In January 2023, the lobbyist for a large national massage therapy chain initiated legislation to enter Washington into the Interstate Massage Compact at a time when almost all Washington massage therapists knew nothing about the Compact.  WSMTA was instrumental in having this legislation pulled from the 2023 legislative session so our profession could have greater input in 2024.

WSMTA was tasked to research the compact, review the variety of healthcare compacts available, talk to the Washington State physical therapist and nurse associations to determine how their respective compacts work for them.  We have created a page on our website that provides:

WSMTA's Compact webpage can be found at: Interstate Massage Compact

It is important for all massage therapists in our state to learn about the Compact.  As Washington nurses experienced earlier this year, it's not always a profession's choice to enter a compact.  Washington nurses were entered into their Nurse Licensure Compact against their will because the lobbyists for large employers of nurses (e.g. hospitals and large clinics) had greater influence and money than their own.  We would like LMTs in our state to know what the details of the Interstate Massage Compact are as well as the issues, so you can make informed decisions.

Over the next several weeks we will email out more information about the Compact.  For now, we encourage you to go to our webpage to read about the issues and details about the Compact.  We provided links so everyone can see the original source documents for the Compact for those intrepid explorers who want more. If you have limited time, we recommend that you start with reading the issues first (lavender boxes) and then as you are able to, go back and read through the details (blue boxes) about the Compact.

We need massage therapists to be as informed as possible to help determine the pathway our state should take, which is discussed towards the end of this webpage in the section, What should Washington State do about the Interstate Massage Compact?

Thank you in advance for taking the time to visit our webpage.  If you have any questions, or would like to leave comments, please contact us at gr@mywsmta.org.

Sincerely,

The Government Relations Program

Robbin, Marybeth and Stephanie