Eli's Rehab Report

Question: In the last issue, I read the article on a CMS proposed rule that specified some new education standards for PTs, PTAs, OTs and OTAs. But I didn't see anything mentioning updates on the speech-language pathology discipline. Has CMS proposed any changes to those educational requirements?


Kentucky subscriber

Answer: CMS is indeed aiming to make therapy personnel qualifications more consistent across settings and heavily mentions PTs, PTAs, OTs and OTAs in its proposed regulation. But SLPs are pretty much in the clear, as far as new requirements go. SLP education requirements for all settings will still be the Certificate of Clinical Competence in Speech-Language Pathology (CCC-SLP), as issued by ASHA, according to an e-mail from ASHA to the media.

But don't get confused where the proposed rule mentions removing a reference to audiologists in the definition for speech-language pathologists. This change wouldn't affect you as an SLP, because you wouldn't have a CCC in audiology, as implied by the regulation, unless you're "dually qualified as an audiologist," according to the proposed rule.

Straight from the source: "Otherwise, we are not proposing to update the qualifications for SLPs because we believe the qualifications in S 484.4 are currently appropriate and address the issues of continuing education and internationally trained SLPs."