(Un)Licensed Massage Therapists in Florida

Do you ever wonder why you pay a $5 dollar “unlicensed activity fee”, or “ULA fee”, when you renew your Florida massage license?

Massage therapists are not the only health care professionals required to pay this fee; All licensed professionals under the Florida Department of Health (MQA) pay the same fee during each license renewal. This fee is used to investigate any complaints of unlicensed activity for all professions licensed under the MQA.

Recently, an investigation lead to the the suspension over 80 massage therapy licenses in Florida after a claim was made about a “rogue” employee at a massage school was issuing false transcripts so that individuals could obtain official Florida Massage Therapy Licenses.

Although we do not know the circumstances that brought these people here, people certainly did not play by the rules. To protect the public, any possible victims, our profession, and your business -authorities stepped in and suspended the massage licenses of these eighty-plus individuals.

Anyone can easily verify a massage therapy, or massage establishment, license in Florida: Verify Here

If you believe somebody is practicing without a massage license,it is your duty as a massage professionals to report it.

Contact the the DOH about unlicensed activity:

Department of Health ULA Website

Phone: 1-877-HALT-ULA

Email: HALTULA@doh.state.fl.us

Here is a ULA report from the Florida Department of Health. If you scroll down, you can compare the reports to the ULA of massage therapists and massage establishments to all other professions regulated under the MQA. I thought it was interesting to compare the professions (and the eight million dollar balance in the fund).

Even though this is a bad/sad situation (and those are usually the ones that end up in the news), it is important to remember there are still over 30,000 properly trained and licensed massage therapists in Florida.

Photo: _Tony_B