§ 54.1-2601 Exemptions
This chapter shall not:
1. Prevent any person from engaging, individually or through his employees, in activities for which he is licensed or from using appropriate descriptive words, phrases or titles to refer to his services;
2. Prevent any person employed by a federal, state, county or municipal agency, or an educational institution as a speech or hearing specialist or therapist from performing the regular duties of his office or position;
3. Prevent any student, intern or trainee in audiology or speech-language pathology, pursuing a course of study at an accredited institution of higher education, or working in a recognized training center, under the direct supervision of a licensed or certified audiologist or speech-language pathologist, from performing services constituting a part of his supervised course of study;
4. Prevent a licensed audiologist or speech-language pathologist from employing or using the services of unlicensed persons as necessary to assist him in his practice;
5. Authorize any person, unless otherwise licensed to do so, to prepare, order, dispense, alter or repair hearing aids or parts of or attachments to hearing aids for consideration. However, audiologists licensed under this chapter may make earmold impressions and prepare and alter earmolds for clinical use and research;
6. Prevent an audiologist from volunteering to provide free health care to an underserved area of the Commonwealth under the auspices of a publicly supported nonprofit organization that sponsors the provision of health care to populations of underserved people if they do so for a period not exceeding three consecutive days and if the nonprofit organization verifies that the practitioner has a valid, unrestricted license in another state.
History
This law was first created in 1972. The record of its establishment is cataloged in chapter 181 of that year’s edition of “Acts of Assembly,” the annual state publication listing all changes made to the Code of Virginia in that year. Unfortunately, the 1972 “Acts” aren’t available online. It has been modified 4 times. Those modifications are cataloged by “The Acts of Assembly,” a state publication, by year and chapter. Those modifications that can be read on the General Assembly’s website will be linked accordingly. Those modifications are as follows: in 1978, chapter 34; in 1988, chapter 765; in 1992, chapter 706; in 2022, chapter 173.
1972, c. 181, § 54-83.1:7; 1978, c. 34; 1988, c. 765; 1992, c. 706; 2022, c. 173.