Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
We are discussing the biggest challenges that are currently holding back the field of speech-language pathology. We present the issues with facts and invite you to be a part of joining our movement to make things better, one conversation at a time. Let's fix SLP!
Hosted by Jeanette Benigas, PhD, SLP
Jeanette Benigas 0:00
He fixers. I'm Dr. Jeanette Benigas, one of the cofounders of fix SLP. Our platform exists to discuss the biggest challenges that are currently holding back the field of speech language pathology. We present the issues with facts and invite you to be a part of joining this movement to make things better one conversation at a time. So let's fix SLP.
Hey, everybody, welcome back. It's Jeanette. I have Preston with me today as a co host. And today, we have the privilege of having Tiffany monies, we asked Tiffany to come on, because she is a co founder of a Facebook group that has taken on some advocacy. So we're gonna let her tell you all about that. Just to start out, I often say this at the end, but we'll plug it at the beginning today, we don't have a Patreon. But we do have sustaining partners. We'd love for you to become a partner with us at $5 a month, you can head to fix slp.com for that information. All right, Tiffany, who are you? Tell us about yourself? Who are you? Where are you? What do you do?
Tiffany Moniz 1:16
So thank you for having me on. I'm from Lancaster, Pennsylvania. I've been in healthcare for 20 years, but I just started doing speech therapy 10 years ago, and around COVID Just was fed up with the corporate world and just having my hands tied. Clinical autonomy really stripped from me, where they said speech therapy just, you know, stay home a little bit longer speech therapy isn't that important. So I just was like, well, I could do this on my own. I started my own LLC started it in 2020, but not much going on then just little telehealth here and there. Which was why I wanted to start it like why not jump on that bandwagon where all these people are stuck in their homes, but still need care, and really picked up in 2021, called Speech Therapy Solutions. And then once we were able to start going into the homes, again, did mobile outpatient practice, just billing Medicare, love to being able to cut out all the middlemen just getting the funding straight from Medicare, and coming right to me, so I could provide the best quality care that I wasn't seeing happening in the nursing homes that I was working out. And then just the more and more I saw how my patients were so happy, like what I was doing, and my personal life where, how I saw how broken the healthcare system was with my own son who was born missing the legs. So he wears prosthetic legs gets a new one all the time as he grows. At one point, the prior authorization process, held up his leg to the point where the company making the prosthetics and will get the prior off in a week or two will start making it. So when that happens, we'll deliver it to you promptly, it one month went by two months went by, by the time my child got his little leg, he needed a new one, and are just massive modifications to it. And that just like just fired me up with advocacy of how prior authorization it's just like a really ridiculous barrier and just how that can just roll into the geriatric world that I was in and all the other the prompt service insurance, dictating care, delaying care, creating waste, like what a waste of that was for my child to have that leg made, never even use it. The burnout that caused my family, my child the trauma, refusing to go to school and embarrassed to use his forearm crutches, the dignity stripped from the patient. It happens all the time, not just my personal life, but I see it in my professional life. So I just really wanted to create my own little healthcare model with my professional world and try to change the system overall with advocacy with the group and the the name of the group. I have to look at it every time it's kind of long.
Jeanette Benigas 4:21
Do USA based ot PT and SLP. Therapists United for Change?
Tiffany Moniz 4:27
Yes. And, and me and Liza really started it because the more and more if you're in all the Facebook groups like there's, there's a bunch of different Facebook groups, they all have their different purpose. You know, there's one for where you go to be like, I want to just bounce ideas off of another clinician, or there's another one where you go where I want to get out of therapy, I need a new job. Or there's another one where you want to go where you want to start a new practice and they all have their purpose but every time you go in there, everybody's venting. I hate my job, I hate my profession and then the group admins will Be like, No, this isn't the place to do that. And you would kind of get shit almost like feel shameful for venting. And we wanted to create a safe space where you could vent and actually turn that venting. Some people think that's a negative word, but like turn that venting into advocacy, like, first of all, the venting needs to occur. So you don't feel gaslit that you're doing something wrong, you're not fast enough, you're not a failure, not a good enough therapist, like you have to feel the camaraderie that we all feel the same way. And it's okay to feel that way. And it's the fact that they're setting unrealistic standards that we do feel that way, we now hate our profession, which is sad, we shouldn't we need it, we're needed, we're healers. And so it's also creates a safe place for mental health awareness that results from this, we just did a zoom last night all about mental health and how to take care of yourself. And it's also just a place for if you really want to take someone down, you have a lot of proof, we have whistleblowers that are experts in that field, but then that also ties back into mental health awareness, if you're going to take that route, it's going to be rough, people are gonna intimidate you, people are gonna blacklist you. So we have people that you could talk to, to prepare, you walk into that there's a lot of lawyers in the group that don't give lawyer advice. But there there is resources. There's a lot of people just creating, like, where do you report if you don't want to go all the way to the whistleblower Avenue? Like how do you just report in general, there's so many avenues and like, HR is not your friend, but so many people go straight there. And then there's also just policy, how to contact your politician, attorney general, just spread the word, there's people creating documentaries, and they're spreading the public awareness to the public. So people know what's going on behind the scenes. And just we have a lot of different things, which is kind of kind of, it's crazy. We do like, fix SLP, you know, you have your main focus, and you kind of can track along to more progress when you have that one focus. So we're currently trying to find our focus right now. But there's a lot of important things that need to go on also in the background.
Jeanette Benigas 7:07
So you guys started your group, just a couple months after fix SLP started. And I think maybe even you or somebody invited me or added me in pretty early on. And I'm not super active in there. Because if I'm reading a platform or involved at a platform, I need to do something on fix SLP. But I am always creeping like I'm always reading and I'm kind of up to date. And I just think it's been a wonderful like, branch like fix SLP started, and then you guys came along. And we all kind of have, there's so many things that need to be addressed in the profession and in the therapies, professions as a whole that I loved where you guys I loved when it was founded. And I love where you guys have been going because you're doing things that I'm not doing with fix SLP that are so needed, because I'm a healthcare SLP, who has been in nursing homes fees, I kind of have my hand and everything. And so I know these issues that you're talking about, and it's just so needed, and I've just been so happy to watch as you guys progress, and you'll find your direction, it'll I think you'll land there. And then it'll just be like, Bill, you know, like, we know, we're headed, where we're going?
Tiffany Moniz 8:23
Yeah, I feel like the main thing is just, I mean, you have a core mission of you're gaining our clinical autonomy back as speech language pathologists, we don't need the C's to do what we do, and just give us the autonomy to just get licensure in our state. And then let us go, we don't need this micromanagement. And that's basically the same thing with our group with any avenue of just the productivity taking away or clinical autonomy, no matter what discipline you are.
Preston Lewis 8:55
Definitely, I see this as a really good example, like you said, you get in that echo chamber when you're in a rehab gym and a sniff. And you just you feel like you're venting. And there is such little Regulatory Accountability for rehab companies. And what I see is that you're telling a story. It's not just advocacy, it's not just empowering, but it's also a defense of this profession. Because you and I both could probably list dozens of clinicians that we've seen walk away from rehab and sniff. And I want those people back because there were some of the best clinicians that we had. And we're just reaching them off and it seems like such a vicious cycle. So I'm excited to read that. These are stories that are really happening. Yeah, they I heard
Tiffany Moniz 9:43
people say there's a shortage of SLPs or in my own private practice. I have people coming to me willing to pay cash because there's no other speech language pathologist in that area or that county or this or knows how to work Working AAC device or an eye gaze device, and patients are sitting like 10 years with ALS, and nobody's training them to use their eye gaze machine, it's just sitting in the corner. And I'm like, really the it's not a shortage of SLPs, we're just burnt out and working at Amazon instead. What
Preston Lewis 10:18
was your breaking point with sniff? If you had one, um,
Tiffany Moniz 10:22
where I had a highly medically complex man. He had trach feeding to I forget that heart device, that kind of use from Grey's Anatomy, whereas the snipped it was like pretty high tech, really major age, medically complex. And they were like 15 minutes. And I'm like, that's not enough time for me to go in there. Say hi, wash my hands, make sure it's oral cavities cleaned, do some trials train the wife because the goal was to go home. And they were like, if you do any more, you're giving away free therapy. And I was like, then I'm gonna give away free therapy. And then the fact that I had to go toe to toe with my supervisor every day to get the minutes deserved, or at least just like, prove why I'm doing what I'm doing was an I got like, like an adrenaline rush because I had to like argue, I'm like, this is like, affecting my health.
Jeanette Benigas 11:25
I think the third home health company that I ever worked for, didn't have speech pathology for a long time. And when he hired me, we were chatting. And he was I asked him if he was like a therapist, or when he did and he said, Oh, no, I was going to school to be a nursing home administrator. And then I found out there was money in home health. So I made the switch and started a home health company. I thought, okay, cool. And then that should have been my red flag. Then, as I was, you know, taking on patients and learning the ropes. He told me, I was asking for too many visits for my patients. And he told me, this is exactly what he said, quite honestly, Genet. All speech therapy cuts into my bottom line. So one day a week is sufficient until physical and occupational therapy are out. And then we can open up a second or third certification period if we need to, and you can just see them as long as you want. This was like 2009 10 ish. So you know, payment models have changed since then, where he wasn't losing money, like he could go into a second and third cert period and still be making money. And I felt like that was just so unethical. Like, we're just gonna stretch out this person's illness so we could keep making money. And then there were some referral sources who wanted the speech pathologist to have vital stem. So he paid for me to travel from Ohio to Philadelphia for a weekend to go get vital stem trade and bought the device. But then when I came home and told him what the protocol was, I wasn't allowed to provide it. So he would advertise that I was vital, stim trained, and that we could take the patients if they needed vital stem, and then I wasn't allowed to provide that many visits for the patients. And so I gave it a little while longer, and then I quit and to go along with the ethics. Always gonna call this out. President says, this is where I self incriminate. I kept that vital state machine as a parting gift, just because he was never going to use it. And he never He never asked for it back. I still have it. I
Preston Lewis 13:52
have one too. Very similar story. I've got one
Tiffany Moniz 13:58
similar story to the company, you know, have the annual performance reviews, how are you going to improve as a clinician, I'm like, I'm gonna become vital stints certified. And they're like, Okay, well, you can use your, you know, we'll reimburse you to do that. And I did it. And then they refused to buy me the the machine and just like advertised me as being certified. But I'm like, I have no way of providing the care. Like that was a waste.
Jeanette Benigas 14:24
Yeah. And I never really, I've never really I don't even think I've used that machine. Personally. I need to put it on a vessel p by page. Oh, Preston. For those of you listening, Preston just held up his illegal vital stim. You should put up a poll.
Preston Lewis 14:44
No, I earned this one.
Tiffany Moniz 14:46
I never even obtained one.
Preston Lewis 14:48
I earned this damn thing. This was my breaking point too. And it's interesting. Tiffany, early on brought it equipment, which it sort of shows I think just the absolute asinine nature of rehab companies, particular regional rehab directors, the sniff that I worked at the nursing home had advertised, we have a vital stem trained SLP, the marketing director did, not knowing that our vice president of our company had just taken all of the vital stim machines out of our facilities. She was an SLP that had lost her license, but was still vice president of the rehab company. And she just didn't like it because they didn't want to buy electrodes. So if I'm being perfectly honest, like said the marketing director, but forward that we had a vital stim trained SLP, we had a patient coming in from out of state, whose daughter was an OT, patient had a CVA, totally NPO. So her daughter being an OT, recognize the value of that modality and wanted to send her this facility. Lady comes into the building, they they marketing director approaches means is your vital stem trained rightness, yes, but I don't have a vital stim machine symbol. Where is it? And I said, I think it's at the home of our vice president and the of our company. And she lived about maybe 45 minutes away. And he said, Well, can you get it? And I'll try. So over the process of three or four days of just trying to get a conference call with this person, we finally get a conference call. And I explained to her the situation she gives me her feel about, well, I really don't like vital stem, Is this really necessary? And so after going through 45 minutes of trying to convince her, she said, that's fine. And she asked her lackey, rehab director, or area director, will you go by and bring that to him? This is the start of COVID. I remember, they pulled up in the circle of the sniff. And she just kind of hand it through the car door, like, you know, we can't be bothered to go into this facility. And so I get the little packet that it comes in, as you all know, comes in the little bell curly pouch. There are no electrodes. And so I had to get on eBay at the time, because a lot of the companies were closing because a COVID had somebody send them in. And I was devastated because the patient was starting to make a little bit of progress. But this was going to be one of those things that would just kind of throw it into overdrive. I, we lost her. She passed away about two days after I got the electrodes. And could she passed away from other things? Absolutely. But I was crushed at that point, because I thought, you know, I have a tool that I had been trained to use, that was sitting in the damn laundry room of our company, Vice President. And I had to advocate for 45 minutes and didn't get something that's not complete. That was my breaking point. And it shows just how callous and thoughtless this industry can be. And that's why we lose a lot of people.
Jeanette Benigas 17:58
Hmm, I had a breaking point long before I stopped doing it. But as I most know, I have a PhD. I specialize in both dementia, I have a dual specialization of adult neuro dementia and dysphasia. And as I have become more and more and more educated in dysphasia, I have gotten more and more and more disgusted at what I see going on in sniffs in terms of diet modification and forced diet waivers and supporting patient choice. And even sometimes the therapies of the clinicians, although I don't get as mad at them, because they're just doing what they know to do. They just haven't had the opportunity to grow yet at least that's how I look at it unless they completely refuse to improve. But I just look at it as a systemic problem. And just how we treat elders. My breaking point was a long time ago where I was working PRN for a company and I got, I've never been written up at a job. But I got written up four times in less than a year for doing my actual job. And the breaking point, at least from that company. And I did leave the fourth time was a friend and I we became friends through this job. And we're still dear friends now and our girls, our friends at least I had got a friend out of it because our girls were babies then. But we were covering a vacation and had provided therapy all week to this guy goal was to get him back to an oral diet or I think he was on thickened liquids or something. And we had both done therapy and we were collaborating all week covering for this woman. And at the end of the week, we upgraded the diet and we were standing in the nursing home. We're both there that day coordinating and the nurse turned around and said who are you talking about? And we said oh so and so and she said oh no. Oh no, we're not changing his diet and I I've always been an advocate, right. So I looked at her very nicely. And I said, Well, with all due respect, the speech pathologist has been seeing this patient to improve his muscular strength and his tolerance. I said, and he's met his goals. We've both seen him this week. She's been working with him for quite some time. And he's doing all right. And she said, Well, he sneaks gallons of chocolate milk out of the fridge and chugs them and aspirates. And I said, well, then probably the milk will have to be relocated, that shouldn't be a reason to restrict him from having thin liquids. So we wrote the order, and we're gonna stand by that order. Well, she went crazy, crazy at us crazy at the other nurses bitching about us in front of us to the other nurses went up to the the d o n, and the administrator and the particular company loved to protect their contracts, not their therapists. And so we both got written up for making a an appropriate clinical decision. And when HR called me, I said, You know what, I can't do this anymore with you people. And she's like, well, I guess, you know, maybe it's best if we just part ways. And I said, Yeah, that's exactly what I just said to you. I said, I'm done. I said, I've never in my life been written up so many times for doing my actual job. And that, that was it for me that you know, as I, as the couple years went on, and I started getting deeper into academia, I faded out. But
Tiffany Moniz 21:43
yeah, I wait. Where people are like in their silos, you I'm a nurse, I know what's right out, stay in your lane, or even ot PT, stay in your lane, stay in your lane. And, and everybody starts fighting about what they think is right. But sometimes, it's like, well, what's good for the patient. And if we disagree, that could be valuable, because that's like, let's have an IDT. Team, like, meeting, let's tell the patient, here's, here's a risk versus benefit scenario. The nurse has a valid concern of aspiration, we have a documented progress that you could probably tolerate it. But there's always that slight chance, like you, as the patient need to take that education from me and the nurse and make your own decision. This
Preston Lewis 22:34
is a great social media page. I mean, I've really enjoyed a lot of the content so far. Are there any ideas about where this goes?
Tiffany Moniz 22:43
No, not at all. Okay,
Preston Lewis 22:46
it's just a chance to let's put some information out there, I
Tiffany Moniz 22:48
suppose. Right? Yeah. Good.
Preston Lewis 22:51
That's that's the start, like you said.
Tiffany Moniz 22:55
Yeah, at some point. I mean, we're all kind of like manic and insomniacs, and put a lot of extra time into it, because we're just obsessed about the just a strong sense of justice. But at some point, it's kind of like, whoa, we kind of have to focus on our own families and our own businesses. But I
Jeanette Benigas 23:13
think there is a point where these contract therapy companies are going to have to be taken on because my buddy Joe Joseph in there, he and I have talked about this long before that group existed, is that there is no accountability, there's accountability, you can help be held liable or accountable, and the building can be held accountable or liable. But the contract therapy company can tell you to do whatever the heck they want. And if something goes wrong, or if something goes awry, or if there's a complaint, there's no way to hold them accountable for their actions. When it comes to patient and decisions and treatments. There's no accountability. And I think at some point, clinicians will have to take them on. And maybe that will be something for you guys, maybe it'll be through fixed SLP. And maybe it'll be a collaborative effort. Right now. We've got our goals. It's something I would love to address, because it's a real problem. It's a real problem. And I think
Tiffany Moniz 24:16
anybody can write a consensus statement, right, like a group of professionals that have the same idea and a point to prove it doesn't have to be Asha to write a consensus statement, we could write a consensus statement as a group that given these legal cases, there probably is a legal precedent that makes the word productivity bad, it leads to illegal activity, and that might be where we can get them. I don't know if they'll jump make us jump through other hoops to still get their profit. But that's one avenue.
Jeanette Benigas 24:51
Wait, Tiffany? You mean Asha doesn't have to do everything for us? You mean we could have the autonomy to do it ourselves? Yeah, what a concept.
Tiffany Moniz 25:04
Oh, and that's another thing like Oh, unionizing, I didn't even mention that in the very beginning, we do a lot of work with helping people unionized. And a lot of people were joining the group getting a little angry at first because they wanted us to like they thought we had the solution. And we were gonna give it to them on a silver platter, kind of having the top down type of perspective. And we kept having to educate the members that this is a grassroots, this is a bottom up and even a top down approach from unionizing as an nation wide, that's too hard to coordinate, it's, I think, the other kind of group, like our group that kind of fell apart, tried to do that it's better to teach people who are leaders are just very active in the group or, and very, just like, I'm gonna go do this in my local rehab department and give them the resources to do that. And then little by little by little, all these little unionizing rehab departments are gonna pop up. And maybe they all could merge if there's a lot in this town, or there's a lot in Pennsylvania, and then it can grow that way. But yeah, people go to Asha. And I think Ash is gonna have the one main big solution, and they're gonna give it to me on the ash website, like with a pretty bow. And that's not how change happens. You're right,
Preston Lewis 26:17
you have to just add, you have to fight like hell at the local level, basically. And I'm curious what you've encountered, because in instances where I have tried to do, like you said, micro organizing, maybe in a certain region of buildings, the one thing that always struck me is that the clinicians that were reflexively against anything like that, their main thing they would say is, I just don't think it would be right for the patients. And that blew my mind, because I thought, Oh, it's fine to just sit here and let the whole house burned down around us, and not address the issue of all these clinicians that are good clinicians that are leaving, and we're having to see 14 patients for 15 minutes a pop like in your circumstance. And I'm thinking really, we're just we're okay with the status quo. That's good for our patients. But I did you encounter that I never
Tiffany Moniz 27:12
tried to unionize. And nobody else wanted to take my lead with standing up to just doing what not going along with the status quo or not doing what's exactly on your schedule, or not doing all the groups you were told to do. They would just kind of go along with the status quo and not want to put up a fight. They maybe had, like, well, I don't want to lose my job, I, I need this insurance, or I'm just insistent, I can't just start my own company. If I get fired, or a little fear, they were more fearful. I saw, there's
Jeanette Benigas 27:46
a lot of fear. There is a lot of fear in our profession. And I think sometimes it's warranted, sometimes I don't think it is. And I have to wonder when you give that advice of just don't do what they say. My question is, how many people in certain companies have actually been let go for not meeting productivity? Yeah,
Tiffany Moniz 28:13
I just had an issue with somebody. I'm like, I worked there for seven years. And they didn't fire me until I quit. And I never was like, I never looked at my productivity. They would put these little pieces of paper on my desk, what my productivity was yesterday, saying like, basically, you weren't good enough yesterday, you didn't reach it again. You didn't reach it again. I just I just folded the paper nap and put it on my desk where I use scrap paper. Never even care about it. Right.
Jeanette Benigas 28:39
And if there's really this shortage, they're only shooting shooting themselves in the foot.
Tiffany Moniz 28:44
People they need our licensure to do what they do as a business. They made us why would they just start firing? Oh, yeah,
Jeanette Benigas 28:51
there is one particular company that I actually can't say enough good things about they're still a contract therapy company. They still piss me off. But generally they've been pretty good. And I've only worked for them PRN. I started in 2008 still work for them. Took a two year break when I moved to the East Coast. And then as soon as I moved back to Ohio, they hired me right back when I was hired, evaluating therapists had productivity of 75% they have always hired me in a capacity where I am short term to Long Term coverage for buildings that can't be staffed. So when I first started for years, I was the only therapist in the middle of nowhere, which I lived like seven minutes from the building, so it was perfect for me, but I was the therapist even though I was PRN and I was doing every role that a normal full time PRN would have to do. But my productivity was 82% because I was PRN and I told them back then as a clinician two years out of school. How is this fair? I'm doing the job. I have your regular therapist, I'm not making retirement, you're not giving me vacation. Even back then I was smart enough to know. And I told them, You know, sometimes I might hit it, but I don't think you can expect me to hit that every time. I was No, no, if it was 75%, I was usually like, maybe 80. But as the years went on, and productivity has crept up, like, I think their productivity now is 85%, which means for PRN is higher, the regional manager and I are now friends when that happened. I said, if you ever think I'm going to have productivity that high, you're mistaken. I'm not playing that game. That is exactly what I said, I'm not playing that game. And he was like, Okay, I've never been written up. I mean, I, maybe I'm just wreck,
Tiffany Moniz 30:54
like, I'm studying to do do a survey. At what point were you written up? And what was it for? Or what do you think it was for, I don't know how to, like, analyze that, because I have a feeling that they're just throwing these unrealistic productivity standards out there. And they're hoping that the fear will get the ones to do the fraud, the subpar care, the working off the clock, without them having to say and like, hey, they're given us free, free labor, but then also the ones that are like, No, that's not gonna happen, they're just gonna be like, whatever, let them do what they want. And but the, maybe 75% of the people are doing all the other, working off the clock, and grouping like crazy and making these companies millions to the point where they're just still gonna say 100% for activity, and they're still gonna get all those people based on fear, to do free labor and fraudulent stuff.
Preston Lewis 31:49
Ginetta I don't know if you've read, Tiffany gives this one piece of advice that I love in some of her posts, which is telling clinicians who are getting hounded by rehab managers, just don't answer the damn phone. About Love that don't, you're out in the hallway, you're too busy. You're not there.
Unknown Speaker 32:06
I didn't hear you.
Tiffany Moniz 32:07
I know, being in my ear. Give me send me an email. I don't know, your
Preston Lewis 32:13
fears, your fears.
Tiffany Moniz 32:17
But I don't think I catch on to that. Like, something's never wants to talk to me.
Preston Lewis 32:24
So there's a collaboration that's going on between OT and PT in this organization that you've got, what are you learning from these other disciplines if there's something out there to be learned, and their shared experiences of what we're dealing with?
Tiffany Moniz 32:39
I think it's just that we're all it's, we're all the same. We're all going through the same thing. And that there needs to be a fixed ot branch and a fixed PT branch. That would be nice.
Jeanette Benigas 32:52
I fully expected that to happen. That conversation happened when fix SLP was started. My co founder and I actually had the conversation at what point do you think someone would start something like that? And would there be any crossover and collaboration, but no one from either discipline has ever approached me about how to get this started? What? What should I do?
Preston Lewis 33:14
There's a lot of animosity that I read out there about AODA. But it's such a fun conversation to have with OTS because then as an SLP, we've got Asha. And it's a whole my beer kind of moment. But I know that there is a lot of frustration with AODA as well.
Jeanette Benigas 33:31
I don't know if either of you are up to date on the recent live Asha chat where I know Preston, you weren't there. Tiffany, were you on the chat. Okay, the live q&a. I wasn't either, but I am given the amazing gift of screenshots, and videos and summaries. And I actually love it.
Tiffany Moniz 33:55
They send it Yes,
Jeanette Benigas 33:57
I actually love it. It's it's kind of curated. Yeah, it's comical, because people will give their thoughts as it's happening. So it's almost like being in the room with everybody who's watching it. But I don't actually have to sit there and waste my life watching it. But one of the things that I guess our current Astra president said was and I'm not gonna say her name, because she won't say mine, um, that her child is an OT. And she's such a great mom, because she pays the OT dues for her child. And it's really a similar cost. And when people sent me that I was like, yeah, it might be slightly similar, but they get so many more benefits. And the problem is, is that you are paying membership dues. Our membership dues are only $29. So actually, our dues are not similar. They're way cheaper than what You're paying, most of our fees are going to the cost of a proprietary product that doesn't do anything for us. So get your terminology straight lady, it's not the same, the total cost might be the same. But the minute this thing becomes truly optional, and people stopped buying it, we will see a shift in how much our membership dues cost.
Tiffany Moniz 35:26
I was thinking, why is that going to happen? Like all of a sudden our membership dues are $250.
Jeanette Benigas 35:31
It might. So there is a conspiracy theory out there. I don't know that I necessarily agree with it that when they raise the rates, they raised it by the amount that they were losing when people started not renewing membership, and just buying the CCC. So they're still getting their money. But everything at at nothing happens fast at ASHA, right? It's this huge corporate organization that has to go through committees and boards and, and so maybe that happened fast. But my guess is that it was already in the works. And my guess is also that they were having an O shit moment. When all of this fix SLP stuff started because we started before Asha, raise their rates. And we were already going viral. Before Asha, raise their rates. They just handed us 10,000 Extra followers on a silver platter. But we were already happening. And I think probably they had it in the works and had a no shit moment and then maybe delayed the announcement. But that announcement was also very well thought out. It was the Monday or the Tuesday after the final deadline for renewing dues and CCC purchase without a late fee. So it was very well timed. Nothing happens by accident with Asha. You know, it's I yeah, I don't I don't. But maybe I mean, maybe that was the response to people dropping membership. And so as more people let the CS GO, I mean, we're on a roll, we got Preston, the shot caller leading advocacy teams in states where there is going to be change, it might not be before December 31, like we hope but I would think into 2025 We're gonna see some more states changing stuff. It looks like we're on that track. So you know, by 2026, maybe membership dues go up with ASHA, we'll see,
Tiffany Moniz 37:33
I already paid. Because I have a student, I said I really wouldn't have bought these. If so that would be nice if we could still take on students without them.
Preston Lewis 37:44
And you can provided they're not working toward a CCC providing
Jeanette Benigas 37:49
their university is not requiring them to work towards the CCC. I see that next on the agenda that fix SLP agenda is that as it becomes truly more optional, then that will be something we need to take on with ASHA where they add us to that pathway that they have for audiologists that audiologist can get through school without being supervised by someone with the CCC. And if you are well it's the CCCA for them. And then later on if they want to purchase that CCC a there is a pathway for them to get those hours signed off on by someone with the CCCA. So they can purchase but that took lawsuits to lawsuits, made another call to a lawyer today call it 1230 They were closed for lunch called back at 151. They took a message they're gonna call me back on Tuesday. I hope something like that wouldn't take a lawsuit. Given they already have the pathway given they already do it for audiologists given people are going to be exiting My hope is that they'll work with us. But
Preston Lewis 38:53
they already had such a turf war with the audiologists that went to lawsuits and drug on for years. And you had pissed off clinicians that were part of this block. So here we are again. And so rather than sit down and say, hmm, maybe there's a way that we can modernize this and gradually start to walk this thing into a very clearly defined role. Rather than working collaboratively. No, we're going to ostracize everybody. We're going to threaten people, we're going to be snarky. I swear they just continue to do the same thing. And it's like, can't we try to find the commonality here and get back to what it is providing great care for our patients and modernizing our national organization. So they're not fighting against us along with everybody else. But they did it with audiology, and here we are.
Tiffany Moniz 39:43
I just had a business idea that I should tell the university I work with that I'm only going to accept students that are willing to work in private practice that don't need their seeds and then that would that would actually help me funnel students that actually wouldn't work for me. Knee when they're done being trained, and that's like a win win.
Preston Lewis 40:04
Well, that would be very assha of you to do that. It's sort of like this perpetual little thing that you can keep going, Wow, that's nice. It's a self licking ice cream cone, congratulations.
Jeanette Benigas 40:15
Try it on what they say.
Tiffany Moniz 40:17
They're desperate when they call me. Because I don't have a very large caseload. It's very risky that they even get all their hours with me, since I'm so small, and I drive a lot, there's a lot of drive time, it's like when they do call me I know they're desperate to place. And if you're limiting that now to,
Jeanette Benigas 40:39
but that's exactly what we need to be doing.
Tiffany Moniz 40:41
We need to be a bottleneck. We
Jeanette Benigas 40:45
need to be putting the pressure on these universities I have it's not scheduled, get the school years ending, but I have someone who works in academia, who is going to be scheduled to come on the pod to talk about some of these issues, and talk about the difference between the CAA and and the different organizations who require these things. And really point to how this is on the universities and not on Asha, Asha just allows it to happen again, because Ash is never going to put themselves in a position where they could be sued. So it's a conflict of interest for you to accredit programs and require those programs to prepare students to have to buy your proprietary product that then is required to practice, they're never going to use that language. They're never going to write that down. That's an FTC violation. So it's the universities that are making these policies. And Ash is just allowing them to believe that, that that's what they have to be doing. And it's not. It's not. So we have a we'll have an episode coming up on that
Preston Lewis 41:52
title for that episode should be paying no attention to the man behind the curtain.
Tiffany Moniz 41:58
Yeah, maybe I should just just start saying out. I don't have my season anymore. Sorry.
Jeanette Benigas 42:04
You don't need to be sorry for that. Wait, you have a student right now, though? No, they're on break.
Tiffany Moniz 42:08
No, I have a summer student.
Jeanette Benigas 42:11
Why does the university know that? You don't have your CS? Oh, no, I got
Tiffany Moniz 42:16
I got them late.
Speaker 1 42:18
I let it lapse. And then I will like I last minute decision. I'm
Tiffany Moniz 42:22
like, I'll just get them. Because they were desperate to give me a student. So I was like, alright, I'll take her. And then and then I had, and then they were gonna charge me that late fee. And then I called and did my whole customer service mean person spiel, and they they waived it. Good.
Preston Lewis 42:41
Good. Stephanie was great talking with you. Yeah,
Jeanette Benigas 42:44
let's give that page again. You're not on Instagram. It's exclusively Facebook. So it's USA based ot PT and SLP therapists for change. So go join it, go find it join the conversation. Do they have to be medical SLPs now know, anybody any therapists can join. Administrators, lawyers, directors of nursing, right any any supporter, get them in there. Anybody
Tiffany Moniz 43:13
who has tea to spill and talk about what goes on behind the scenes to get that profit and how it hurts healthcare and the patient's? We love to hear about all about that.
Jeanette Benigas 43:25
And I think I am hopeful that eventually it's you know, it's still new it you formed in what December? It may, something will come of it. It's It's still early days. I feel so yeah, go join and then do you want to plug your private practice again? Speech Therapy
Tiffany Moniz 43:43
Solutions, LLC, in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in person mobile in the home or telehealth?
Jeanette Benigas 43:51
Yep. All right, everybody. Thanks for joining us. We'll see you next time. Thanks for fixing it.
Hey, everybody, welcome back. It's Jeanette. I'm here with my co host. Preston.
Unknown Speaker 44:07
We have oh, he
Jeanette Benigas 44:09
said, Hi. We have Tiffany minis with us today. Oh, pressed.
Preston Lewis 44:17
My microphone or my camera went for a walk there. Sorry.
Jeanette Benigas 44:22
And going on the outtake Yeah.
Preston Lewis 44:24
All right.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai