Oppose Oregon House Bill 2493 today – Protect Access to Your Alternative Health Care Practitioners

NO LONGER ACTIVE 

Take action to oppose Oregon HB 2493 that seeks to set up unnecessary registration for “alternative well-being care practitioners”.

A public hearing on this bill is scheduled for Monday, May 10th at 8am.  

Please complete the following actions to help us oppose this restrictive bill which would set a bad precedent for all complementary and alternative health care practitioners:

1.) Write Your legislator Here to send an email explaining why you oppose this bill.

2.) Draft and submit opposition testimony to the Behavioral Health Committee (details below).

3.) Notify your friends and family about the bill so they can oppose it too.

4.) Plan to testify and/or view the hearing on Monday morning (details below).

What the Bill Does:

HB 2493 is an attempt to regulate all energy workers, hypnotherapists, life coaches, and practitioners who use philosophically-based and spiritually-based disciplines in the state of Oregon.  It directs the Health Licensing Office to establish and maintain an alternative practitioner registry of individuals who provide “alternative well-being care”, a term which the bill creates and broadly defines to include all practitioners in Oregon who provide services for the purpose of “addressing personal growth or to alleviate emotional suffering”.  It would require paying a fee every two years, completing a tutorial, and passing an exam.

Although the bill is currently drafted as a voluntary registration, there is great concern that a voluntary regulation could lead to a mandatory regulation in the future because the presumption of the status of “generally regarded as safe” for these types of practitioners would not be protected by the government if HB 2493 became law.  

There is a better approach to address the protection of complementary and alternative practitioners that eleven states now utilize:  a “safe harbor practitioner exemption” legislation.  Rather than regulating practitioners, exemption legislation calls for practitioners to avoid prohibited acts and provide disclosures to clients while maintaining the presumption of safety for non-invasive health care services.  It is a common-sense solution that provides practitioner guidelines and ensures consumers have safe access to all unlicensed complementary and alternative health care practitioners.  For more information contact Oregon Health Freedom Access Coalition.

How to Submit Testimony, Testify Live, and View the Hearing:

Please prepare a statement of opposition (testimony) to share with the members of the Behavioral Health Committee asking them to oppose HB 2493.  Your testimony can be uploaded hereWritten testimony may be submitted up to 24 hours after the meeting start time.  Please note: Committee chairs may determine that public testimony must be limited. For this reason, written testimony is encouraged even if you plan to speak. 

If you want to testify live remotely, you must register in advance.  To testify by video, register hereTo testify by phone, call 833-588-4500 and you will be given a phone number to call into the meeting.

To view the hearing on Monday morning, click here and on the right side of the screen (under the column labeled “meetings”, click on the video icon next to the date of the hearing.  For more information see: Behavioral Health House 2021 Regular Session – Oregon Legislative Information System (oregonlegislature.gov).

Thanks in advance for your opposition on HB 2493.  Together we can make a difference for your health freedom rights!