The Invisible Workload of School-Based SLPs: Research, Burnout, and Leadership Fails

SLP burnout isn’t a personal failure; it’s a systems problem. In this episode, Dr. Jeanette Benigas and Preston Lewis, MS/SLP, talk with researchers Dr. Tobias Kroll (Texas Tech) and Phuong Palafox, SLP, about their study, “The Invisible Workload of School-Based SLPs.” We cover why SLPs are advocating (and being ignored), how caseload vs. workload, siloed roles, and “martyr culture” fuel overwhelm, and where leadership and IDEA compliance pressure go off the rails. You’ll hear practical wins that work now, and bigger-picture fixes universities and national orgs must lead. If you’ve ever been told to “practice self-care” while your schedule balloons, this conversation gives language, evidence, and steps to push back... together.

💛 Connect with Phuong Palafox on her website or Instagram.
🧡 Connect with Dr. Tobias Kroll on his website, ResearchGate, or LinkedIn.

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Creators and Guests

Host

Jeanette Benigas, PhD/SLP

Host of Fix SLP

Host

Preston Lewis, MS/SLP

Co-host of Fix SLP

What is Fix SLP: Advocacy & Accountability in Speech-Language Pathology?

Fix SLP is an SLP Podcast by Dr. Jeanette Benigas about advocacy, autonomy, and reform in Speech-Language Pathology. This show exposes credentialing gatekeeping, dismantles CCC requirements, and helps SLPs advocate for change. Each episode equips SLPs with tools to reclaim their profession. Subscribe now and join the movement transforming speech-language pathology. Follow @fix.slp on Instagram and TikTok. Visit fixslp.com.

Jeanette Benigas 0:05
Welcome to Fix SLP, the podcast shaking up the field of speech language pathology. We're calling out the barriers that hold clinicians back fixing broken systems that limit our care and giving the power of our profession back to the people who live it every day. This is where fearless clinicians come together. It's time to change the field, with our voices, leadership and advocacy leading the way. So let's fix SLP,!

Jeanette Benigas 0:32
Hello fearless Fixers! Welcome back from what was intended to be a spontaneous one week break that I didn't announce turned into a three week break. So thank you. It's been 21 days, three full weeks since we released our last episode. I get asked all the time, how do you do it all? I don't, and I keep telling people that I will go hard for Fix SLP, for a really long time, and then other things, I just sort of let go other responsibilities. And it got to the point where I pretty much had a nervous breakdown. I'm always going to be honest with you, I had so many responsibilities just piling on. And I was describing to the team, I just feel like I'm putting fire after fire after fire out. And so that's what I've been doing. I've been a firefighter since the last time you listened. And I think everything's under control. I'm getting back to a regular schedule, but man, back to school crushed me. For the last six weeks, I feel like I've been doing nothing but first grade and fourth grade homework. Is anybody with me on that there is so much homework from 330 on, we are doing homework and then running around for after school activities, and I realized I'm losing two to two and a half hours of productive time that I have always worked from 330, to 530, or six, and this is the first year where I've not been able to do that. So in addition to losing that many hours of work time per week, I also had to get caught up. So we're figuring it out here at our house, and it's good to be back. I recorded this right before our break, and then did not have a chance to edit. Preston is not in this episode. He had some family obligations when we were recording. We always try to accommodate our guest, and this particular episode was recorded at a time when Preston just had some things going on. So before we jump in, I want to thank our sponsor, informed jobs. It's not a secret, all of us here at fix SLP are huge fans of the team at informed jobs, and what they're doing, they help SLPs find better jobs by asking employers what all SLPs want to know before they even waste their time applying. And this sponsor fits so well with today's episode, because we do talk about the CCC requirement within jobs, and that is something that informed jobs asks employers in order for them to be approved for a post, they have to be transparent with are they requiring the CCC, or are they not? And they do give a little education. I believe we had the owner, Meredith Herald on. I will look back and link that up in the show notes, you can listen to what she had to say at the time she came on, she reported that 30 to 40% of employers aren't requiring the CCC. That had been a stable statistic since they launched. But there's a lot of other information you can get from these postings. It seems like employers posting jobs have been very happy with their candidates, and the people taking the jobs have been happy. So people are getting more quality employees, and SLPs are finding higher quality employers. So go check them out. You can find them at the informed slp.com go to the Jobs tab. It'll tell you you're about to leave informed. SLP, to visit their other site. Informed jobs if you're listening to this way down the road, I think eventually those two websites might merge, but that's the best way to find them. Go check out the current positions available in your area. So let's bring on Christal Washington, who's going to tell us about the process she went through when she electively reinstated the CCC after many years of practice without it. All right, we have Christal from Louisiana. She has agreed to come on to tell us her CC. See reinstatement story. So hi, Christal, thank you for sharing with the community. Hey, all right, Christal, why don't you tell us where you work, kids, adults, Tell us. Tell us what you've done and what you do now. Because I want to frame up. You know, you went through grad school, you did your CF you got your state license, you got your CS, and in that process, you passed the Praxis, right? So where did you start? What have you done up until the point that you decided to stop paying for the CCC?

Christal Washington 5:38
So 20, just about 25 years ago, graduated and went out, jumped in, did my CF straight out, got my CS afterward. Of course, just like everybody else does then, I think I've done just about everything by now. I started out in a nursing home, like a lot of CFS do, and I went from there very early in my career. I went from the nursing home, I went to private practice,

Jeanette Benigas 6:08
Private practice, kids or adults?

Christal Washington 6:11
It was a complete private practice, alive people. We took alive people.

Jeanette Benigas 6:17
Okay, so all ages?

Christal Washington 6:19
Yes, I went to early intervention, and then my my husband and I and our children, we moved and started over. I went to work in a hospital, and it's we. We now live in a if you can imagine, more rural than we are. We lived on the the North Shore of New Orleans, and we moved to a little country town where we were both close to where we were from, and very rural hospital setting. So I went into a hospital, and I did inpatient, outpatient, pharyngeal grams. Then I did their acute, their NICU, if it was, if it was on the plate I did it. So I've done all the things there. I worked there for just under 10 years, and they, the hospital completely closed our rehab unit, our rehab wing, so I was out of a job. And that was really my deciding factor, was, what do I do in the area that we're in, starting from scratch is literally starting from scratch, because there's not a broad base of job opportunities here for medical specific so it was a building so I had to decide from zero What was my priority. And I had several years been the basically, the things that you describe about feeling the complexity of what is the point of our seas and what is the benefit and the cost analysis. And for me, when it came down to it, at the end of that year, then I just didn't renew. I was working in home health at that time, and so I just couldn't rationalize myself that it was a an expenditure, and at that point it was even a luxury expenditure that I just did not have to have. So yeah, it got cut. And that was, that was the simplest way I'd like to say it was some, you know, noble calls or something, but really it was the budget.

Jeanette Benigas 8:23
An OG Fixer, though!

Christal Washington 8:26
So that was how I decided that year.

Jeanette Benigas 8:29
You decided, what's the point? Yeah, forget about it. So what year was that? That was 1320, 13. Okay, yes. So now we're in 2025 So where have you worked since 2013 so in 2013 you did a little bit of everything. You decided to stop paying for the C's, and you kept your state license. Yes, yes, okay, so kept your state license. Smart thing to do. Yes, don't always. Don't let that go. Okay, so what have you done since 2013?

Christal Washington 9:03
I stayed in home health for another for several years, and then six years ago, I got a call from a an OT who has a very small pediatric private practice in the little town where we live, and she wanted me to come on board here, and I have been here since, okay, so I'm now in pediatric private practice.

Jeanette Benigas 9:27
Okay, so you told us that this year 2025 you decided to get your CCC back. So yeah, look at us having somebody with their CCC on the podcast to talk about it. Who would have thought we would have supported you? Why don't you? That was to the haters. Okay?

Christal Washington 9:49
I mean to me, I didn't think I was going to support me in this either.

Jeanette Benigas 9:53
Why? Why? But I, you know what I might I might ask some hard questions. But. But all good. Why did you decide to get the CCC back?

Christal Washington 10:04
It's sort of a complexity of of where I'm at. We are in and you would, I don't know how things are, where you are, but where we are, it is tiny community. There's a small rural hospital here, and there are, like, another couple of clinics here, and then there are doctors offices. That's it. We wanted to expand the business and for the ability to get a clinician to come to this place where we are with it, we tried for two years, and so my boss and I had a really conversation, and it was, she's, she's, honestly, she's a dear friend, and I'm, I'm truly, truly grateful that she's my boss, because she is a friend. But we had a conversation, and she said, if you get your C's, we could at least offer as a benefit, the opportunity for a CF to come back it up. Let me tell you, we interviewed some new grads, and we interviewed some one to three year clinicians, and I see myself as much later in my career. I'm definitely looking at the exit door much closer than I'm looking at the entrance door.

Jeanette Benigas 11:33
You know, you just called us old, right? Because you're not that much older.

Christal Washington 11:38
You know,

Jeanette Benigas 11:39
I'm just starting every year. I've got 30 more years till I retire. I'm that young.

Christal Washington 11:46
Right? Well, my boss says the same thing. She's like, we're not going to retire. We're going to die sitting right here playing blocks.

Jeanette Benigas 11:53
Amen.

Christal Washington 11:57
And I love to hear it. So anyway, all of that to say we had this hard conversation, and we tried interviewing these newer clinicians coming out, and the experience that we had, maybe this is going to turn a lot of people's head the other way, But the experience that we had was that these clinicians had some really out of the realm of possibility for a an entry level speech therapist position in a clinician in this area. It was very unusual. So that started stirring in me that I wanted the opportunity to give some experience to these clinicians in a setting that they could get a variety of experience. Because the clinic that I'm in is it's all the things pediatrics. You know before, when I long ago, when I graduated, it was speech therapist was expected to do anything under the speech therapist umbrella. And every clinician that came out that we interviewed, said, when I asked about pediatric feeding, because I have that here, I said they were, you know, I was told I don't do that. I specialize in articulation or asking about literacy.

Jeanette Benigas 13:35
I can't.

Christal Washington 13:37
Yeah.

Jeanette Benigas 13:38
They don't specialize. If you're listening to this, you don't specialize, okay? We are generalists. Everybody. In order to specialize, you need to put a ton of work in New Grad one to three years out, you're not specializing, okay? You're still entry level building your career. Specialization comes much later with training with very, very focused work in one position, or, you know what, you go get a PhD and your research, that's how you become a specialist. We do not exit school as specialists. We do not become specialists in the first 135, even, I'd say, six years of practice. You know, that comes with a lot of boots on the ground. That comes with a lot of additional training. Nobody leaves school as a specialist. Okay, I'm done. Go ahead, Christal.

Christal Washington 14:33
Well, honestly, I'm real glad you agree, because I was sort of floored, but consistently, that was the thing that we were being told, and that they were being taught that in grad school.

Jeanette Benigas 14:48
Where did these people? Are they all coming from the same place? We got to make a call.

Christal Washington 14:52
Yeah, right, yeah. I agree. I I have a, you know, certifications in specializing in. Areas that I see a high rate of occurrence in my caseload, you know? So I, I'm definitely about get as much information, know, as much as you can know, do the best that you can do, but not to the exclusion of the children who are coming through the door, or, you know, if you're an adult, then to those folk coming through your door, yeah. And I finally said, yes, my boss, honestly, it took her from sometime last year till this summer. And I finally just said, Okay, I'm going to do it. She was like, yes, okay, good, yes. June, I sat for the Praxis.

Jeanette Benigas 15:40
And I want to know about that. So did you have anxiety? Were you fearful? What were the feelings knowing? Oh, my God, I have to retake the Praxis, because that that, I mean, we just asked the other day, what, what are your fears? What? What are people afraid of? And that's actually where I think you responded to, and so many people answered the Praxis, because we have put so much weight, and we have made this thing, I think, so much bigger than it is. People are scared to death. So did you have those feelings of fear?

Christal Washington 16:15
I did. I did. And you know, it was for me, it was more. I can't imagine sitting for this test after. I guess the consideration was not the test. I honestly think probably I blacked out the first time. I don't know what I did, but the preparation for that first time was so much and so intense, and we were all told, for God's sakes. Don't take it lightly. Yes, you know. And then took the test, passed. It moved on. Like I said. I don't remember the actual events of the test, but going back to it in my in in much older and much more real life me, I don't have the flexibility of the time that I committed to that in my life right now.

Jeanette Benigas 17:07
Mm,-hmm. But think about how many years you have to draw from how much experience. And that's what I keep saying. That's what Preston keeps saying, we need to give ourselves more credit. As a professor, I have seen students who have to remediate on every single big test or big assignment or whatever, all the way through their program with me, and then they pass that thing in the first try. Okay, they don't know anything. They've done five rotations. Sometimes it's with one or two clients in the clinic they don't have experience to draw from. Students today are studying and dumping. They're doing mass practice the night before the test, or two nights before their exam. They're taking the test and they dump, and they have a very difficult time recalling the things that they already learned. This. This is many places I started teaching in 2009 with my PhD, the way I taught all the way through my doctoral program for a stipend all the way up. That's what students do now. Okay, these people are passing the Praxis with no experience. You had all of this experience, life experience. You have kids?

Christal Washington 18:31
Oh boy, yes, I have four.

Jeanette Benigas 18:34
Okay, so you have children who have developed maybe typically, maybe not typically, either way, you have exterior experience to draw from, right? So did you study? Did you buy anything? What was your process to prepare?

Christal Washington 18:50
So let me, let me back it up a little bit. In the beginning of the year, I took a continuing ed with Dr Humbert, who was in process of opening a swallowing center, and she had to sit for the practice for her state license again, and that was one of the most memorable moments of that continuing ed for me, because that was in the time that my boss was really hopeful that I would agree to go back and reinstate my fees. Yeah. Anyway, I talked to her afterward, and I asked her, What did you do to prepare? And she said, I went to take the test. And honestly, I was like, You know what? I can do that. And I did all the things I anxiety about it. I bought a pre test. No, this was a little flip book kind of thing. It was just a very in paperback something. Okay, I think it cost me 2520 25 $30 and basically, I read the little paragraph or few pages on areas that were in the test. I. Yeah, and I took the practice test that was in the book. I took the practice test online. I took two different practice tests online, and I went and took the test. I scheduled it. I sat kitchen and I took the test.

Jeanette Benigas 20:15
That's amazing. So you bought a pamphlet, right? You read the read it. How many pages was it? You said 25 now I don't know, small, thin, not much. Thin pages.

Christal Washington 20:26
It was really just a these are the six in the test, included in the test.

Jeanette Benigas 20:33
Okay, so you've read a little book. It's not like you sat and studied and took notes and highlighted you just read it. Yep, read the book, okay? And to clarify, you don't now, Dr Humbert has a PhD, so people can be like, Oh yeah, she's smart. No, she's smart in one thing. Now, the woman is brilliant. Okay, we're friendly colleagues. She's very smart, but she doesn't know about articulation. And I remember leading up to this for her, she did reach out to me to ask if she could reinstate in a state where she has taught and had a license prior and, you know, she I shared some Fix SLP licensing information with her, and we kind of came to the conclusion that she was just going to have to apply as a new applicant in the state of Maryland, and there was going to be no reinstatement possibility. She was, in fact, going to have to sit for that praxis. And I'm pretty sure I'll have to look back and if it exists, I will link it up in the show notes. I'm pretty sure she has talked about this on our podcast. She's been on a few. So I'll have to go back and look at the transcripts and see it could have been a private conversation, because she and I talk frequently. But she did say it was surprising to her about, like, how big the scope of our field is, and how, you know, stuttering and you know, there were some things that she wasn't as familiar with, and even took issue with with some of the dysphagia questions, which is her area of expertise. I don't think she studied either. I don't think she studied at all. I could be wrong, but I'm all if she did. It was very little like you did. Hardly at all went and took the test and passed with expertise in dysphagia. She does not prep. She does now. She practices that as a clinician in swallowing wellness, but she does not treat pediatrics. She has not worked in a NICU. She's never done pediatric swallowing. You know, she doesn't do aphasia, she doesn't do those things. And yet, she passed. And you're saying the same thing, but the little pamphlet took, did you take more than two practice tests? Did you take those practice tests more than once.

Christal Washington 23:02
No, I mean, I took the test and I took because it's two different versions. That's really the reason I said, you know, in my mind, I was creating this. Let me see if there's a a heavier, weighted other area version, if I pass it on multiple drive.

Jeanette Benigas 23:21
So amazing. You took two practice tests. Yes, took the test. Boom, passed. Look at you. It's not that bad. So did you walk away knowing that you passed? Or were you worried?

Christal Washington 23:35
No, no, they actually, I closed the browser for that part, and it says, preliminarily, it gave me my score.

Jeanette Benigas 23:47
Okay, I know they give like a raw score kind of thing, but every month it changes. So you don't know, like, if your raw score is 70. You don't know if that's going to be a passing score for that month. But I guess, did you know what for that month? What was passing? Or did it literally say you passed?

Christal Washington 24:08
It said that that would be a passing score. Preliminarily passed. I knew. I knew at that moment I passed, great. I don't remember they gave me the number. Who cares? Yeah, and honestly, that was my done. Was my whole feeling on it was, I don't care. I did it, it's over. I passed.

Jeanette Benigas 24:27
Yeah, so yeah, did you you then paid the $400 reinstatement fee, right? Okay, and you had to provide proof of 30 hours of continuing education in the last three years. How did they ask you to provide that proof? What did you have to do?

Christal Washington 24:48
I had to type it word by word into the block that they asked for because it is self reporting.

Jeanette Benigas 24:59
Would they have. Taken a transcript. If you had one,

Christal Washington 25:02
They said that they can submit for one. Last year, I did almost 60 hours of continuing ed. Okay, so I was feeling like I had that part in AC, yeah, before I ever walked in. So.

Jeanette Benigas 25:15
Yeah, so if someone is tracking on their own, cool you can copy and paste in. Or if you're tracking at speechtherapypd.com you can generate a transcript with or without the thumbnails of your certificate. So I'm wondering if they would have taken that.

Christal Washington 25:34
They they gave the little caveat, I think that they could ask for, yeah, the transcripts. Okay? They did not ask me for mine.

Jeanette Benigas 25:44
No, what I mean is you had to fill in all the boxes. Could you have just sent a transcript and not filled in all the boxes? Okay? So you did have to fill in the boxes.

Christal Washington 25:55
Just literally, like typing it out and how many hours it was it was completed.

Jeanette Benigas 26:01
Some states have free CE trackers. Then speech therapypd.com, has a free tracker. In that case, if you do one of those, you can copy and paste in, otherwise you're typing them in, and then you paid your fee. You did that. Anything else? Did you have to retake any college classes? Nope. Did you have to redo your CF? Did you have to pay years of back fees and dues at all? Oh, my God, you mean this is it? I'm being I'm being selfish. These just right now, that's right. I mean, because that's all y'all, yeah, yeah, literally, and now you have your Cs.

Christal Washington 26:01
I waited, you'll love this. I waited until September one because I wanted it to count for this year and next year. On the fee schedule that they have, if you apply September through December, it counts for the following year. Nice, right. Okay, get the most out of that, whatever. $400 if I'm gonna do it.

Jeanette Benigas 26:34
At least you strategize. You're not giving it to them twice. Good for you.

Christal Washington 26:34
Applied September 1. The whole thing about it may take four to six weeks. We're going to review your input, whatever they put I don't honestly even remember it now, because I literally have just been like, okay, whatever. And it took them less than 48 hours to say your C's have been reinstated. Congratulations. And then I had to go on and again, self attest to the requirements for supervision that I do, in fact, hold all of the requirements, and I have, in fact, met all of the requirements for supervision.

Jeanette Benigas 26:34
Which is just having the Cs and having taken the two hour course.

Christal Washington 26:34
You have to have had the Cs for nine months. So that part that's legit. They, they, yeah, require that, but, and I did have to call them, because they're computer snafooed with that.

Jeanette Benigas 26:34
Of course, of course it did.

Christal Washington 26:34
And, and I called them to fix that, and had to upload the the supervision courses that I've taken.

Jeanette Benigas 26:34
Okay, and look at you.

Christal Washington 26:34
And there those Cs are again, so...

Jeanette Benigas 26:34
An unproud CCC holder.

Christal Washington 26:34
Yeah, I am, I am a technical CCC. I still do not sign anything. CCC, sorry.

Jeanette Benigas 26:01
So I hate that you got the Cs back, like we're just gonna be honest, but you did what you had to do for this practice, right? I would love if we would live in a world where some of these applicants would apply and, you know, do their nine months for their state license and not care about the CCC, but we'll get there. It's cut. You know, this is a long game. It's coming. Have you found someone to hire? No, no. Okay, so here's going to be my advice. I mean, maybe you'll just hold on to this thing forever now, but you have a new Praxis score. So that praxis, that little puppy, is good for five years. And you, you, if you guys hire someone fast, and you get that person through the nine months, you can let it go again, and there is a savings in year three. There's a savings and especially since you're not going to have to pay to retake the practice again right before it expires, if you want to get your Cs again, you can pay the reinstatement fee and give them your CEUs, which you're doing anyway, for your license. You'll save money for you. It's probably less than three years because you're not paying for the Praxis. So you could not pay for a couple years. And then if you want it back, go ahead and get it back right before the scores expire. You're welcome.

Christal Washington 26:15
Thank you. Yeah, I'll tell you already on my it's it's already. Across the bulletin board up there.

Jeanette Benigas 26:15
So look, you're competent again. Look at you.

Christal Washington 26:15
I feel just so seed.

Jeanette Benigas 26:15
Yeah, you know. So we'll let you keep hanging out with us. We took, I mean, I get it. You know what? Rural areas, they're hard, and we are not yet in a place where people can just let these things go. Some people have to keep them. My friend Ed Bice had said, we're trying to train people to replace us. We have to do that. And so part of that game right now, if you're another 30 years away from retirement, right? But you got to train someone, just in case it comes sooner, just in case it's more like 10 years away getting that person to replace you. And so this clinic in your small, rural area that probably has an access to care issue lives on, right? So that's something that you had to do. Hopefully, that's not going to thing be a thing people have to do forever, but it's what you did for now, and your CCC again doesn't have to be a forever thing, because, you know, you don't qualify for lifetime membership. Taking that much time off, you'd be working till you're 94 to go ahead and get that.

Christal Washington 31:18
Honestly, I did not get the membership.

Jeanette Benigas 31:22
What is the advice? What is your what? What would you say to people who have this fear, like, what's your final word on this as they're considering, I want, I want to get rid of the C's, but I'm afraid because praxis, or I'm afraid because something else. Do you want to give people some advice? Take the platform and say what you want to say?

Christal Washington 31:46
I will say it is doable. You have in you everything that you require to be this competent clinician. Those letters did not make me my career, my income any better in your choices, if your job requires it, I hear you, but otherwise I would say, have a have a talk. It's worth having the talk my boss respected for the first five years that it was not part of my licensure and that it was not part of me as a clinician, treating patients we for purely for necessity reasons. We make that decision. If you have the opportunity, those letters have yet to benefit me. You can be active in your state. You can be active in your governance. You can be active on your state board. Your state has legislation. You can be as proactive as you choose to be. I've never met an ASHA lobbyist for my area, nor have I ever seen anything that they do for my area. You might want to edit that out. You're welcome to or not.

Jeanette Benigas 33:34
We'll leave it in. We go hard. If they want people to know what they're doing, they need to tell you, right? You shouldn't have to dig on their complicated website. No, no. If they're doing something, you should know about it. You should know. As a paying member, you or CCC holder, you should know so anyway,

Christal Washington 33:52
One of my favorite things that you said recently was you shouldn't have to have a course on why your membership is beneficial, if membership is actually beneficial, kind of one of those things. We kind of make a joke. We're so snobby around here that we say, you know, we have, we have an extensive waiting list, because, honest to God, I need help. But, you know, it's like, we don't advertise. We kind of make the snobby joke around here. It's like, if you're good, then you don't need to tell people that you're good.

Jeanette Benigas 34:25
That's what Preston says. Let your record speak for itself, right? So, yeah, because that's another fear people have, is, I won't be taken as seriously. Let your record speak for itself.

Christal Washington 34:38
Yeah, I talked one from government people to physicians to parents to school persons, and every one of them knows they do not have a question of whether I have a competent understanding of my area.

Jeanette Benigas 34:58
Has a doctor, has a school. Administrator has a parent. Have any of those people ever asked you if you had the CCC or questioned you about not having one?

Christal Washington 35:07
Not one

Jeanette Benigas 35:09
Interesting.

Christal Washington 35:10
Honestly, I don't think outside of our profession, they give a rat's ass.

Jeanette Benigas 35:13
No, nobody cares.

Christal Washington 35:17
Physical therapists and occupational therapists are sincerely confused as to the rigamarole of this CCC. They don't understand it. And they they point out the fact that your nationals are a few dollars versus hours are hundreds of dollars. They don't understand what the what's the benefit?

Jeanette Benigas 35:38
Yeah, none. So if you have a PT or an OT boss. They're great people to approach about this, because if you start laying this out for them, they're like, What? No, yes, no, you can do this without that. It's also something else I want to point out that we hear, Oh, I thought I needed the CCC for private practice. I You have to have the CCC to Bill private health insurance, I'm assuming that you are not a 501, c3, charity giving therapy away. Have you have your services been billed for over the last five years with private health insurance companies?

Christal Washington 36:12
I will not say exclusively, but we get paid primarily through insurance.

Jeanette Benigas 36:19
Yeah, and so there's also Medicaid that that is a consideration. Still, there are still a couple states where you do have to have the C's. So whether you're in private practice or not, if you're billing Medicaid, you need to have the C's in those couple of states. You can look at our map at fixslp.com, for that information. But otherwise, that's it. Something to point out there is that you work for private practice as the exclusive SLP, no one is signing off on your stuff. You have been billing all this time with no CCC. That's amazing. And you got credentialed. When you started working for her, she had to get you credentialed without the CCC, and it went through. So the stuff people don't believe did she have to credential you for Medicare as well. Are you seeing adults?

Christal Washington 37:03
I was credentialed for Medicare in another job capacity. Not here.

Jeanette Benigas 37:08
Great advice. People can do this. We don't need to be afraid. You're a great example of someone who has done this. You didn't have them for a very long time. So it's not like you reinstated close to when you let them go. There were a lot of years you barely studied and you did it. And I'm I'm so thankful that you came on and shared this story, and hopefully we can share a few more stories like this. So if you are someone who has reinstated the CCC, please reach out to us. Shoot us a DM. That might be the fastest way for me to respond to you at this point, I am still 200 unanswered emails deep at team at fixslp.com, so if you send it to me, I usually answer those in the order they're received. I might not get back to you until Christmas at this point. So yeah, please send us a message. If you're someone who wants to come on and share their story, I promise I'll be nice. I don't like people reinstating but like I said, you got to do what you got to do, and we're not going to judge you for it. Everybody's welcome here, as long as you're being nice. Thank you, Christal, thank you for taking time on a busy evening, you stepped away, you were down at a neighbor's house, and you had to leave, and I appreciate you for that. So thank you for coming on. Thank you. I hope you guys loved Christal's story today. It was so gracious of her to come on and tell us her story. Thank you to inform jobs for sponsoring today's episode. You heard Christal talk about her employer who supported her. Hopefully, if you don't have your C's, or you're looking to potentially drop your CCC, you can find those employers who will support you. We will have them linked up in the show notes if you'd like to go check them out. And I would like to remind you that if you are in the Washington, DC area during the ASHA convention, or if you're going to Asha, we have our meetup, you can come for a small event. We rented out an entire bar space. However, it is a small, intimate bar space, so tickets are limited. Come visit with us. There will be snacks, cash bar. We know how DC can be right now. So we've paid for security. We also have a DJ coming. There won't be a dance floor, because I want to be able to talk with people and chat and hear them, but we will. We will have music. So hopefully it is a fun time. If you would like to be a vendor at the event, we have about five spaces for that. You can get in touch with me, but please go check out the site for the party. We do have an early bird rate happening right now. I believe about two weeks before Asha, the rate does bump up and again. And tickets are limited, so head to Fix SLP calm right at the top of the page, you can click the link and it'll take you to the site to check out the party. Thanks for fixing it, guys, hopefully we'll see you next week!

Jeanette Benigas 40:13
Thanks for listening to the Fix SLP Podcast, the podcast shaping up the field of speech language pathology. Don't forget to check out our social media or fixslp.com for our latest promo codes for continuing education, therapy, materials, merch and more. Supporting our sponsors also supports our Fix SLP team. Don't just listen. Be a part of the change. Share this episode and our social media content, and let's keep fixing the field, one fight at a time.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai