ASHA Advocate: June 14, 2024
June 14, 2024
The Top Line
Many state legislatures are now out of session and Congress will soon be recessing for its annual August break, but there’s still plenty you can do to keep up your advocacy efforts over the summer.
- Arrange meetings with and send letters to your federal and state legislators.
- Reach out to your state speech-language-hearing association to see how you can get involved in state-level advocacy.
- Keep an eye out for communications from ASHA Advocacy. We’ll let you know about big news and when to take action.
- Learn more about the issues and explore resources available on ASHA’s website.
During this election year, it's essential for all of us to advocate together to get legislation passed to avoid starting from square one in 2025. ASHA Advocacy continues to monitor legislation, take action, and build relationships. We’re also using the summer to create new resources and update existing ones. We’re always here to answer your questions, so feel free to reach out!
Submit Your Concerns for Insurance Payers
ASHA is hosting our annual Payer Summit this fall to discuss issues important to audiologists and speech-language pathologists (SLPs) and start/continue conversations with payers from across the country. The summit aims to bring your experiences and input on payment issues to the forefront of payers’ minds.
During the summit, ASHA Advocacy staff will meet with representatives from private insurance companies, Medicaid programs, and utilization management companies. We plan to share feedback and concerns we’ve gathered from throughout the year but would also love your input on how payment issues impact your work directly. Please share your feedback by June 21.
Join ASHA-PAC for Election 2024: Political Polls Webinar
Join ASHA-PAC on Tuesday, June 18, at 7:00 p.m. for the second part of a four-part webinar series that will explore different aspects of the 2024 election season. This session will provide a user’s guide to deciphering political polling. Natalie Jackson, PhD, vice president of campaign polling firm GQR, will join us to discuss different aspects of polling—including how to interpret results, which polls to trust, and the unique challenges of polling the electorate in 2024. Click here to register.
Minnesota Joins Interstate Compact
Advocacy Win! Minnesota’s governor has signed legislation adopting the Audiology & Speech-Language Pathology Interstate Compact (ASLP-IC), making it the 32nd state to join the compact. There is still plenty of work to be done, but the goal is to have the ASLP-IC operationalized by early 2025. Learn more about the ASLP-IC here.
Working for You
- Supported House Bills 4944 and 4963 in Michigan, which provide hearing aid and related service coverage to those 19 years of age and younger.
- Submitted a letter of support and met with Pennsylvania House Representative Brandon Markosek regarding PA HB 2268, which requires insurance plans to include coverage for habilitative speech therapy treatment and rehabilitative speech therapy treatment for childhood stuttering.
- Met with the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP), the OSEP-funded Early Childhood Technical Assistance Center, and the Infant and Toddlers Coordinators Association to discuss opportunities to collaborate on recruitment and retention strategies for SLPs in Part C state programs.
- Submitted testimony [PDF] to the U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations highlighting funding priorities for Fiscal Year 2025, which include the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, Early Hearing Detection and Intervention (EHDI) program, and the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders.
- Coordinated virtual congressional meetings between members of SIG 12 and their respective federal representatives to discuss funding for the Assistive Technology Act and permanent Medicare telehealth authority.
- Met with representatives from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center of Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities to discuss shared interests around newborn hearing screening and EHDI programs.
- Met with Health Network One leadership to discuss ASHA member issues created by their capitated payment models in Florida and North Carolina.
- Met with ASHA members, the Apraxia Foundation, and the Michigan State Advocate for Reimbursement (STAR) to discuss challenges and opportunities related to payer coverage of treatment for childhood apraxia of speech in Michigan and nationally.
- Working with the Idaho Speech, Language, Hearing Association to develop recommendations to the Medicaid program regarding billing guidance for SLPs and SLP assistants after recent changes to program billing levels and qualified provider status.
- Following a Congressional hearing on Medicaid related issues, Representative Kim Schrier (D-WA) submitted a “Question for the Record” proposed by ASHA to Daniel Tsai, the deputy administrator and director of the Center for Medicaid and CHIP Services, regarding school-based Medicaid billing. Rep. Schrier asked why Medicaid dollars generated by school-based ASHA members shouldn’t be returned to those special education departments where they are generated, a proposal ASHA supports.
Spotlight!
Zachary La Fratta and Dani Scott, members of the Committee of Ambassadors, recently participated in ASHA’s Capitol Hill Day and shared their experiences as first-time advocates.
"Perhaps the most important lesson we learned is that we don’t need to be policy experts; we only need to share our stories and experiences to make a difference, together."
