Montana House Bill 929 is moving through the state legislature, raising the specter that Montana chiropractors will soon have optional prescriptive authority as part of their scope of practice – in stark contrast to the profession’s roots and continued self-promotion as non-drug, non-surgical health care.
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 becomes law. Nonetheless, H.B. 929 passed House review on April 5, 2025, and is now under Senate consideration.
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.
If a Senate vote is equally favorable and the legislation is signed into law, Montana DCs would have 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.”
Per terms of the bill as currently written, Montana chiropractors seeking prescriptive authority as stated above would need to “successfully obtains a license endorsement for prescriptive authority from the state chiropractic board in order to prescribe.” The bill also details that the board will 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 also 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 7th.
