HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — The Guam Board of Allied Health Examiners will be summoning Le Balance Guam for a case that first came to the board’s attention in September 2022.
During a GBAHE meeting held Friday, board Chair Mamie Balajadia said Le Balance, listed on its Facebook page as a massage therapy clinic, has been noncompliant.
“I think what we need to do is – they’ve already been given a stop order, cease and desist, and they are still not compliant. We need to call them in in a formal meeting instead of just on a casual, people don’t listen. We need to send them a notice to meet,” Balajadia said.
A complaint to the board, designated with the number 2205, was filed against an unlicensed chiropractor operating with ties to Le Balance on Sept. 27, 2022, by a licensed chiropractor concerned with illegal and unsafe practices allegedly being used.
Gregory Miller, a chiropractor who is assigned to investigate the complaint, initially identified the nonlicensed chiropractor as Jonathan Kim, according to Post files.
Post files also indicate that Kim said he was not performing chiropractic work, but instead corrective muscle therapy massage.
Miller said on Friday that that the case is “stuck at the attorney’s office.”
But that doesn’t mean the board will not make any moves.
“So we are going to look at the person in charge of that Le Balance and have them come in and give us a rundown of how many people are licensed and unlicensed,” said Balajadia.
The case is one of several before the board that highlights a deeper issue facing the island — the blurred line between chiropractic and massage therapy establishments.
Miller said the problem is rooted in the island’s ability to regulate massage therapy.
Miller went on to explain that regulations would require spas and hotels “to basically train their own people and certify them to be like a licensed massage therapist,” Miller said.
Miller spoke in reference to past attempts at legislation to regulate the industry.
Balajadia recalled that the reason regulatory laws didn’t pass was because “they claim that the people were already trained in Thailand or other places. But, as we recall, even licensing individuals from other countries, you still have to meet the requirement of the American U.S. standard.”
Balajadia contended that what Guam needs is an inspector and investigator as there have been more massage therapy establishments opening with some “intruding on physical therapy and chiropractic.”
“To go out there and see what’s going on in the clinic, whether they’re clean, whether they are meeting and if they have a license,” Balajadia said.
Mamie Balajadia
