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.