AN ACT to amend Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 49 and Title 63, relative to athletic trainers.
HB0062 amends Tennessee law governing athletic trainers to expressly allow them to use dry needling and certain physical modalities, such as heat, light, sound, cold, electricity, and mechanical devices, when treating athletic injuries. The bill also clarifies that athletic trainers may only practice within areas where they are competent based on training or experience, and it directs the Board of Athletic Trainers to establish rules and minimum competency requirements for dry needling.
To practice dry needling, an athletic trainer must complete board-approved training and certification. The bill specifies minimum instruction requirements, including at least 50 hours covering musculoskeletal and neuromuscular systems, pain mechanisms, trigger points, and universal precautions, plus at least 24 hours of dry-needling-specific instruction covering technique, indications and contraindications, documentation, adverse effects, psychomotor competency, and bloodborne pathogen protocols. It also states that dry needling by an athletic trainer is not considered acupuncture under Tennessee law.
The bill amends Tennessee Code Annotated Title 63, Chapter 24, which regulates athletic trainers, by expanding the scope of practice to include dry needling and related therapeutic modalities under physician referral or consent. It authorizes the Board of Athletic Trainers to adopt rules, approve training providers, and set competency standards, creating a new regulatory framework for certification and oversight. The bill does not directly change Title 49 in the text provided, but it is captioned as amending both Title 49 and Title 63.
The bill appears to have broad support overall, passing committee and floor votes by large margins, including unanimous or near-unanimous votes in later stages. The only notable opposition came early in the process, with one dissenting vote in the House Health Subcommittee and one in the House Health Committee, suggesting limited but not widespread concern. The final passage votes were overwhelmingly favorable, indicating the measure was generally viewed positively by lawmakers.
The main point of contention is the expansion of athletic trainers’ scope of practice to include dry needling, a procedure that can raise questions about training, patient safety, and overlap with other licensed professions such as acupuncture or physical therapy. The bill addresses those concerns by requiring board-approved instruction, competency standards, and a clear statement that dry needling under this chapter is not acupuncture. Any opposition likely centered on whether the training requirements and regulatory safeguards were sufficient before allowing the practice.