- Bureau of Health Professions Licensure
ADVISORY ON CEUS AND LICENSE EXPIRATION
IMPORTANT NOTICE
The members of the Massachusetts Board of Respiratory Care would like to provide guidance to licensed respiratory therapists regarding their obligations with respect to continuing education and license renewal in light of the State of Emergency as a result of COVID-19.
The Board’s regulations require that as a condition of license renewal, each licensed respiratory therapist must complete 15 contact hours in continuing education for the 2018 to 2020 license renewal period. The 2018 to 2020 license renewal period runs from June 1, 2018 through May 31, 2020, however, on March 17, 2020 due to COVID-19, the Governor issued an Emergency Order that allowed respiratory therapists to extend the normal deadline for license renewal. Specifically, the Governor’s Order states in part:
Licenses which are due to expire during the pendency of the State of Emergency shall not expire until 90 days after the Governor issues notice that the State of Emergency no longer exists.
This order applies to respiratory therapists and other health care providers licensed by the Department of Public health Bureau of Health Professions Licensure (BHPL). Consequently, some licensees chose to renew their RT licenses as they normally would (i.e., on or before May 31, 2020) and others did not for various reasons such as working out of state in COVID-19 “hot spots.”
As of July 10, 2020, the Governor rescinded the Emergency Order and provided the following guidance: Licenses that were due to expire between March 10 and December 31, 2020 and did not expire due to the Emergency Order will remain current until December 31, 2020. If a licensee does not renew his or her license on or before December 31, 2020, his or her license will expire as of that date and he or she will no longer be authorized to practice as a respiratory therapist.
In addition to the above, the Board of Respiratory Care would like to remind licensees that starting with the 2020-2022 license period which runs from June 1, 2020 through May 31, 2022, all licensed respiratory therapists must complete 20 contact hours of continuing education as a condition of RT license renewal.
