Support Our Advocacy Work

Advocating for fair policy and sustainable rates requires continuous legal, clinical, and regulatory resources. Please consider supporting our work directly:

Donate to the Cause: When submitting a contribution online, please note: "Private Practice Advocacy Fund."

Thank you for your dedication to our professions and the patients we serve across North Carolina!

What NCSHLA Is Doing for You

NCSHLA is actively advocating to protect your practice, reimbursement, and patients. Right now, NCSHLA is:

• Conducting In-Depth Cost Analyses: Evaluating the direct financial impact of proposed reimbursement changes and code restructures across private practices and clinic settings and generating a comprehensive white paper

• Fighting for Fair Reimbursement Rates: Leading active conversations and submitting formal commentary to NC Medicaid and private commercial payers across North Carolina regarding the impending deletion of CPT 92507 and the shift to timed coding models.

• Protecting Therapy Disciplines: Ensuring state regulatory agencies and health plans understand that speech-language pathology and audiology are distinct disciplines that must not face collateral cuts due to overutilization policies in other sectors.

• Providing Educational Resources: Equipping members with clear guidance and resources regarding upcoming CPT changes, and how to effectively submit public comments to CMS.

Important Upcoming Educational & Advocacy Dates

1. ASHA Member Webinar: CPT Changes and commenting to CMS

• Date & Time: Wednesday, August 26, 2026, at 3:00 PM ET

• Details: Learn directly from ASHA experts about the 2027 CPT code changes and providing comments.

• Register here
  Note: The registration form includes a section to submit questions ahead of time. While these webinars take place in late August, submitted questions will be addressed directly by the presenters.

2. Key Educational & Advocacy Links

• Educate Yourself, Build Your Comment and TAKE ACTION:
  Review tools and construct your CMS comment letter using https://www.asha.org/advocacy/takeaction/    ASHA Comment Builder & Resource Page.  
  TAKE THE TIME TO CLICK ON EACH ADVOCACY ACTION AND DO IT!!!       

• Stay Informed: Get real-time updates directly to your inbox via ASHA Headlines.

• Sign the National Petition to CMS: Sign the SLP 2027 MPFS Petition
  (Deadline to sign: September 10, 2026; ASHA will submit this petition alongside its formal comment letter attached).

• Protect Medicaid Access: Stop rate cuts and barriers to care by visiting the ASHA Medicaid Campaign Page and reading ASHA Medicaid Committee Member Perspectives.

• Report Private Health Plan Issues to ASHA: Experiencing rate cuts or administrative burdens with commercial plans? Submit details directly using the Private Health Plans Assistance Request Form.

NCSHLA Champions SLP Value and Patient Safety at 2026 Legislative Advocacy Day

On Tuesday, June 9th, a dedicated team of Speech-Language Pathologists stepped up to represent NCSHLA at the state legislative building for our annual Legislative Advocacy Day. A massive thank you to Stephanie Molina (and her daughter), Rachel Meinel, Blake Hudson, and Jessica Kinard for volunteering their time, expertise, and passion to ensure our professional voices were heard in the halls of government.

We also extend our deep gratitude to our NCSHLA lobbyist, Ashley Perkinson, for organizing these vital, face-to-face appointments with lawmakers.

Strategy Shift: Pivot to Strategic Value

Our primary, long-standing priority continues to be advocating for fair Medicaid reimbursement. North Carolina SLPs have not seen a Medicaid rate increase in over 20 years and have instead absorbed multiple cuts.

During our meetings, lawmakers clarified that due to intense current budget constraints, direct rate increases are not feasible in the budget cycle expected to pass by the end of July. Hearing this feedback, our advocacy team executed a brilliant creative pivot. Rather than stopping at a budget standstill, we shifted the conversation to educational value and fiscal responsibility.

Meeting with Representative Crawford, Representative Hawkins, and Dr. Tim Reeder, our team highlighted how underutilizing SLPs actually worsens state bottlenecks and increases costs. We focused heavily on two interconnected areas:

1. Easing the Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) Diagnosis Bottleneck

Currently, massive waitlists for psychological evaluations leave desperate parents waiting months or years for an ASD diagnosis. This bottleneck frequently drives families to turn to certain ABA clinics offering same-day diagnoses, which may not always be accurate.

Our team educated legislators on a critical reality: Communication is the primary characteristic of autism diagnosis and treatment. By expanding policy to allow SLPs to bill Medicaid directly for these evaluations, the state could dramatically reduce barriers to care—especially in rural areas where an SLP is accessible but a psychologist is not. Jessica Kinard is actively coordinating with Dr. Reeder to provide data on licensure and billing language to see if this barrier can be cleared through DHHS or legislative action.

2. Advocating for Guardrails on Behavioral Therapies

We provided critical education on the intersection of behavior and communication. While children are frequently placed into intensive ABA therapy (often 40+ hours a week) to address behaviors, speech-language pathology principles show that these behaviors are usually a direct result of an inability to communicate.

By prioritizing our board-licensed speech-language pathologists and registered speech-language pathology assistants first to address the root communication piece, challenging behaviors naturally decrease. Shifting the state's focus toward these highly qualified, credentialed professionals protects patients, ensures clinical accuracy, and naturally frees up state budget dollars by reducing reliance on over-extended ABA hours. This foundational, regulated training in communication is a distinct asset that a BCBA or technician simply does not possess.

A Major Win for Providers: After Advocacy Day, our special project lobbyist, Peyton Maynard, shared a major piece of positive information. Representative Donny Lambeth successfully quashed another proposed Medicaid provider rate cut that had been quietly pending for this budget cycle. Thanks to champions like Rep. Lambeth, we will not receive a rate cut in this budget. Peyton is continuing to leverage this momentum to negotiate a favorable Medicaid rate when the updated 92507 timed codes and rates are announced by CMS.

Looking Ahead: Momentum & Relationship Building

The day was filled with "aha" moments for lawmakers, many of whom had never had the evaluation and treatment processes for Autism broken down to them by communication specialists.

We owe a special thank you to Representative Hawkins, who was incredibly key during our final meeting of the day. He is stepping up to actively help lead our upcoming conversation with the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). Thanks to his support, alongside other representatives who are organizing to review our DHHS letter, we are ensuring SLP and SLPA voices are centered as the state builds standards for behavioral therapies. There is even early discussion regarding a potential future bill to support these systemic changes.

Our advocates left the legislative building feeling a distinct, confident shift in momentum. The years spent building real relationships with our state representatives are paying off; we are no longer just asking for changes, we are actively helping them navigate complex healthcare solutions.

Let’s keep this momentum rolling! We urge all NCSHLA members to continue brainstorming innovative ways to advocate for fair reimbursement and to champion the broader, essential ways SLPs, Audiologists and assistants serve North Carolina families.

NCSHLA MEMBERS prepared a comment letter to DHHS Medicaid regarding the proposed revisions to the ABA Clinical Coverage Policy 8F

Our lobbyist, Ashley Perkinson, also shared our comments with key legislators in order show our support for helping save state Medicaid dollars. We encouraged policy provisions that keep ABA aligned with similar professional, clinical and ethical requirements that OTs, PTs, and Speech Pathologists must follow (as in DHHS Medicaid Clinical Coverage policy 10-A) and demonstrated how SLPs can help alleviate service barriers to children. 

Read our comment letter here:  NCSHLA Letter 5.29.26v2.docx