Students & Professionals Join
Together for Legislative Day 2009!
By Lynnette Cowherd, VP for
Legislative Affairs
MSHA’s 2009 Legislative Day
was held on Thursday, February 19 at the Capital Building in
Jefferson City. Our annual event was attended by 112
participants -- And thanks to our presenters, MSHA offered .3
CEUs for the day’s activities for FREE!!!! We began our day
with a presentation by Donna Borgmeyer from Governor’s Council
on Disability. Donna educated us about the general legislative
process and how bills are developed and presented within the
Senate and House divisions at the state level. Our second
presenter, Shelby Butler, serves as a Public Policy Advocate for
the Southwest Center for Independent Living. Shelby spoke to us
about advocating for not only our profession, but also about
issues that affect the clientele that we as SLPs and
Audiologists serve. She also provided tips for us about the
proper and most effective ways to discuss issues with a
legislator. Brenda Martien was also able to give us a quick
update on the current Public School Retirement System and Social
Security issue.
After a quick pizza lunch, our
group went into ‘divide and conquer’ mode and sought out our
legislators to make those personal contacts! Our purpose was to
help promote our profession to legislators by making them aware
of what we do, educating them about how important our
professions are, and what current issues were of concern. It
was great to have 5 legislators stop by our table and
specifically ask for the individuals that had sent the
pre-contact letter!!!!!! Issues and concerns such as insurance
coverage, full funding for school programs, and autism were just
some of the topics covered by MSHA members and students when
chatting with legislators.
Remember, you can preview a
list of upcoming bills for each legislative session, track
progress on each individual bill/proposal, and contact any state
Senator or Representative simply by logging on to
www.house.mo.gov or
www.senate.mo.gov. Your voice does make a difference ~Take
the time to investigate the issues and act!
Audiology Licensure Change Passes
Senate Bill 308 (Senator Crowell) and
House Bill 780 (Representative Wasson) both passed this
session. These bills include language that adds hearing
instrument dispensing to the audiology scope of practice and
eliminates the need for audiologists to hold two licenses to
dispense hearing aids in Missouri. These bills also raise the
entry-level education standards for Hearing Instrument
Specialists to an associate degree in incremental steps over
time.
Passage of these bills was the result of
the Missouri Speech Language Hearing Association, Missouri
Academy of Audiology, Missouri Hearing Society, the Board of
Healing Arts, and audiologists and hearing instrument
specialists all working together toward a common goal of
improving both professions. With passage of these bills,
Missouri joins 31 other states that allow audiologists to
dispense hearing instruments under their audiology license
taking another step forward toward profession autonomy for
audiology with one license for a full scope of practice.
With elimination of the dual
licensure requirement, audiologists can expect the fee for
renewal of their audiology license to increase to cover the
costs of the expanded scope of practice. The new fee will not
exceed the amount currently paid in combined audiology and
hearing instrument dispensing
Legislative Updates
Senate
Bill 16 requires
children entering kindergarten or 1st grade in a public
elementary school to have a comprehensive vision examination by
an optometrist or physician and schools will be required to
report the examination findings to the Department of Health.
Schools will also be required to conduct vision screening for
first and third grade students, notify parents if their child
fails the screen, collect parent’s acknowledgement of the failed
screen and submit the screening results to the Department of
Health.
House Bill 181
requires manufacturers and publishers of electronic video
instructional materials (CD, DVD, videotape, film, etc) offered
for adoption or sale in Missouri to supply those materials with
either open or closed captions.
Senate
Bill 112 removes the
sunset on special education for students 3-21 and for early
intervention services for children birth to 3; authorizes a
child-find pilot in the Greater St. Louis First Steps service
area; and changes the term “handicapped” in special education
statute (3-21) “children with disabilities” to align the
language with IDEA.
Senate Bill 577 revises the
Medicaid program. The bill does align state law with the recent
court decision that restored comprehensive Medicaid coverage of
durable medical equipment (DME) for adults. DME includes
augmentative communication devices, but does not include hearing
aids under current Medicaid regulations. Senate Bill 577 does
not restore coverage of hearing aids for adults. For adults,
Medicaid will continue to only cover hearing aids for pregnant
women, individuals who are blind, and those residing in nursing
homes.