Mississippi House Bill 1315 (HB 1315), which was amended in committee, would have deregulated massage therapy. Thankfully, HB 1315 died in the legislature.
Mississippi Senate Bill 2751 (SB 2751) was introduced in the Senate in January 2021 and signed by Governor Reeves March 25, 2021. This is a sunset bill that extends the Mississippi Massage Practice Act, with a few amendments affecting practitioners and schools. SB 2751 goes into effect July 1, 2021.
SB 2751 requires the Mississippi Board of Massage Therapy to create guidelines for “the registration of establishments.” This is not establishment licensing. Massage businesses will need to “maintain a current registry of their location, owner contact information, local business permit information, and names of licensees who perform massage services at their establishments.” The board will most likely develop establishment registration requirement guidelines this spring and summer that will give practitioners more information about what this registration looks like.
SB 2751 also decreased required massage therapy training hours from 600 to 550. In addition, the bill now requires 50 hours, down from 100 hours, of student clinic. The requirement of 200 hours with at least a “C” grade in allied modalities was decreased to 150 hours with a “C” grade in allied modalities. And, under the requirement of “Science of the human body,” after required hours in anatomy, physiology, and kinesiology, the catchall section of “remaining . . . hours [that] may expand on all six subject areas” was reduced from 100 hours to 80 hours. These changes to required education hours for licensure are effective July 1, 2021.
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