Healthcare

VISION: To provide a means for Louisiana speech-language pathologists and audiologists in private and medical settings to organize in order to:

Quarterly Update for COMD Professionals in Private Practice and Medical Settings (1/09)

The LSHA Healthcare Committee has been extremely pleased with continual strong support from both our LSHA Executive Board and ASHA. Specifically, during Early Steps (ES) transitions over the last few years, our committee members worked closely with the board to strengthen communication and identify/address membership concerns. In her role as LSHA ES Liaison, HSC Committee Member, Courtney Gonsoulin facilitated a recent meeting with Brenda Sharp, Director of ES. In case you are not aware, Brenda is a speech pathologist who has spent her entire career specializing in Early Intervention and is attempting to lead the organization via the strongest evidenced based and ethical practices possible.

In response to your request for additional training and evidenced based-practice to support your clinical service delivery, we have several initiatives underway. Renae Colwick, LSHA Webmaster, has posted helpful links and information submitted from researchers statewide regarding their recent educational and investigative accomplishments (see below). In addition to the CE track that we have been provided at conference over the last few years, you may have noticed in the Winter LSHA Newsletter that Nancye Roussel President Elect is expanding this focus by initiating a 2009 LSHA Conference Research Central which will showcase: inviting memberships to present research they have prepared for other recent conferences, short research update sessions and exhibitor presentations.

Our ASHA STAR (Private Insurers) and SMACS (Medicare) Networks continue to provide ongoing informational and educational resources which support our statewide initiatives. Within ASHA under the leadership of Steven White, STARs lead by Angela Foehl remain specifically focused on improving COMD reimbursement by private insurers and increasing consumer awareness/ access to our services. Warning Signs, a related ASHA PR branding initiative headed by Doug Plesh, is attempting to increase (parent) consumer awareness by recruiting SLPs in urban markets to participate as speakers and to give interviews to educate parents about warning signs of problems in children’s speech and language development. In Louisiana, via an ASHA STAR grant, we are seeking hospital audiologists to participate in a LSHA consumer education campaign. Utilizing collateral materials funded through the grant, we are attempting to develop pilot sites to educate parents of children receiving mandatory hearing screening for high-risk infants on the role of COMD professionals across the life span. To facilitate committee communication and education, the ASHA STAR Grant with LSHA CE Director support, provided our committee members several meetings a year via 1.25 hour STAR Conference Calls with an hour of CE. Recent topics have included: Medical Necessity ( Donna Fitzgerald-DeJean; 5/20/08) Assisting Caregivers of Adults with Brain Injury with Socialization (Annemarie Clancy; 10/23/08). Additionally, our STAR grant sponsors meetings with individuals with medical/legislative knowledge/influence as we attempt to improve the La COMD reimbursement climate. Most recently, support has been elicited in state/federal legislation via contact with Senator Mary Landrieu’s office. As legislation is being developed to repeal the Medicare Part B caps, we will return to our La. Senators and Representatives for support. Also, please be aware that numerous ASHA departments have been involved in the development of materials to support SLP Private Practitioners since the recent passage of our NPI legislation. Under the ASHA leadership of Mark Kander, SMACs have been focused on preparation for NPI which we are hopeful will help justify improvement in SLP reimbursement. Although we are fortunate in Louisiana that we have not yet been assigned a contractor secondary to the new Recovery Audit Contractor (RAC) audits, the 2006 CMS legislated cost-savings initiative, other states with higher utilization have been supported through implementation. Also, ASHA SMACS, Joanne Wisely and Mary Casper, provided the first ASHA conference presentation Medicare Myths which the LSHA HSC Committee will share.

What About You? If you are a LSHA member in the medical sector or private practice, our mission is to support you. If you are in need of assistance with a clinical or regulatory issue, our committee was developed as a resource to support you. If you have a question or concern, please email me at healthcare@lsha.org. If, in fact, you are an individual who really likes “to be in the know,” you may be a great addition to our committee. Since we are all lead busy lives and live across the state, we communicate by email. Our network gets routine updates about national and statewide private practice and medical issues/ strategies/ solutions and has ongoing dialog via email. We only meet 4-5 times a year by a 15 minute committee conference call followed by a relevant hour-long CE activity. Especially, since our committee welcomes individuals of diverse settings and length of experience in our sector, if you are interested, I would love to hear from you- please email today at healthcare@lsha.org!

Boult, J., Robinson, G., & Stockman, I. (2008) Multicultural/Multilingual instruction in educational programs: a survey of perceived faculty practices and outcomes. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 17, 241-264.

Donovan, N.J., Kendall, D.L., Moore, A.B., Rosenbek, & Rothi, L. J. G. (2007). Why consider impaired social language usage in a case of Corticobasal Degeneration? The Clinical Neuropsychologist, 21(1):190-203.

Donovan, N.J., Velozo, C.A., & Rosenbek, J.C. (2007). The Communicative Effectiveness Survey: Investigating its item-level psychometrics. Journal of Medical Speech Pathology, 15(4): 433-447

Donovan, N.J., Kendall, D.L., Heaton, S.D., Kwon, S., Velozo, C.A., & Duncan, P.W. (2008). Conceptualizing functional cognition in stroke. Neurorehabilitation and Neural Repair, 22(2):122-35.

Jones, H. N., Donovan, N. J., & Rosenbek, J. C. (2007). Speech and swallowing disorders in patients with movement disorders. In H. H. Fernandez, R. L. Rodriguez, F. M. Skidmore, & M. S. Okun (Eds.), A Practical Approach to Movement Disorders: Diagnosis, medical and surgical management. Woodbridge, CT: Demos Medical Publishing.

Clancy, A.B. & Fitzgerald-DeJean, D.M. (2008, June). Merging language and cognition: A paradigm for developing and executing a Plan of Care for individuals with mild TBI and post concussion syndrome. Louisiana Speech- Language-Hearing Association, Shreveport, Louisiana.

Dugas-Taylor, D., & Fitzgerald-Dejean, D.M. (2008, June). Bargaining for Advantage. Louisiana Speech-Hearing-Language Association, Shreveport, Louisiana.

Fitzgerald-DeJean, D. (2008, May). Documenting for Medical Necessity. Louisiana Speech-Hearing-Language Association Healthcare Committee, via Conference Call.

Juengling-Sudkamp, J. (2008, February). ASHA NOMs. Louisiana Speech-Hearing-Language Association Healthcare Committee, via Conference Call.

Donovan, N.J. (2008, July). Speech and swallowing strategies for individuals with Parkinson’s disease. New Orleans Parkinson’s Disease Support Group.

Donovan, N.J. (2008, July). Get strong THEN get loud – a new treatment to improve speech intelligibility for individuals with Parkinson’s disease. Baton Rouge Parkinson’s Disease Support Group.

Donovan, N.J., Velozo, C.A., Wen, P., Heaton, S.C., Waid-Ebbs, K. (2008, May). Development of a Social Communication Construct for a Computerized Adaptive measure of Functional Cognition for Traumatic Brain Injury. Clinical Aphasiology Conference, Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

Kagan. A., Gibson, J., Simmons-Mackie, N. (2008, May) How Effective ‘Knowledge Transfer and Exchange’ Can Enhance Aphasia Research and Clinical Practice. Clinical Aphasiology Conference, Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

Simmons-Mackie, N., Kagan. A., Conklin, J. (2008, May) Review Evidence for Social Approaches to Aphasia Intervention: An Application of A-FROM. . Clinical Aphasiology Conference, Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

Donovan, N.J. (2008, May). Speech and swallowing strategies for individuals with Parkinson’s disease, Baton Rouge Parkinson’s Disease Support Group, 05/2008

Donovan, N.J. (2008, April). Using the Principles of Evidence-Based Treatment in Daily Practice: Pitfalls and Promises, Louisiana Board of Examiners for Speech Pathology and Audiology Spring CEU Symposium, Baton Rouge, LA

Fisher, J.H., Fitzgerald-DeJean, D.M., & Rubin, S.S. Intensive University Based Program for Adults with Chronic Brain Injury. National Aphasia Association Conference, New York, New York.

Fitzgerald-DeJean, D.M., Rubin, S.S., Carson. R.L., & Fisher, J.H. (2008, May). Utilizing the “Experience Sampling Method” to Monitor Communicative Quality of Life during Treatment for a Single Subject with Chronic Aphasia. Clinical Aphasiology Conference, Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

Boult, J., Collins, A., Cox, E., Hartwell, J., & Tugwell, A. (2007, February). Actual and perceptual differences in the rates of Spanish and English speech. Poster session presented at University of Louisiana at Monroe – Department of Communicative Disorders’ Spring Conference, University of Louisiana at Monroe, Monroe, Louisiana.

Boult, J., Collins, A., Cox, E., Hartwell, J., & Tugwell, A. (2008, November). Actual and perceptual differences in the rates of Spanish and English speech. Poster session presented at the annual American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Convention, Chicago, IL.

Boult, J., McCandlish, C., Miller, S., & Tarrance, T. (2007, February). Children with autism’s neglected attribution of animate beings’ intentionality. Poster session presented at University of Louisiana at Monroe – Department of Communicative Disorders’ Spring Conference, University of Louisiana at Monroe, Monroe, Louisiana.

Boult, J., McCandlish, C., Miller, S., & Tarrance, T. (2008, November). Children with autism’s neglected attribution of animate beings’ intentionality. Poster session presented at the annual American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Convention, Chicago, IL.

Bryan, L., Hayes, S., Mathis, S., & Swillie, S. (2008, November). Literacy roles of speech-language pathologists in public schools. Poster session presented at the annual American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Convention, Chicago, IL.

Bryan, L., Mathis, S., Swillie, S., & Tucker, F. (2007, February). Literacy background and attitudes of honors vs regular education high school students. Poster session presented at University of Louisiana at Monroe – Department of Communicative Disorders’ Spring Conference, University of Louisiana at Monroe, Monroe, Louisiana.

Bryan, L., Noble, M., Latino, L., & Ennis, D. (2007, February). Parents’ perceptions of the effectiveness of the accelerated reader program for second and third grade students. Poster session presented at University of Louisiana at Monroe – Department of Communicative Disorders’ Spring Conference, University of Louisiana at Monroe, Monroe, Louisiana.

Research Presently Underway by LSHA Private Practitioners/ Medical SLPs/AUDs

Specialty/Certification: Adult Neurological Conditions; Reimbursement, Quality Standards, and Documentation (ecspeically Medicare).

Advocacy: Across career, has advocated for regulatory change working with SLPs to appeal or overturn denied claims for patients in need of our services. Feels that the recent passage of the SLP provider status is an important step that can be used for further important improvements in coverage and reimbursement.

State needs: This sector needs more active participation in advocacy if greater goals are to be met. Specifically, access to individuals of influence in the state insurance/reimbursement sector.

Current research: Investigation of Intensive Treatment of those with Chronic CVA and TBI; The Use of the Experience Sampling Method in COMD; Environmental Symbol Recognition in Brain Damaged Adults; and Environmental Symbol Recognition Training. Research has been done at LSU with departments COMD, Psychology and Kinesiology with Scott S. Rubin, PhD and numerous faculty and students.

Evidenced based practice concerns: Bridging the gap between efficacy studies and reimbursement. As research continues to demonstrate benefit of treatment strategies across the life span and stages of recovery, managed care has systematically decreased reimbursement for services. We must continue to seek new, creative models which will efficiently and effectively allow us to provide the necessary services to the communicatively impaired in order to assist them in reaching or recovering to their highest potential.

Contact: smacja@cox.net

Hometown: Lafayette

Position: Owner, Aguillard and Associates, LLC: Speech Language Consulting Services

Setting: Early Steps; Home Health; PRN Hospital

Specialty/Certification: Dysphagia, Early childhood, Cognition, Rehab

Advocacy: Patient reimbursement, finding training for billing and how to obtain reimbursement

Setting: Hospital Inpatient Rehab
Specialty/Certification: VitalStim certified
Evidenced based practice concerns: Cognitive Retraining

Setting: Outpatient, Rehabilitation Center of Thibodaux Regional Medical Center

Specialty/Certification: Certified Brain Injury Specialist/Trainer through the American Academy for the Certification of Brain Injury Specialists, member of the Board of Governors of the American Academy for the Certification of Brain Injury Specialists, member of the Brain Injury Association of America.

Community Involvement: Member of the Lafourche Mayor's Committee on Disability Issues, Coordinator for the Brain Injury Education Support Group, Thibodaux, LA, Member of the Louisiana Health Force Commission-Allied Health subgroup representing LSHA.

Advocacy: "I focus on community reintegration/resources for persons with brain injury."

Position: Speech-Language Pathologist

Setting: Outpatient, Pediatric Rehabilitation Center, Baton Rouge General Medical Center

Speciality/Certification: ASHA certification, LANGUAGE! 3-day workshop, pediatric speech, language, feeding and voice disorders.

Community Involvement: President of the Baton Rouge Area Speech-Language Pathologists.

Advocacy: Multicultural issues, academic success of at-risk students

Evidenced based practice concerns: Awareness and implementation of speech and language programs to promote academic success