PHOENIX—The Academy of Doctors of Audiology (ADA) unveiled a new campaign last week during its annual meeting that will advocate for changes in the Social Security Act (SSA) to improve audiologic care for Medicare beneficiaries. Among its objectives is to finally achieve audiology’s unfulfilled goal of providing Medicare patients with direct access to audiologic treatment.
Eric Hagberg
In announcing the plan at the Opening Session on November 9, Eric Hagberg, AuD, president of ADA, asked members’ support for the “18 by 18 Campaign.” It is so named because it seeks, by the year 2018, to bring about amendment of Title XVIII (18) of the SSA to provide for the treatment of audiologists as physicians for purposes of furnishing audiology services under the Medicare Program. That would result in broadened coverage of the audiology services available to Medicare beneficiaries and would enable older Americans to have their choice of a qualified audiologist. ADA will begin this initiative in earnest when the newly elected 113th Congress convenes on January 3.
Hagberg said, “We have discussed this plan with our allies and we have every reason to hope that together, with the support of our collective members, we will achieve this objective within five years.” He said that the campaign “is about securing the best future for our patients and our profession by ensuring that audiologists are recognized as the entry point for audiologic care.”
Specifically, the legislation would:
- allow for Medicare coverage of medically necessary, covered treatment services such as vestibular rehabilitation, cerumen removal, and aural rehabilitation provided by an audiologist;
- eliminate the need for a physician order for a Medicare beneficiary to receive coverage of audiologic services;
- allow audiologists to choose not to enroll in the Medicare system and enter into private payment contracts with Medicare beneficiaries for Medicare-covered items and services.
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS FROM PHOENIX
In his presidential address, Hagberg also discussed a number of other issues relevant to ADA’s future. Noting that more than half the organization’s members will be retiring over the next decade, he reported that ADA is looking to match retirees with young audiologists and find ways to make it easier for those leaving the field to sell their practices to people who want to go into private practice.
The ADA president also discussed developments affecting audiology students, including the recent creation of a Virtual student chapter, which held its first meeting later that day.
ADA settles suit with ASHA
Hagberg reported that ADA and the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) had reached a settlement in May 2012 of their longstanding legal battle. As reported by Hearing News Watch, in June 2011, ADA accused ASHA of making false statements to audiologists about the consequence of not holding ASHA’s certification. It called on ASHA “to remedy the false statements and the consequences of making them.”
After ASHA denied any wrongdoing, ADA filed suit in August 2011 seeking an injunction requiring ASHA to correct its “fraudulent statements.” Hagberg did not report the terms of the settlement, but said that the resolution was “to the benefit of both our organizations.”
Keynote address
Edward O’Neil
Edward O’Neil, PhD, the keynote speaker, discussed the nation’s health care scene—how it is changing now, the drivers behind those changes, and the likely changes over the next five years. O’Neil recently retired after 20 years as founding director of the Center for the Health Professions at the University of California, San Francisco.
The keynoter likened the present state of health care to a Hummer: expensive, overbuilt, and underperforming. He went on to suggest four possible strategies for improving the state of health care. He rejected the first three—rationing care, shifting costs, and reducing reimbursement—dismissing them as the “same model.”
Instead, he endorsed the fourth strategy, a new model, which he likened to a Volt. Among the trends he sees in health care, including audiology, is that legislation and market forces are both driving it in the same direction: from patient passivity to consumer engagement.
What’s the key to success for practitioners in the changing world of health care? O’Neil contended, “The more radically we focus on consumer satisfaction, the better off we’re going to be.”
Looking to the future
ADA’s annual meeting 2012 featured a variety of seminars and other educational presentations. One of these was a panel discussion entitled, “Moving Beyond the Magic 8-ball: Forecasting the Future of Audiology and the Hearing Industry.”
The panel was chaired by Todd Murray, who is chairman of the Hearing Industries Association and also president of GN ReSound North America. The other speakers were Kim Cavitt, AuD, owner of Audiology Resources; Victor Bray, PhD, dean of the George S. Osborne College of Audiology, at Salus University; Jerry Yanz, PhD, director of audiology at Hansaton Acoustics; and Dale Thorstad, president of Marcon Hearing Instruments.
One pressing issue that the panel explored was the risk of a shortage of audiologists to handle the growing population of people with hearing problems. Bray, the only educator on the panel, recommended that university audiology programs look beyond graduates of communication disorders programs and try to recruit people from a broader range of backgrounds, including pre-med. A couple of panelists suggested the idea of an undergraduate degree in audiology as a way to increase the number of people entering the profession.
Jerry Yanz suggested increasing the use of using tele-audiology so that the same number of audiologists could care for a larger number of patients.
Honors
As at every annual meeting, ADA presented a number of awards in Phoenix. The Joel Wernick Award went to Victor Bray, PhD, who is dean of the George S. Osborne College of Audiology. The Wernick award recognizes outstanding educational contributions in audiology.
Cathy Kurth
Cathy Kurth, AuD, who founded and has run the Scottsdale, AZ-based Audiology and Hearing Aid Center since 1981, received the Leo Doerfler Award. Named for the founding president of ADA, the award is presented each year to an audiologist who has provided outstanding clinical services throughout her or his career.
The David Goldstein Award, named for the Purdue University audiology professor who led the movement to establish the doctor of audiology as the entry-level degree in audiology, went to James R. Carroll, AuD. Carroll, who owns an audiology practice in Knoxville, TN, was an active advocate for the AuD and served on the board of directors of the Audiology Foundation of America.
Brandon Sawalich, senior vice-president of Starkey Hearing Technologies, accepted the Hearing Industry Leadership Award on behalf of his company. The award honors a company for its commitment to educational activities that promote best practices in audiology.
For more news from the ADA meeting, go to Holly Hosford-Dunn’s post on this blog.
It’s about time audiologists were classified in Medicare this way! Can you imagine how much better established we would be as a profession had we done this 20-30 years ago? Unfortunately it took the advent of AAA and ADA before audiologists outside of academia had any voice whatsoever.
Unfortunately, I’ve already heard that AAO is loading up there lobbyists to fight this tooth and nail, as I’m sure much of the medical community is preparing to do. How frustrating!