ASHA Advocacy Wins in 2024

January 30, 2025

Advocacy by ASHA members and staff helped secure important policy victories in 2024 for audiologists, speech-language pathologists (SLPs), audiology and speech-language pathology assistants, and the people you serve. ASHA thanks you for your passion and commitment to improving the lives of individuals with hearing, balance, speech, language, swallowing, and cognition-related disorders.

View 2024 Advocacy Wins

Advocacy Outreach and Engagement

ASHA members sent 58,079 messages to 1,814 federal and state elected officials.This was a 154% increase from 2023!
ASHA sent 103 advocacy letters to federal and state policymakers.
79 ASHA members from 41 states and territories participated in over 130 in-person congressional meetings on Capitol Hill Day, generating 126 new cosponsors on key federal bills.
38 ASHA members from special interest groups, committees, boards, and councils participated in over 48 meetings with congressional staff outside of Capitol Hill Day.
Over 2,370 CSD students sent 7,100 messages for Student Advocacy Day, resulting in three new cosponsors for the Student Loan Interest Elimination Act.
Congressional champions introduced a resolution supporting the goals and ideals of National Speech-Language-Hearing Month.

Audiology & Speech-Language Pathology Interstate Compact

Alaska, Florida, Minnesota, Rhode Island, and the U.S. Virgin Islands joined the Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology Interstate Compact (ASLP-IC), increasing the total number of member states to 35. The ASLP-IC Commission plans to begin granting compact privileges in 2025.

Telehealth

4,300 ASHA advocates wrote to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, convincing it to include audiology and speech-language pathology codes in its Medicare telehealth list for 2025. Congress extended telehealth coverage through March 31, 2025, and ASHA advocates are currently pushing Congress to increase that extension.

ASHA-PAC

ASHA-PAC raised $191,561 from 5,462 donors.
ASHA-PAC contributed $194,500 to 56 federal candidates.

Social Security Fairness Act

1,272 ASHA advocates wrote to members of Congress supporting the Social Security Fairness Act, which was successfully signed into law!

Collaborating in the States

ASHA Advocacy supports state speech-language-hearing associations and other advocates to achieve state-level progress for professionals. We encourage you to reach out to your state association to see what achievements were made in 2024 and to get involved in advocacy in 2025. Here are some examples of state wins we proudly facilitated or supported:

36 states received advocacy grants from ASHA.
ASHA supported new and revised laws and regulations for speech-language pathology assistants (SLPAs) in Delaware, Illinois, Minnesota, New Mexico, Nevada, West Virginia, and Oklahoma.
ASHA fought to protect scope of practice for audiologists and/or speech-language pathologists in Maryland, Nebraska, Nevada, South Dakota, and West Virginia.
ASHA successfully advocated to improve Medicaid payment or coverage in seven states:
- Vermont: Removed prior authorization for speech therapy, occupational therapy, and physical therapy for kids under 21; established timeline guardrails; bumped up to 60 sessions for adults for speech therapy, occupational therapy, and physical therapy
- Michigan: Added $5.5 million increase for speech-language pathology services
- Colorado: Added adult coverage of habilitative services
- Massachusetts, Georgia, Vermont: Added coverage of caregiver training services
- South Carolina: Protected coverage of speech-language pathology services delivered via telehealth
- Idaho: Clarified guidance surrounding SLPA billing in schools.
ASHA supported school-based salary supplement legislation in Oklahoma and Oregon.

Payment and Coverage

Advocates saw payment and coverage advancements at both the federal and state level in 2024. In addition to staff’s direct advocacy efforts, ASHA Advocacy provides support to individual members, coverage and payment policy advocates, and state associations. Here are some examples of achievements (and you can find more in other sections of this piece):

ASHA and other stakeholders convinced the Department of Education to stop a proposal to remove the parental consent requirement to bill Medicaid in schools, which could have limited care for students outside of school.
ASHA advocated for Congress to reduce the Medicare Part B payment cut by half for 2024.
ASHA provided advocacy tools and support to Connecticut clinicians to successfully stop Anthem CT from switching to a per-diem payment model.
ASHA supported wins with state mandated coverage of services, including speech language therapy services in Delaware and habilitative and rehabilitative stuttering therapy in Kentucky and Pennsylvania.

Tools for You

ASHA’s website holds a wealth of information for professionals and advocates. We regularly update and create web pages and resources to help you.

ASHA collaborated with the National Education Association to develop advocacy resources for audiologists and SLPs in schools.
ASHA developed a Medicare vs. Medicaid resource for audiologists and SLPs.
ASHA developed a resource describing How a Need Becomes a Law to help advocates understand the complicated federal legislative process.
ASHA published over 75 news pieces, blogs, and podcasts with advocacy and informational updates.

What’s Next?

See ASHA’s 2025 Public Policy Agenda for an overview of this year’s advocacy priorities. Visit ASHA’s Advocacy page to learn more about the key issues we’re working on and how you can build on this progress in 2025.