URGENT: Your Testimony is Needed. Massachusetts Safe Harbor Practitioner Exemption Bill S.1329 /H.2244

URGENT: Your Testimony is Needed!

A Public Hearing for the Massachusetts Safe Harbor
Practitioner Exemption Bill S.1329 /H.2244
has been scheduled for Thursday, September 21st beginning at 9:00 a.m. est

Good News! The Public Hearing has been scheduled for the Massachusetts Safe Harbor Bill S.1329/H.2244, An Act Providing for Consumer Access to and the Right to Practice Complementary and Alternative Health Care Services before the Joint Committee on Public Health on September 21st in room A-1 at the Massachusetts State House. If you are a complementary or alternative health care practitioner in the state of Massachusetts or you are a consumer who uses complementary or alternative health care to get and stay well, your testimony is needed!

This is a hybrid hearing – you can testify in person or virtually. You can also submit written testimony. We highly recommend testifying in person if you can!

You must register by 5pm on Monday, September 18th if you wish to testify in-person or virtually during the hearing.

Individuals who miss the deadline to pre-register for testimony may appear on the day of the hearing and sign-up to speak in person on forms provided by committee staff outside of the hearing room. Time permitting, when all pre-registered individuals have been called to testify, the Chairs will then call any individuals who signed-up on the day of the hearing.

Take Action Steps:

1. Click Here to Sign-up to Testify in person or virtually during the public hearing on Thursday, September 21 beginning at 9:00 a.m. Register before Monday 9/18 at 5pm.

You may testify yourself, or you may testify with likeminded individuals as part of a panel. Individuals testifying are limited to testimony of no more than 3 minutes. Panels are given a total of 6 minutes. (You may want to limit your panel to 2 people, so that you each have a full 3 minutes.)

To help you prepare, see below for more information about Safe Harbor Bills and an example template to get you started. You can also watch prior testimony on this same bill during the last session in 2021 for inspiration. The testimony for the Safe Harbor bill begins 10mins and 30 secs in PART 2 of the video found at this link: https://malegislature.gov/Events/Hearings/Detail/4016/Video2.

Persons who do not have a Google account or do not wish to use the Google form can submit testimony and/or sign up to testify by emailing: JointCommittee.PublicHealth@malegislature.gov.

For those who have signed up to testify virtually, Legislative Information Services will provide a link to join the public hearing.

If you have any questions, you may email Marisa.Bartolotta@mahouse.gov or Alexander.Nally@masenate.gov.

2. Submit Written Testimony: If you would like to provide written testimony, please include the bill number in the subject line of the email, as well as your name, address, phone number, and organization, if any, on the submitted testimony.

Written testimony will continue to be accepted after the hearing until the relevant bill is acted upon. Such testimony may be submitted via email to JointCommittee.PublicHealth@malegislature.gov.

Please include “Public Health Committee Testimony, Bill S.1329/H.2244 ” in the subject line of the email. Those who plan to submit only written testimony may do so before or after the signup deadline.

Watch the public hearing on Thursday, September 21. For those who do not plan to testify but want to watch, you may view the live stream under the Hearings & Events section of the legislative website.

What are Safe Harbor Laws and why are they so important?

Safe harbor laws provide a practical way for states to assure continued consumer access to, and the availability of, complementary and alternative health care practitioners such as herbalists, homeopaths, traditional naturopaths, Ayurveda practitioners, energy healers, wellness consultants, and many others who are not licensed by the state as conventional medical occupations.

This legislation provides legal protection for unlicensed practitioners from charges of practicing medicine without a license by clarifying existing law, and setting common sense boundaries that practitioners must maintain, including prohibited acts and mandatory professional disclosures. It costs the state of Massachusetts zero dollars to implement.

If passed, Massachusetts would join eleven other states in protecting the thousands of wonderful complementary and alternative practitioners such as herbalists, homeopaths, traditional naturopaths, Ayurveda practitioners, energy healers, wellness consultants, and many others who are providing great services to health-seekers in Massachusetts.

Example Template To Help Write Your Testimony

(Month) (Day) (Year)

The Joint Committee on Public Health
The State House
24 Beacon Street
Boston, MA 02133

RE: Testimony in Support of S.1329 and H.2244, An Act Providing for Consumer Access and the Right to Practice Complementary and Alternative Health Care Services

Dear Chairs and Members of the Committee:

My name is (your first and last name) (or I am writing on behalf of a business or organization) and I am a (type of practitioner, teacher or consumer) who resides in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. (Do not add where you reside if you do not live or work in MA. Please note, that anyone in the US can join in writing a letter of support).

State why you support protecting unlicensed alternative and complementary health practitioners. Include a personal story, perhaps how you or someone you know benefited from this care. Tell the Committee why the issue is important to you and how it will affect you, your family, and your community (and/or organization or business).

Example: I want to voice my strong support for S.1329 and H.2244, as it will protect existing holistic practitioners in the state and encourage new ones to set up practices. As healthcare and insurance costs spiral out of control, more and more people are taking charge of their health by using alternative health practitioners for symptom relief and are seeing the benefits of it. I have personally benefited from several different energy medicine practitioners over the past 20 years to address arthritis, plantar fasciitis, hot flashes, and more, and am ever grateful for the wide and abundant variety of practitioners I have access to. My sister in Kentucky can’t even find one practitioner within 30 miles! As stress in our lives increases and disease rates soar, easy access to holistic health practitioners keeping residents healthy is something every state should want to encourage by offering Safe Harbor protection to practitioners.

Please vote yes on S.1329 and H.2244. Thank you for your time and consideration of this issue.

Sincerely,

Print your name
Street address
Town/City

For more information visit Health Freedom Action Massachusetts.