Montana House Bill 929, legislation that would have added optional prescriptive authority to Montana chiropractic scope of practice, was tabled by the state Senate on April 15, 2025 and not reconsidered prior to the legislature adjourning in May. As Montana is currently one of only four states whose legislature meets every two years rather than annually, Montana chiropractors will continue to practice as usual – at least for the time being.
Montana House member Greg Oblander (R) – a doctor of chiropractic in Billings, Mt., and the 2024 Montana Chiropractic Association’s Chiropractor of the Year – sponsored the bill. The International Chiropractors Association, several other chiropractic stakeholders and – as might be expected – the Montana Medical Association voiced opposition to the bill; malpractice insurers also noted that rate increases would be inevitable if the legislation became law. Nonetheless, H.B. 929 passed House review on April 5, 2025 and moved to the Senate for consideration before being tabled by the Business, Labor and Economic Affairs Committee.
If the legislation had been signed into law, it would have given Montana DCs the ability to prescribe, if desired, “noncontrolled, nonscheduled formulary drugs for diagnostic and therapeutic use for musculoskeletal treatment and pain: over-the-counter analgesics; prescription nonsteroidal noninflammatory drugs; muscle relaxants; topical analgesics and anti-inflammatories; topical cortical steroids; and topical and oral cortical steroids.”
Dr. Oblander’s testimony before the Senate committee on April 11 asserted American Chiropractic Association (ACA) support of H.B. 929. However, comparing his testimony with the ACA’s position, provided to Dynamic Chiropractic on April 23, one wonders whether Montana legislators were getting accurate information:
Dr. Oblander: “ACA, which is the [American Chiropractic Association], they have approximately 10,000 members. They are in support of this. Matter of fact, we have the President of the ACA that lives right here in Montana started as a president in January and they are supportive of that because they look at this and say they encourage each state to determine what they want their scopes to be and to be able to utilize their expertise.”
ACA Statement: “As a national organization, the American Chiropractic Association’s focus is federal healthcare policy. ACA is respectful of states’ rights to self-determination based on local needs, and therefore ACA does not generally take a position on state healthcare legislation. While our members may have personal opinions about healthcare policy in their home states, those opinions do not represent the position of ACA.”
Per terms of the bill, Montana chiropractors seeking prescriptive authority as stated above would have needed to “successfully obtains a license endorsement for prescriptive authority from the state chiropractic board in order to prescribe.” The bill also detailed that the board would establish rules dictating “the procedures for chiropractors to apply for a license endorsement; the educational qualifications required for a license endorsement, including: the number of hours of initial and ongoing pharmacology education; and approved pharmacology continuing education programs; [and] standard protocols for prescribing prescription drugs that chiropractors with a license endorsement shall follow.”
Editor’s Note: Dr. Oblander sponsored H.B. 500, legislation also introduced in 2025 that would have allowed for similar prescriptive authority by Montana DCs. That bill failed by a slim margin in a House vote on March 7, 2025, but suggests the prescriptive authority issue in Montana is far from being resolved.
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