ASHA Advocate: April 28, 2025
April 28, 2025
Fighting Efforts to Scale Back Newborn Hearing Screening Programs
Join ASHA in urging your members of Congress to protect newborn hearing screening programs and resources! The federal government provides grant funding and technical support to help states administer newborn hearing screening programs. These programs have proven to be extraordinarily effective. Unfortunately, actions taken and under consideration by the current administration threaten essential federal support to these vital programs. ASHA Advocacy is meeting with congressional supporters of the Early Hearing Detection and Intervention Act program and others advocating for these federal supports.
Explore the Education Policy Landscape May 6
Join ASHA Advocacy on May 6, 2025, from 7 to 8 p.m. (EDT), for our free live webinar: Exploring the Education Policy Landscape: What School-Based Audiologists and SLPs Need to Know. Learn about the current political climate and key executive orders and actions impacting school-based professionals, what ASHA Advocacy is doing, and how you can get involved.
Live attendees can earn 1 professional development hour for attending. This webinar's recording will be available on ASHA Stream by May 20.
Tell Congress to Protect Health Research Funding
Take action! Urge Congress to stop efforts by the Administration that have stopped or constrained access to funding for critical research supported by NIH’s National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, which conducts and supports research that helps improve the understanding of and treatments for hearing, balance, speech, and language disorders. Congress must act to stop these misguided actions that threaten the progress of ongoing and future work to help people with communication disorders.
ASHA-Backed Medicare Audiology Bill Introduced in U.S. House
The Medicare Audiology Access Improvement Act was recently introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives. ASHA’s immediate past president, Tena McNamara, participated in congressional meetings with the presidents of the American Academy of Audiology and the Academy of Doctors of Audiology to build support for passage on the day the bill was introduced. Take action now to support more timely and robust coverage of services audiologists provide.
ASHA-PAC Honoree Application Open Through April 30
The ASHA-PAC Excellence in Advocacy Honor recognizes ASHA members who have made significant contributions by engaging in political, professional, and/or grassroots advocacy activities. Learn more and apply here.
Donate to ASHA-PAC Before April 30 for a Chance to Win Flowers!
This is your last chance to Spring into PACtion with ASHA-PAC! Donate $20 to win a bouquet of flowers sent to an address of your choosing. Donate over $100 to celebrate 100 years of ASHA and win a bouquet every month for a year.
Working for You
- Signed a letter circulated by the National Health Council [PDF] to leaders of the House and Senate Appropriations committees expressing concern about the potential impact of proposed budget cuts on the nation’s research, scientific, and public health infrastructure.
- Signed a letter circulated by the IDEA Full Funding Coalition to leaders of the House and Senate Appropriations committees urging the maximum possible increase in funding for the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act in Fiscal Year 2026.
- Joined a letter circulated by the Consortium for Constituents with Disabilities to leaders of the House and Senate Appropriations committees provide robust funding for the federal programs that support infants, toddlers, children, and youth with disabilities, their families, and the educators and other service providers who serve them while avoiding cuts to other education programs.
- Attended the House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee Hearing on Funding Cuts to Veterans
- Met with the California Speech Language Hearing Association)’s newly formed Episodic Care Committee to discuss how ASHA can support their advocacy for respect for SLPs clinical judgement and evidence-based service delivery.
- Received a response from Humana Military [PDF] regarding ongoing payment challenges with Tricare. ASHA is working together with other groups to share provider stories and affect change at the congressional level.
- Attended the spring Medicaid and CHIP Payment Advisory Commission (MACPAC) meeting. MACPAC is a non-partisan legislative branch agency that provides policy and data analysis and makes recommendations to Congress. MACPAC focused heavily on Medicaid financing and explaining how improper payments [PDF] in this program are often not true fraud, waste, and abuse, but that almost 80% of “improper payments” were based on documentation errors.
- Reviewed and provided an analysis of the 2026 Medicare Advantage Contract Year final rule. ASHA strongly supported provisions designed to ensure MA plans cannot continue to impose unreasonable utilization management techniques that create access challenges for Medicare beneficiaries (e.g., prior authorization), however, the vast majority of the proposals under consideration were not addressed or finalized in this rule.
- Continued to meet with Congressional staff regarding proposed Medicaid cuts.
- Met with Pennsylvania Medicaid and the Pennsylvania Speech-Language-Hearing Association regarding a proposed Medicaid rate increase.
- Presented at the South Carolina Speech-Language-Hearing Association Town Hall regarding education and Medicaid federal priorities and advocacy.
- Led a Health Task Force meeting for Consortium for Constituents with Disabilities, focusing on Medicaid advocacy in the new Administration and Congress.
- Met with New York based ASHA members regarding cuts to telehealth and Early Intervention services and worked with the New York State Speech Language Hearing Association to assess how best to support their advocacy efforts.
Spotlight!
ASHA Advocacy’s Caroline Bergner, director, health care policy, Medicaid, presented at the Council of Academic Programs in Communication Sciences Disorders (CAPSCD) Annual Conference on “Ensuring Compliance and Best Practices for Supervising Students & Support Personnel” in Atlanta.
