This was posted to the Texas_Licensed_Massage Yahoo group this morning by long time public advocate for the massage therapy profession, Doug Barhorst, LMT, MTI, CE and school owner.  (www.balancedbodywork.com) He was generous enough to call and let me know about the post so I could forward it as soon as possible.

I will post this as an additional Word document to the page at http://www.healingtouchtherapies.com/html/massage_laws.html

Thanks, Doug, for keeping us in the loop.  This is an amazing development!  It will be interesting to see who gets to participate/give feedback to this new umbrella agency and how they plan to coordinate and regulate these diverse licensing programs.

S τΏτ

     ~

Stacey Lemire, LMT, MTI, CE

(512) 388-2243

For the list members


Dear Board Members and Stakeholders,

Please be advised that a bill will be filed this legislative session
that will propose to move a majority of the Professional Licensing
and Certification Unit away from the Department of State Health
Services and into a newly created agency. This may include the
Advisory Board of Athletic Trainers, Texas State Board of Orthotics
and Prosthetics, and the Massage Therapy Licensing Program. We
don't have a lot of information at this time but wanted to keep you
in the loop. As Kathy states below, there are many unknowns and it
is too early to determine the specific impacts on the programs. We
will provide additional information as it becomes available. Please
forward to any associations and/or members that you deem
necessary.

Thanks,

Heather Muehr
Executive Director/Program Specialist

DSHS Professional Licensing and Certification Unit
1100 West 49th Street
Austin, TX 78756-3183
512.834.6628
512.834.6677 fax



-----Original Message-----
From: Perkins, Kathy
Sent: Tuesday, February 06, 2007 8:01 PM
Subject: Governor is Proposing a New Professionals Regulatory Agency

Dear Staff,
I want to share information with you that I just received through
the course of the last 24 hours. One of the Governor's initiatives
for this legislative session is to create a new "umbrella" state
agency to oversee the regulation of medical and allied health care
licensing programs (this is similar to the Sunset Advisory
Commission's Licensing Reorganization Project that you may remember
from the last legislative session). This afternoon the Governor's
Office released a proposed budget for the next biennium, with more
details on this initiative. It looks like the proposed new agency,
which is to be called the Health Professions Commission, will have
453 employees. It appears to include the vast majority of the
programs within the Professional Licensing and Certification Unit.
It also appears to include EMS because the dedicated EMS fee fund is
one of the funding sources for the new agency. The new agency would
also include licensing and regulatory functions for physicians,
dentists, nurses, pharmacists and pharmacies, podiatrists,
chiropractors, optometrists, physical therapists and occupational
therapists, some other allied health professionals, as well as a
coordination and resource center.

There are many unknowns at this time (i.e. Does this include
Offender Education, the Medical Advisory Board, EMS Providers,
etc). We assume that a bill on this topic will be introduced
shortly that will set out in more detail the components, structure,
and timelines for this new agency. Like all bills, this must be
debated by committees of both the House and Senate and ultimately
approved by those bodies. We will most likely not know the final
outcome of this proposal for several months. Renee, Debbie, and I
will keep you informed as we hear new information.

Please remember that the functions that you are doing will continue
to be needed in a new agency. My experiences with the transfer of
programs between agencies, as with the creation of DSHS, are that
the staff who do the functions continue to do so after the
transformation. So, the "bottom line" is that I believe all
affected will have a job at the end of this process, though some of
you may have a new chain of command and organization.

I just wanted you to know what I know at this time and that I am
committed to keeping you informed. You are welcome to ask me
questions and I will do my best to find out the answers. For those
of you who are interested, the information about this issue is on
the Governor's website @
http://www.governor.state.tx.us/divisions/press/pressreleases/PressRe
lease.2007-02-06.3626

I hope you know how much I appreciate the work you do every day,

Kathy

Kathryn C. Perkins, RN, MBA
Assistant Commissioner
Division for Regulatory Services
Texas Department of State Health Services
Phone: 512/834-6660
Fax: 512/834-6635