Senate Bill 168 was filed on Friday, January 31, and would direct the Arkansas Board of Health to administer a "State Exam" to license massage therapists.
SB 168 - TO ESTABLISH A STATE EXAMINATION FOR LICENSURE OF MASSAGE THERAPISTS; AND TO DECLARE AN EMERGENCY. Doesn't sound too bad on the surface, right? WRONG!
BACKGROUND
Here's the thing, up until 2007, Arkansas had a state examination that was used exclusively to license massage therapists in the natural state. An exam that has been categorized by some as being "horribly deficient". The state test was administered by the Arkansas State Board of Massage Therapy (ASBMT, which was abolished in 2015) and it was an administrative, financial, and logistic burden on the Board of Massage Therapy and for everyone involved. Administrative because much of the Board's time was spent discussing and planning for the exam (in fact, there was once even an Arkansas Supreme Court case about the state exam once in the 1980s). A Financial burden because exams aren't cheap to develop, improve, or protect. And a logistical nightmare because the exam was only offered at irregular frequency and at the location of the Boards choice (not great if you live 5 hours away in a distant part of our state).
The advent of the Massage & Bodywork Licensing Examination (MBLEx) in the mid 2000s, provided the relief to Arkansas that it sorely needed. The MBLEx is the national standard for licensing examination in massage therapy and is designed to assess the competency required for entry-level practice of massage therapy. The exam is developed and updated regularly by the Federation of State Massage Therapy Boards (FSMTB) and Arkansas was one of the first state boards to join the Federation. As a member of FSMTB, the MBLEx is provided to Arkansas free of charge, the only cost is incurred by the candidate sitting for the exam. The MBLEx is administered by Pearson VUE, an expert in testing services- making the MBLEx affordable, reliable, and accessible.
More recently, in the Spring of 2023, the idea of developing a "state test" made it out of the Massage Therapy Technical Advisory Committee(MTTAC) by a narrow margin and was ultimately rejected by the Arkansas Board of Health by taking no motion to implement a state test. Now, those seeking a state test wish to see the same political drama play out in our state legislature.
The TroubleS With SB168
The state test detailed in SB168 would be of lesser quality and lower the educational standards, leading to undereducated massage practitioners being licensed. There is no reason for Arkansas to replace the MBLEx with a subpar state test when our candidates continue to lead the nation with pass rates well above the national average. The MBLEx is not a barrier to practicing massage therapy in our state. In fact, the test proposed in SB168 would not only be a burden on the state and risk to the public, it would also restrict the portability of Arkansas licensees. Should an Arkansas massage therapist need or want to move out of state, they would be ineligible to enjoy licensure reciprocity of any other state! The MBLEx serves as the national standard in 46 of the 48 jurisdictions that regulate the practice of massage therapy.
Furthermore, the test outlined in SB168 is not psychometrically valid and is expressly not to be computer adaptive. Psychometrically valid means that an exam's content is valid and related to the skills/knowledge it is assessing, that the exam is fair and free of the bias of the writer(s), and that exam results are reliable and consistent- not that the exam assesses any questions related to psychology or the metric system. When an exam is computer adaptive, it generates questions based on how the previous question was answered; when a question is answered correctly, a computer adaptive test will generate a question slightly more challenging, conversely when a question is answered incorrectly, a slightly less challenging question will be asked next. This ensures that exam content is as fair and best suited for the exam candidate as possible. Without a massive test bank with a variety of questions used to ensure that no two exams are identical, it becomes more difficult to reduce cheating. And would leave our state legally vulnerable. These are resources and skills that the Arkansas Department of Health does not currently have and is unlikely to receive. There are some things in this world that are best left to the experts (especially when it is provided to our state at no cost!). To see Arkansas attempt to make a licensing exam that would even come close to being on equal footing as the MBLEx would be terribly expensive and a humiliating exercise on a national level.
The bottom line being that the MBLEx has access to state-of-the-art technology that prevents cheating and ensures only qualified candidates pass the exam.
Why This Matters To Clients
First and foremost, this is NOT an emergency, despite what the Senate Bill's language would suggest. As a good colleague of mine put it, "the only emergency in this situation is that some programs are providing inadequate training for massage therapists."
Those candidates who are unable to successfully pass the MBLEx should not be licensed. The MBLEx filters out unqualified practitioners from becoming licensed, working as a guard rail protecting the public from harm. When you get on the massage table as a client, you should have no concerns that your therapist has been examined by a national standard and is able to think critically. Moreover, to offer an alternative exam as a pathway to licensure in Arkansas would harm the integrity of current practitioners. At a time when massage therapy is becoming used as a part of people's integrative healthcare, now is not the time for Arkansas to regress back to a state test!
I would close by asking you to consider if you would want to work with a massage therapist who has not met the nationally accepted examination competencies that are assessed by the MBLEx? It would be comparable to having RNs that hadn't sat for or passed the NCLEX. It's laughably ridiculous and contrary to the Board Of Health's charge to protect the general public in Arkansas.
What You Can Do Now
Since this Senate Bill was introduced last week, a groundswell of opposition from the profession has been working to keep SB168 from getting passed. National organizations such as AMTA, ABMP, and FSMTB have all invested in opposing this legislation. Individuals across the state have also been putting in the work!
But legislators at our state capitol need to hear from the consumers themselves about why SB168 is a dangerous path to take. SB168 is currently in the Senate Committee on Public Health, Welfare, & Labor. Call, Write, and Email:
2) the Committee's Chair, Sen. Missy Irvin and Vice-Chair, Sen. Dave Wallace, and
3) the Sponsors of SB168, Senator Terry Rice and Representative Karilyn Brown
Tell them that you expect massage therapists in Arkansas to be held to a higher standard that those proposed in SB168. Massage therapists deserve better, business owners deserve better, and you, our sacred clients, deserve better!
Accompanying Vlog:
Peace and Healing,
Kirby Clark Ellis, MTI, BCTMB
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