Amends TCA Title 63, Chapter 13.

Under present law, in order to practice physical therapy there must be a referral of a patient by a person who is licensed in this or another state to practice medicine, chiropractic, dentistry, osteopathic medicine or podiatric medicine, within the scope of those practices, and whose license is in good standing and who holds a CPR certificate or its equivalent, unless one of the following conditions is met: (1) The person holds a master's or doctorate degree from a professional physical therapy program that is accredited by a national accreditation agency recognized by the United States department of education and by the board of physical therapy and the person has completed at least one year of experience as a licensed physical therapist; (2) The person has successfully completed a residency or clinical fellowship in physical therapy at a program approved by the board; or (3) (A) The person has completed at least three years of experience as a licensed physical therapist; and (B) The person has completed a course approved by the board of physical therapy and offered by an accredited university of at least 15 hours, designed to enable the physical therapist to identify signs and symptoms of systemic disease, particularly those that can mimic cardiological, neurological, oncological or musculoskeletal disorders and to recognize conditions that require timely referral to a physician, dentist, osteopath, podiatrist or chiropractor. This bill: (1) Removes the reference, in (1) above, to a master's degree, and removes the requirement that the person with a doctorate degree must have completed at least one year of experience as a licensed physical therapist; (2) Removes the references to the referring practitioner's license being in good standing and the practitioner holding a CPR certificate; and (3) Rewrites the provisions in (2) and (3) above to instead provide for practice without a referral if the person has completed: (A) At least three years of experience as a licensed physical therapist; and (B) A professional physical therapy program of at least 15 credit hours that is: approved by the board; offered by an institution of higher education that is accredited by a national accreditation agency recognized by the United States department of education; and designed to enable a physical therapist to recognize conditions that require timely referral to an appropriate healthcare practitioner who qualifies as a referring practitioner.