards for their industry pass through the Indiana legislature this year. Is the sixth time the charm?

“Indiana has gone through a complete power shift from Democrat to Republican, so we have no idea what will happen,” says Barbara Lis, government-relations chair of the Indiana chapter of the American Massage Therapy Association (AMTA), which has been driving the legislation.

Last year, the bill went further than it has in previous years when it sailed through the Indiana House of Representatives, passing 76-17. But it stalled in the Senate when the Health and Provider Services Committee chair, Sen. Patricia Miller, failed to put it on her committee’s agenda. Miller, a Republican, is known for her anti-regulation stance.

The chapter was involved in talks with Miller to save the bill when a squabble between legislators on an unrelated matter broke out. Republicans and Democrats became embroiled in a battle over same-sex marriage, spurring Republican lawmakers to flee the statehouse in protest. The AMTA’s bill was among 65 bills killed by the walkout.

This year, the AMTA will be back in Miller’s office hoping to convince her to give the bill a chance. Lis says the AMTA’s strategy to get the bill passed involves continuing to educate legislators about the need for regulation, “and being patient about it.”

The bill - which has been developed over the past eight years with input from massage therapists, massage schools, and members of the AMTA and Associated Bodywork and Massage Professionals—would set standards for anyone identifying her- or himself as a massage therapist, massage practitioner, masseur, masseuse or bodyworker. Language in the bill specifically exempts energy workers and other practitioners who don’t use the aforementioned terms.

If the bill passes, therapists would be required to complete at least 500 hours of classroom instruction, pass a standardized test and obtain a state license. Established massage therapists would be grandfathered in under the law. The bill would establish a state board of massage therapy charged with overseeing licensing. The law also establishes an equivalency-licensing protocol for massage therapists moving into Indiana from other states.

As massage techniques continue to grow more sophisticated and therapeutic, state standards will help raise the massage industry’s credibility, says Janet Carroll, R.N., a massage therapist and education director for the Center for Vital Living School of Massage in Fort Wayne.

“We are a health-care field, and [state standards] will help people take us more seriously,” she says.

Moreover, Indiana massage therapists hope that state regulation will weed out illegal massage parlors and help legitimate practitioners win the age-old struggle to differentiate themselves from seamy activities. As neighboring states began regulating the massage industry, prostitutes poured over state lines into Indiana and set up shop in massage parlors.

“In Kentucky, 62 illegal establishments were closed, and they’re moving into Indiana,” Lis says. “I’m hearing every month that there’s a case of inappropriate touch.”
- Laurel Chesky

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