By Doyice Cotten

The National Athletic Trainer’s Association (NATA) has announced that President Trump (on October 5, 2018) signed the bipartisan Sports Medicine Licensure Clarity Act (H.R 302/S. 808) into law. This is important because prior to this law, “many states had no legal protection for sports medicine professionals whose jobs often require travel outside of their primary state where they are licensed.” Medical liability insurance carriers did not cover activities performed outside of the professional’s primary state. Consequently, trainers were at personal and professional risk while operating without the benefit of medical liability insurance.

NATA lists the following as major changes under the Sports Medicine Licensure Clarity law:

• Athletic trainers can engage in the treatment of injured athletes across state lines without fear of great professional harm, such as loss of license to practice, while protected from monetary loss with professional liability insurance.
• Health care services provided by a covered sports medicine professional to an athlete, an athletic team or a staff member of the team outside of his or her home state would be deemed to have occurred in the professional’s primary state of licensure.
• This legislation treats medical services rendered in the secondary state as occurred in the primary state if the secondary state’s licensure requirements are substantially similar to the primary state.

NATA President Tory Lindley, stated that

“While this bipartisan law advances safety practices for all sports medicine professionals, it will greatly impact athletic trainers who routinely travel with teams to provide preventative and immediate care. It recognizes, at an unprecedented level, the integral and lifesaving role athletic trainers, as well as all sports medicine professionals, play in athletic health care.”

For more details on the act, click here.

Photo Credit: Thanks to Better Than Bacon via Flickr.