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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
Megan Berg 0:00
Hi, everyone. I'm Megan Berg
Jeanette Benigas 0:02
and I'm Dr. Jeanette Benigas.
Megan Berg 0:04
And we are here to fix SLP.
Jeanette Benigas 0:06
We are discussing the biggest challenges that are currently holding back the field of speech language pathology
Megan Berg 0:12
We present the issues with facts and invite you to be part of joining our movement to make things better one conversation at a time.
Jeanette Benigas 0:19
Let's fix SLP.
All right, we're back. Hi, Megan.
Megan Berg 0:34
Hey Jeanette
Jeanette Benigas 0:36
it's been a little bit of an unplanned hiatus. And some of you noticed, so thank you for that. Sometimes we just don't have things to say. And sometimes we're busy. We live in different time zones. So we were able to squeeze this in right now. So here we are, we're gonna get right to the point because we are on a limited schedule. But I wanted to start by sort of recapping everything that has happened since the last time we were on since the board meeting. The first thing that we did
Megan Berg 1:10
and where nobody really responded to our letters. Oh,
Jeanette Benigas 1:14
yes, yes, the board meeting where there was no response, or the response was something like addressed in touch communication. So we said last time, that could have been like a 32nd thing or a 10 minute thing we will never know because we are out.
Megan Berg 1:35
But that we are not allowed in that room. Yeah.
Jeanette Benigas 1:40
Yeah, the minutes we were given, don't say. So you know what? If Ash is not going to do it, we will do it ourselves. That's what I said, when I started the med SLP. Advocate page, and it's bleeding into this mission, we will do it ourselves. Thank you very much. So the first thing we did to start that process was start a Slack channel. Megan, why don't you tell us what slack is.
Megan Berg 2:10
So slack is an online website. It's also an app that you can download on your phone. And it's kind of like social media without all of the social media nonsense. So if you make a Slack account and you join our Slack community, you'll notice that it's organized by state. So you can go in and find other people who are also located in the same community as you. And you can start connecting with each other. And this is where we can start to have conversations of like, who's involved in state associations? And who understands kind of how the systems work? And how can we start to make grassroots change at the local level. And then there's also different channels you can enter into to join in the conversation just in general about the seas. So it's an online community, and then you enter into different channels to have different conversations. And you can also direct message people.
Jeanette Benigas 3:10
Yeah. And Megan and I are both in there through fix SLP. And then I'm in there individually, Megan, I don't know if you are, but I'm in there individually as well. So I can contribute to my two states, because I practice in two states, Ohio, in and Pennsylvania. But you know, I want to be part of the change in both of those places. So as an individual, I'm there, but then we're also in all of the channels as fixed us LPS so we can help facilitate and provide information and suggestions or if we see something really cool happening in I don't know, Texas, we can tell another place about it. I'm sorry. They're mega, we're going to there are men at my door with bosses, we got to pause for a second, I'm sorry.
Megan Berg 3:59
Okay, well, Jeanette's doing that. I'm just gonna say that to join the Slack community, you can go to fix slp.com and click on Quick Links. And it's super easy to make an account, you just need your email address, it's completely free. And once you log in, you're going to want to find the channel associated with your state. A lot of people have a hard time finding the channels. And it seems like it's a hard thing to find if you're on that app on your phone. And so the best way to find the channels is to look on the left side menu and there's like the little hamburger menu pop up thing. And if you click on that, you should be able to tap view all channels and that's a way to see all the channels did you get your boxes?
Jeanette Benigas 4:43
Um, that was a very SLP related delivery. So I'll just shout it out. Thank you. Is it Braco or breaker Bracco diagnostics who sell their bar they just sent some for my class I had to sign because it's like an official like medication or something? I don't know. You can't just like go pick it up on the street. So that's why there were official men at my door. So yeah, my class would get did do that this week. Not Not this week, because it's Asha. Half of them will be there next week. Okay, I missed everything you
set, because I am talking logistically how to use luck. Okay.
And I was saying, I'm in Oh, I remember what I was saying. So if we see something cool going on in Texas, and then we see like a theme in I don't know, Oklahoma, we can communicate the information like, this is what Texas is doing. Here are some ideas so we can act as you know, inert intermediaries between the states to help connect people together. So that way, you just pay attention to your own state and take care of your own thing. And if there's other information you need to know, we can let everyone know. Yeah, so we did that. i There's
Megan Berg 6:00
currently Oh, sorry, I'm just gonna say there's currently 128 members on Slack. So we're hoping that continues to grow. People are already in there talking especially like the Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, there's already really great conversations happening in those channels.
Jeanette Benigas 6:19
Yeah. And I what I was going to come at was I did not know about Slack until Meghan suggested it. So as a brand new user, it has been very easy. I had to go from the beginning, I've downloaded the app created my own account, it was very easy. I think only one person has messaged us with some tech difficulties. And we figured out that that was because of her account. So it seems like the at least 127 people have been able to access pretty easily. Yep. Okay. So if you'd like to join, you can head to fix slp.com and click on quickly. The other thing that I'm just going to shout this out to Megan, because she she managed most of this was collecting information from our call to action to get Medicaid information by state, it's really important that we are putting out the correct information. So Megan compiled all of your responses in a spreadsheet with the link to the regulation. So if you'd like to double check our work, we always invite that the more eyes the better. But we we think right now, it's probably pretty accurate. But it's there, it will be a living document. So as regulations change, or things improve or deteriorate, let us know. And we we can fix that in the document. So that's a great resource
Megan Berg 7:45
available at fix slp.com under Quick Links, everything then under Quick Links.
Jeanette Benigas 7:53
Yes, that's a great resource. So for those states, and it's a very small handful of states. What was it 11 or 13? Do you know Megan?
Megan Berg 8:01
I did not count. Okay. I can say them out loud right now, though.
Jeanette Benigas 8:06
Yeah, here you are. If if, if you hear this state alert,
Megan Berg 8:12
Idaho, Nevada, Minnesota, Nebraska, Kansas, New Mexico, Kentucky, West Virginia, Michigan, Washington, DC in North Carolina, all require the Cs to bill Medicaid.
Jeanette Benigas 8:26
So if you are in one of those states, your state might not necessarily require the CCC. But if you work at a place where Medicaid billing occurs, you have to have your CCC. So this is really important, I'd say for this group to start talking on your Slack channels about what needs to be done. More than likely this is a lobbyist involved thing, making an I don't know the ins and outs of all of that. But that's like government policy and regulation that you're starting to think about there. You look like you want to say something again,
Megan Berg 9:03
I do. I just I just I don't think it's always clear to people. So ASHA is not a regulatory body, ASHA has nothing to do other than trying to lobby to make their certification required so they can make more money. Like they have nothing to do with state regulations. And Asha does not dictate or control what states do. Every single state in the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, like everybody has their own regulations in their all state laws, basically. And that's why a lobbyist has to get involved is because these state licensing boards are regulated by laws, you have to actually change the law. So that requires potentially a lobbyist who can, who knows all the politicians in your community, who can go talk to them, but you could also talk to the politicians yourselves or like maybe somebody at The state association has experienced doing that or knows some of the current politicians. But like, that's the thing with politics too, is like everything's always changing and turning over. So that's where a lobbyist comes in. And like, they often have been involved in the political system, or they just know all the people. And it can just happen a little faster. But they're also very expensive. So but I just don't think that it's like, if you can't afford a lobbyists, there's other ways to do it. Yeah, I mean, every SLP should be aware that like, going to Asha trying to get it changed is not going to do anything they.
Jeanette Benigas 10:35
And here's the ash, we did have a wonderful conversation with a former president of what I lovingly refer to as the President's Club, all of the former current and President elects have a committee that they sit on, you know, she, she gave us a lot of education. And she did tell us that Asha helps consult lobbying in states or, you know, changing regulations. But in my mind, if you think for one second, that Asha is going to assist a state in removing the CCC requirement from something you are out of your mind. So this is something that the states will have to do with out the help of Asha, because Asha is spending money trying to get people to require the CCC for everything that's, you know, we've put documents up where they've sent letters. That's why Nevada requires the CCC as a result of Asha, actively campaigning for it to be required to practice in the state. So they're sending letters, they're doing all these things. They don't
Megan Berg 11:42
We don't know that. That's exactly what happened in Nevada, it could have been an SLP, who, you know, took this huge initiative. And then Asha was like, Oh, good job, we will support you and then the letter, but
Jeanette Benigas 11:52
yeah, yes, okay, true, I get carried away. But they're never going to reverse that process. Because that means they're going to make less money become less relevant, you know, all the things. So, again, this is a state issue that the state has to do, and likely do it without Asha. And that's again, where this slack channel is going to come in. Right now. We have a powerhouse of a woman in Ohio fighting for increased compensation with Medicaid is it like this, this person is on Capitol Hill by herself or with two or three other people with her like, and now it's, it's, you know, on the docket to increase and that had nothing to do with a lobbyist or Asha, she's been doing that just on her own for years. So these conversations in the Slack channel can help you guys organized and, and figure out what is the most important and, and move in the same direction, because for us to do a call to action across the board, like everyone send letters to employers, well, if you're in a state where the CCC is required, or you need it for Medicaid, sending a letter to your employer is kind of a waste of time. So we can't do these call to actions across the board. But if you have something you're going to actively do in your state, we can definitely talk about it on this podcast, we can definitely support you on our social media. So this is kind of how we were there, breakout sessions, if you will, we need these breakout sessions to get everybody organized by state. So again, fix slp.com click Quick Links. You can get to the slack information, join the channel for your state, start talking about this Medicaid information if you are one of those places that Meghan called out. The next one is we compiled state licensing information by state I think this was just released yesterday. Megan, is that right? Okay, so that was November 9 2003. We want all of your eyes on it. We want you to let us know if we made a mistake. Here's the thing though, what we're finding is that sometimes state regulations are different than what the state association says or what something else says. So make sure you're looking at the resource we've provided. And if you're finding something else, that's different, you can send that on over to us but just telling us well, it's required in our state is not enough. So that that leads to some it's very important that we have correct information on our website, on our social media. And if we give out misinformation, we're we're trying very hard to correct it. So that leads to this misinformation issue. Megan, why don't you talk about misinformation? Yeah, so
Megan Berg 14:56
currently right now be Based on our information, Nevada, in Virginia are the only states that require the CCC for an initial license. There are different rules for like reciprocity, or even license renewal. So this is really only looking at like, if you're a new SLP, and you live in this state, and you're getting your first state license, what do you need, and most of the regulations will say something like, requires the CCC or equivalent, a lot of them list out that you need to have a graduate degree or doctoral degree in speech language pathology, you need to have passed the Praxis exam and you need to have a certain amount of supervised supervised hours on the job. So with there was some confusion in New Jersey, where the state associations website said that the C's were required for licensing. But when you go to the New Jersey State Licensing Board website, the CCC is not required. And so there's been ongoing conversation about that. And I'm just trying to find where we were talking about it and Instagram. I thought it was right there. Oh, I know where it is. Okay, so to clarify the New Jersey thing, there have been a lot of different comments that are all kind of contradictory. One person says I'm in New Jersey, the state licensing board often does not update their regulations in a timely fashion, which I just laughed at, because I'm like, That can't be ethical or legal, like a picture if they changed the law. And the website is the way that SLPs access the regulation. They can't just change the law and not update it for months or years.
Jeanette Benigas 17:18
And I wonder if that follower meant the state association doesn't often update in a title it was the state licensing. I know, I know what she said. But I wondered if that person meant, you know, got the two confused, because it would make more sense if the state association was a little bit behind because you know, it's people who have full time jobs, and they're turning over regularly. And so when I read it, I wondered, I wonder if this person is confused.
Megan Berg 17:47
And then another person said, I heard directly from Renee Clark today. I don't know who Renee Clark is. But they all seem to know who she is. And she said the State Advisory Board committee does not require us to have the CCC to obtain or maintain their license. It's employers who often require the See, see see like mine does. And then another person says the content is currently under review with the New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs. And Asha, for some reason to ensure accuracy. So that was the the current president of the New Jersey State Association saying that so I think this just like highlights how hard it is to track down the correct information, which is so unfair to SLPs. Another example I'll bring up is Delaware. So there's, there's chapter 37. And then there's chapter 24. of the State Code of Regulations and in Oh, wait, so these are both chapter 37. Okay, so I'm looking at the same chapter. But there's a subsection 37 08 that says for licensure as an SLP, they have to have current certification of clinical competence issued by the American Speech Language Hearing Association. But then if you go to section 3700, it does not require the CCC. So then it's like, okay, you have one state with two different regulations saying two different things, which is also confusing. And so it's like, which one is correct in which one is our SLP is bound to, and the fact that like, there's so much of this kind of miscommunication, and nobody really knows what's going on, and then like, the CCC can swoop in and be like, Oh, you made us us because we ensure competency across the full scope of SLP for the lifetime as long as people pay $225 a year. So it's just easier like everything's easier with the CCS As far as regulation, so they'll just default to requiring that. And that's why it's so important for SLPs to be looking at these regulations specifically and asking really pointed and informed questions, like in the case of Delaware, like why are there two different conflicting laws, basically, about the requirements to become an LP? I'm
Jeanette Benigas 20:24
going to I have two things to say first, Delaware folks get on your Slack channel, start figuring out how to get this fixed, maybe in the favor of making the CCC optional, since that's one of our goals. And then I did look up Renee Clark is the executive director of the audiology and speech language pathology Advisory Committee out of the New Jersey Department of Law and Public Safety. That is a state regulatory agency. She has a DCA dot and J duck of whatever email so she looks to. Yeah, and I found, yeah, so it looks like she would know we would hope if she is the she's listed on her audiology and speech language pathology licensing it. Renee should know, but again, we don't know.
Megan Berg 21:25
Right? And why does the state association feel like they have to go to Asha. But I don't understand. And that's where like, I think it's so ingrained in us as SOPs, that Asha is a regulatory body that they're deciding all of these things, and they have this power over the states, they do not have power over states, the only reason that they have so much power is because they've lobbied to make their optional certification required for Medicare, Medicaid, and state licensing and some other things that we're going to talk about later, but it's just like the day they're selling a product, and we have allowed them to get away with unethically weaving it into all these
Jeanette Benigas 22:11
regulations. Yeah, and I did pull this full disclosure, the first place I could find Britney's name was on the actual website. But this is it's listed under New Jersey State contact information in every single email on this page. And there are a bunch for a bunch of different reasons and topics, you would need to contact your state. They are all.gov email addresses out of New Jersey, none of them are Asha email addresses. So with that just tells you what these licensing issues they are directing you to their states, because as Megan said, they don't regulate, right. So you contact Asha about this question, they are going to send you to Rene, because that's who they list is the point of contact.
Megan Berg 23:02
And then they're going to send a letter to Rene saying we recommend that you require the CCC for your licensing requirements. Because allegedly,
Jeanette Benigas 23:13
Allegedly.
Megan Berg 23:15
Allegedly, yeah. So I mean, this is what's so frustrating. And even tracking down the Medicaid information like it took hours an hour like sometimes you would have to like try all these crazy Google turns just to get to a web page that would show you like any kind of information around the requirements needed to bill Medicaid as an SLP. And like, what what bothers me is like, we all as SLPs know exactly what's required to get the CCC and we're all like obsessed with like the CEU requirements paying the 225 Every year, all of a CF requirements to get there. Like we're all very in tune with those requirements. And yet, if you were to ask any one of us individually, like before we publish this information like what do you need to bill Medicaid? What do you need to be licensed in your state? A lot of us wouldn't be able to answer that question. And that is terrifying. To me. It's like why are we trusting a national association, who at the end of the day is selling an optional certification that we don't need to do our jobs. And yet, we're not being informed and we're not taking into our own hands to like, learn and understand the legal regulations that we are 100% obligated to abide by. And so I think we need to stop caring so much about what Asha thinks and caring a lot more about our state regulations, what they look like, what they sound like what they're requiring, and know that we have a lot of power to transform those because we can join state licensing boards, we can go to meetings, we can lobby we can have conversations as State Associations about what those all look like. And at the end of the day, it's just a few people making these decisions about what these regulations look like. And if you've spent enough time like I have reading all these things, you realize, like just what a shitshow it is, and like, Yeah, what a disaster like none of this has been thought through, none of this was, like laid out on the table. And like, there was no plan, it was just sort of like, oh, shit, like, we got to come up with this regulation, we have to pass this legislation by this month, or whatever. And it was just like, whatever they could copy from another state or, or just take the seeds as a requirement is an easy way out like, nothing is intentional about it. And you can definitely tell the SLPs were not really in the room when it happened. And so now, like, we need to be in the room, and we need to clean this up. And we need to make it better for future generations of SLPs. And my hope is that future SLPs are just like, they may or may not be aware of what's required by OSHA, but they are 100% aware of what their state licensing board requires. But the interstate compact requires what Medicaid requires. And that's what we're all paying attention to, and putting our energy towards. And
Jeanette Benigas 26:12
even one thing you didn't mention, and this has to do with state licensing, of course, but as new grads, what the the professional experience in your state requires. So just today, back in May, I agreed to take on someone pursuing their state license in Ohio, and provide mentorship for that professional is called the supervision of professional experience in Ohio, it's not cool to see us most states have a different name for it. But as I was sending the fee schedule I took I borrowed the fee schedule from a colleague who is in a different state. And thank goodness, I checked it, because in Ohio, the contact hours, the number of times that you have to be face to face with your mentee is more than that of Asha, that you know, the ASHA requires less and I combed the website multiple times, and I could be wrong. So if you're hearing this, and you're in Ohio, let me know. But it does not appear that any off site supervision is allowed. And I think Asha does allow for that a little bit. So, you know, looking at just Asha, to guide you in these decisions. If you're pursuing a state license, and you get to the end in Ohio, you're you're going to be in trouble, because you might not have met those requirements, and then you're gonna have to extend. And also this is an older situation. But I always speak from my own experience. When I graduated from grad school myself, the practice was scored differently. And you've heard me talk about I'm right on the state line. So I took the Praxis and I passed it for one state, and I failed it by five points for another state. And I actually thought through well, maybe I'll just like practice in just the one state and just get licensed in that state and not take it again and worry about the other state. But I think the ASHA requirement was the higher score. So had I not been paying attention, I wouldn't have had the Praxis score to get my CCC. So all of these things, you know, make sure if you if you choose to get this ECC, you should know all of that. But definitely be checking in your own state to because the regulations are different everywhere. A lot of them do reflect that of Asha. But it again, we've said this over and over in some states, they're more rigorous. The status high other the other thing
Megan Berg 28:51
I noticed, and you noticed this, Jeanette about California or no, he saw that in Illinois, and I saw it in California. And I would love to know like if anybody's listening and you know why this is happening. But in both Illinois and California, they have written into their state regulations that until 2027 or 2028, they will accept the CS. And then the the assumption is that after that date, they will not accept the CS as an alternative to you know, submitting your transcript and your Praxis score and your supervised hours. So I'm just wondering if some of these states are getting ahead of the game with interstate compact, and they're realizing that the interstate compact isn't requiring the seas and so they need to be more intentional about what their requirements are. And maybe they're getting I mean, I don't know I'm making that all up. But I would love to know if anybody's in Illinois or California and understands why yes, that's happening. I just think it's really interesting that like they're already phasing out the C's in those two states in the regular
Jeanette Benigas 29:55
was also my assumption as well, because I don't think the interstate Compact is going to start rolling out until 2024. And it's rolling out in the order that the states opted in. So if you I don't know, I, how many states are in right now. But let's just say 20. I know it's way more than that. But it's going to start rolling out in state one. So by the time it rolls out to state 20, that could be a year or two, we don't know the schedule, they haven't published that. But it could take time. So that's why I thought to like, they might know Oh, we were the 19 state to opt in. So by our estimates, it will be two years before we have it fully in place. And so that was my guess. But I like to go overboard and create scenarios in my head that are true.
Megan Berg 30:44
I mean, I'm going Yeah, but I also think, too, that this is such a prime time to be changing these regulations, because they're going to be touched anyway, like everybody is going to be looking at them right now anyway, as they pass the interstate compact, and they're going to be spending money on lobbyists to get that legislation enacted. And, and so why not like, get yourself at that table, have a little seat and start using the language that we've been coming up with it because SOP. And that's the other thing, too, is like as you're inside of slack and having these conversations and, you know, taking the initiative, if you're finding like I just, you don't have the resources or the language, please reach out to us, and we will help you with that. Yes,
Jeanette Benigas 31:30
this definitely isn't us passing the buck. It's just everybody is on different communities, or perhaps you know, some people aren't on social media at all. And so it's a place that is social media, like where you can connect, not have to share your personal information, not have to be on an email list not have to do extra things. It's just a place where everyone can connect. So again, we can help you start having these conversations, but we will still be involved in whatever way you would like us to be. Or we can just step aside and go for it. But again, however, we can be used as what our intention is.
Megan Berg 32:10
Yeah, and you can also disagree with us, you can also use your time and your effort and your energy to go and do the things that you think are right for your state. Like I would just love to see a selfie is just more involved. And I'm not saying like volunteer for ASHA, or even volunteer for your state association, but just be involved in like, understand how things work, can you see and start to get to know people and start to have conversations. And that's my only hope. And like if you agree with us, awesome. But if you also have a different way that you want to approach things, that's great, too. I just think more SLPs, who are in the trenches every day, need to be having a voice and this is the way to do it.
Jeanette Benigas 32:55
Yeah, I mean, we definitely wouldn't like this. But if all of you in Indiana want to require the CCC, for practice, if that's what you decide to discuss in your Slack channel, we would have to allow that to happen. We will shut you down. Oh, Megan, Megan went away. So I'm here by myself now. She must have lost a signal. So I'm just gonna keep going without her. Oh, Megan, we lost you. Did you hear what I said about states requiring the CCC? No. I told them if if they want to use Slack, like my example was if everyone in Indiana would like to require the CCC for practice in their state, we are not going to shut them down. We're not going to censor that. Go for it. We might not like it. But we're not here to tell you what to do is what I told them. Yeah, yeah. Okay, so what we're just asking out of all of this conversation is to just wrap it up at this point is, if you think that we are wrong, and we absolutely know we could be, we want you to send us the link and send us the fact don't just comment on our social media, it's required in our state, don't just say I had to XYZ, we need you to send us the source because the misinformation is something that we don't want to spread on our social media accounts. And it's really important that we're keeping that at bay, we don't delete things. So if we see you doing that, we're not going to delete it, but we are going to invite you underneath to either post the link or send it to us so we can check it and make sure that we have it right. And that's what we did. If you're on social media, you can see that we did that with the New Jersey issue and now they're looking into it. So that's great. That's that's a positive movement. It might be a baby step, but that is a win for the fix SLP movement right we saw this discrepancy or we put the information out there. You all saw the discrepancy you let us know And now action is being taken to make sure that gets cleaned up your your state association president commented on that, that post today and they're looking into it. So that's fantastic. You guys, this is fearless fixer win, right? Like, this is what we're here for.
Megan Berg 35:15
And that's also how we learned that Alaska requires the CCC on the application. But they don't require the CCC in the regulation. And so that's probably a very easy fix for Alaska to go to the state licensing board and be like, Listen, your application doesn't align with the regulation. And you need to remove the requirement for the CCC in the application. And that's a lot easier than changing a law. So I agree, like anytime you feel like something's off, it's worth doing something. But we all need to be doing the work to finding this to find the sources. Yeah.
Jeanette Benigas 35:48
And this is out of order. But since we're sort of on this topic, it fits here. Well. Another thing that has come up as we have talked about the requirement for the CCC, and Medicare and Medicaid billing is someone pointed out to us that Tobii Dynavox. In their funding literature says that you must be an ASHA certified speech language pathologist. It doesn't say CCC but it says you have to be Asha certified. And so we looked into it. I confirmed I took screenshots and I directly started talking to Tobii Dynavox. And now they're looking into it. You know, they asked me to send the link to where we saw that I sent the link. I sent screenshots. I sent them our all of our regulations, so they could see that medic that. I think they were I think they were saying it was because of Medicaid and Medicare. So I corrected them on the med Medicare information, and I sent them all of our links to Medicaid. So it still will be required in that small handful of states. But that shouldn't mean that the rest of us have to have the CCC if we're in a state that doesn't require it. So we've sent over everything to them. And they're looking at it. And so that's another when it's not something that Megan and I found, but it's something that you guys found that you brought to our attention. That is really important because AAC devices are important. And if we're some of us are letting our C's go, and we're in a state where we could still help people with that need, we should have the ability to do it. So advocacy at every level here is important. Another thing we just got notified of today was the issue of the ASHA non so I'm going to read the post that was sent to us. I think it was a post I it might have been a private message actually, I think it was. So this person said I was in the process over the last two evenings of drafting a letter to my employer requesting removal of the CCC from the job requirements. I felt confident about the letter and seemed sure that someone would at least read and listen to my argument. Then I was told today that despite initially being told that Asha noms reporting documentation would be optional. My company's net health admins signed an agreement with ASHA recently that made noms reporting required to be completed on all evaluations. I dug on their website and Asha does state that it is a voluntary program. So not sure why we are being forced into this now. Additionally, I found that you have to be an ASHA CCC SLP to report the noms outcomes. I get it now if they require you to be Asha certified to complete the nones, and then they get your employer to require the noms in their EMR systems, then SLPs can't revolt and drop their CCCS because they need them to do a required part of their job now. Oh man, they are getting good at and very crafty with their ways. I'm on to you, Asha. So she asked. So now what when your hands are tied, the only way out of this is to have the company's net health break the agreement with ASHA on the noms requirement, which seems like a problem that seemed to grow exponentially in one afternoon. And I see so many ethical issues with this. First and foremost, why is a net health administrator deciding how we are going to evaluate our patients?
Megan Berg 39:42
Yeah, yeah, I'm just reading about the NOMS on the ASHA website and it's like and
Jeanette Benigas 39:48
this just came in you guys we Megan and I have been doing our other jobs and running around all day and we have not let like you just heard Megan say she's reading about the noms. Now. We haven't had one moment to do dig into this. But I just wanted to point this out as a, you know, something we can talk about online, certainly. But another issue that was brought to our attention that we are now certainly going to look into, and if it's, if it's something that we can suggest a change to, then we will, but you know, these are contractual agreements, likely, if the employer is upfront about you need the CCC to work here. Legally, there's probably not a lot that can be done. But ethically, it is a huge problem. It's just like requiring the bedrooms if you're in a nursing home, it's it's something that a nursing home will do to test cognition that isn't very accurate at times, I feel but you know, the BIMS let them do it. But that shouldn't be required as our cognitive evaluation. So it to me the biggest issue is this requirement that we have to use it when it may not be the best option for the people we're serving.
Megan Berg 41:05
Yeah, and I know we have to wrap up, but it does get to this idea that I truly think Asha believes that requiring the CS is beneficiary like they're, they're doing a wonderful positive thing by regulating the industry. Because if they didn't require the C's to do the noms, or whatever they require it for it like then there's no guarantee of competency. There's no universal standard this LPS have to meet. But again, this gets at the whole conversation of like, why isn't it just a one time milestone that you pay for one time because that's all it's representing? It's only representing that you got it degree, you passed the practice and you did a certain number of hours of supervised work. And like I'm sorry, but 10 hours of professional development, development per year means nothing as far as competency across the entire scope of SLP. So if somebody who's never set foot into a medical world is like, ready to use the nones just because they have their CCC, that is such bullshit. And like this is not protecting consumers. This is not helping us LPs. This is not insuring any kind of universal standard at all. So
Jeanette Benigas 42:21
yeah, yeah. And Megan said, we have to wrap up, I realized my son needs picked up from school in four minutes. So the very last thing he can wait there for an extra two minutes, it's three minutes down the road, is that we are today, right now, as you're listening, releasing a new call to action, our new call to action is that we need to believe that everyone all SLPs have the power to make change. We cannot wait on someone else to fix it, Megan and I can help you organize, we can give you the ideas, we can help you with resources, but we cannot change everything alone. And so number one, we need to believe that we have the power because apathy is not going to get us anywhere. And we need to take action. So this call to action is believe it and join the Slack community and get your friends and colleagues to join the Slack community as well. Right now we are at war, when we were preparing, we were at 128 people, I would like to see 1000 people on Slack. By the time I wake up on Monday morning. So today's the 10 Because I'm not staying up till I've stayed up to till midnight before to watch her this
Megan Berg 43:40
is a SMART goal. But but we
Jeanette Benigas 43:45
did it 30. And by the time I'm awake, I want 1000 of you on there. So we'll be preparing a title that you can share on social media in your state association groups or state groups, or even any of the groups that you're on on social media, we need you guys and girls to spread this far and wide. We need people on slack because this is the next step for us to start making changes. We love you on our social media. It's great. We love getting the messages and the emails and the conversations. But everybody in the States needs to start organizing and the state associations really should be a part of this too. So it's we're continuing to talk to them. We're continuing to plan these podcast episodes with them. But they should not be excluded. This is not an exclude your state association. They're gonna have to be involved on some level for some of these issues. So please, spread the word. Anything else, Megan? No. All right, guys, I gotta go get my son. Thanks for fixing it. Thanks. Bye. Bye, everybody.