Board Members Present:  Heidi Williams LMT (Chair), Anthony Sharpe (public member), Tonya Cox LMT, Chelsea Giles LMT (new member)

School Program Reviews: Altura College and Bellevue Massage School (651 hour program, transfer program and Bilingual program) -- approved

Special Meeting:  This meeting was billed as a "special meeting" and not a rescheduled meeting of the cancelled November 1 Board of Massage Meeting.  The purpose of this meeting was primarily to discuss a few outstanding WAC rule issues.  Here are the WACs that were discussed:

The full article is here: 111519 - Board of Massage Meeting Notes

WSMTA received this email and article summarizing the Dept of Healths 2020 Budget Request and Legislative Agenda for 2020. As Health Care Providers we feel Massage Therapists must stay informed.

You can read their summary HERE

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Hello partners in health!

The Department of Health has officially submitted its 2020 supplemental budget and agency request legislation to the Governor’s Office and the Office of Financial Management. These proposals will now be reviewed and considered for the Governor’s budget and approved policy agenda. The Governor’s budget is typically published around the third week of December.

A summary of the department’s agency request proposals is attached. These proposals reflect guidance received from the Official of Financial Management as well as feedback received in our stakeholder conversations. Thank you to those of you who participated and provided input along the way, including our August 23 legislation/decision package webinar.

Specific detail and decision package proposals are available online at either the DOH or OFM websites.

Thank you for your continued engagement with the Department of Health.

What is the Department of Health’s HSQA?

According to the Department of Health’s (DOH) website,

“Health System Quality Assurance's top priority is to protect and improve the health of people in Washington State. We do this by helping to prevent injuries, develop health systems and improve patient safety. We work closely with communities and local health partners to build strong health systems and prevention programs. This helps ensure that everyone has access to good healthcare and emergency medical services.

Health Systems Quality Assurance (HSQA) regulates and supports more than 463,000 health professionals in 83 health professions, and 11,000 health groups and programs. Each year we review more than 14,000 complaints and inspect thousands of facilities. Each month we respond to an average of 24,000 phone calls and thousands of emails.”

The full article is here: Highlights from the recent HSQA.pdf

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