April 11, 2024
President Biden has signed into law the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2024 (H.R. 2882). H.R. 2882 will fund key health and education programs administered by the Departments of Education and Health and Human Services for the remainder of the fiscal year. This will preserve funding for IDEA; maintain funding for the Early Hearing Detection and Intervention (EHDI) Act; sustain funding for evolving CSD and rehabilitation research; provide $10 million for research on developmental delays, including speech and language delays; and support research on the development of lower-cost and high-sensitivity prenatal diagnosis and newborn screening technologies to detect Congenital Cytomegalovirus (CMV).
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a proposed rule to update the payment rates and associated policies for skilled nursing facilities (SNFs), which would take effect in fiscal year (FY) 2025. This includes a 4.1% payment increase to SNFs, new social determinants of health (SDOH) related assessment items, and updates to civil monetary penalty policies.
CMS has separately proposed a modest payment increase of 2.8% for inpatient rehabilitation facilities (IRFs) in fiscal year 2025. They also proposed adding new assessment items to the IRF Patient Assessment Instrument (PAI) to capture additional data on SDOH. ASHA is working on comments for both proposals and will keep members posted on outcomes.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee’s subcommittee on Health held a hearing yesterday to examine ways to ensure patient access to telehealth services. The panel reviewed several bills, including the Expanded Telehealth Access Act (H.R. 3875), which would ensure audiologists and SLPs can permanently continue furnishing services in this manner beyond the end of 2024, when such authority currently expires. ASHA submitted a letter of support for the hearing record and signed on to a joint letter with the Rehabilitation Therapy Coalition in support of the bill.
Take action now to tell Congress to make audiologists and SLPs permanent Medicare telehealth providers.
ASHA-PAC launched the Spring into PACtion fundraising campaign in which ASHA members who donate $20 and up will be entered to win a bouquet of flowers delivered to an address of their choosing and donations of $100 or more will be entered to win a bouquet a month for a year.