Senate Bill 505 Athletic Trainer Act

During the current legislative session, Senator Paul Wieland (District 22) introduced Senate Bill 505 (SB505) which updates the Athletic Trainers Act.   The education and practice of athletic training has evolved in the time since the act was written. The updated language is intended to reflect the current state of athletic training as it is practiced in Missouri and provide for us to continue to practice within the scope of our education, training, and competence into the future. There have been a lot of people working on this language over the past several years. We anticipated that the time to move forward with this legislation could be in this session. And, over the past several months, members from different practice settings, different geographical locations, and different backgrounds weighed in on the document. People who worked on updating language in other states and with other health care disciplines offered valuable insight from their experiences. The Board of Registration for the Healing Arts also reviewed the language and offered their valuable perspective. This document has the fingerprints of many of our members all over it. We would not have a strong document without the patience, passion, and dedication of so many of you. You can access the language of the bill here: Senate Bill 505 In a nutshell, the language of the Athletic Trainers Act is updated to reflect the changes in the practice of athletic training over the past years.

• The language defines Athletic Trainer as a health care professional and Athletic Training as health care services – to correct the common misconception that this is sport “training”.
• It maintains the ‘directing physician’ relationship, but also allows other primary care providers to refer patients to ATs when they see the AT as the appropriate health care provider for that patient.
• It provides for a temporary license for ATs moving to Missouri if they have no history of disciplinary action.
• It also removes an artificial restriction on our patient population; no other health care discipline faces a similar issue.