Fix SLP: Advocacy & Accountability in Speech-Language Pathology

What happened when the SPEAK Project went to Washington, DC, to fight for sustainable Medicare reimbursement for speech-language pathologists?

In this episode of Fix SLP, Jeanette Benigas, PhD/SLP, and Emily Watkins, MCD/SLP, share what they can about their meetings with congressional healthcare staff and senior CMS officials as the January 1, 2027, replacement of CPT 92507 approaches.

They discuss the proposed Medicare payment reductions, the national economic analysis involving nearly 1.3 million reimbursed SLP service events, and why independent data has become central to their advocacy. They also explain the role of K&L Gates, why some congressional strategy must remain confidential, and what happened in Washington that left them cautiously optimistic.

Most importantly, Jeanette and Emily explain what SLPs should, and should not, be doing during this critical phase of advocacy.

The fight isn't over. The strategy is in the next phase, and your involvement still matters.

Learn more, submit patient and family stories, or support the effort at https://speakproject.net.

Get caught up wherever you stream podcasts!
#110: CPT 92507 Is Being Deleted? What Every SLP Must Know About the New Speech Therapy Codes
#111: CPT 92507 Q&A for SLPs: Your Questions Answered
#113: CPT 92507 Option B: This Is Our Week to Advocate
#115: CMS's NEW Pediatric G Code Explained: What Every SLP Needs to Know
#116: What the New Speech Therapy Codes Mean for Adult SLPs
#117: The End of CPT 92507: Is Your SLP Documentation Ready?

#118: It’s Time to SPEAK: Part 1 - Building the Data to Fight for SLP Reimbursement

#119: It’s Time to SPEAK Part 2 - Mobilizing Families for SLP Advocacy
#120: It’s Time to SPEAK: Part 3 - How to Write a CMS Comment That Matters

🚧 Want to earn some PDHs or CEUs with a discount? Find our most up-to-date promo codes and discounts here.
🚧 Become a sustaining partner to support our work.
🚧 Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and YouTube.
🚧 Find all our information at fixslp.com, and sign up for our email list to be alerted to new episodes and content.
🚧 Email us at [email protected].
🚧 Leave a message on our Minivan Meltdown line!

The data is collected. Now it’s time to make sure CMS hears from SLPs.

In Part 3 of It’s Time to SPEAK, Jeanette Benigas, PhD/SLP, and Emily Watkins, MCD/SLP, walk through the new SPEAK Project CMS Comment Builder and explain exactly what clinicians and practice owners should tell CMS about reimbursement, workload, patient access, and the real-world consequences of the proposed 2027 Medicare payment changes.

If you submitted economic data to the SPEAK Project, wait until September 10 to build your comment so you can incorporate the aggregated findings. Everyone else can start now.

And don’t wait until the last minute.

Visit SPEAKProject.net to build your CMS comment, mobilize the Friends of SLPs in your life, and help fund the legal and lobbying team that will carry this work forward.

Learn more and support the project at SPEAKPROJECT.NET.

Get caught up wherever you stream podcasts!
#110: CPT 92507 Is Being Deleted? What Every SLP Must Know About the New Speech Therapy Codes
#111: CPT 92507 Q&A for SLPs: Your Questions Answered
#113: CPT 92507 Option B: This Is Our Week to Advocate
#115: CMS's NEW Pediatric G Code Explained: What Every SLP Needs to Know
#116: What the New Speech Therapy Codes Mean for Adult SLPs
#117: The End of CPT 92507: Is Your SLP Documentation Ready?

#118: It’s Time to SPEAK: Part 1 - Building the Data to Fight for SLP Reimbursement

#119: It’s Time to SPEAK Part 2 - Mobilizing Families for SLP Advocacy

✨ Grateful to Chomper Champs for bringing so much positivity and fun to the pediatric SLP space. Follow the link to order the 🦺 Fix SLP Construction Accessory Kit 🧰, or bundle and save. Fix SLP receives 20% of every purchase, so it’s a win for everyone! ✨

🚧 Want to earn some PDHs or CEUs with a discount? Find our most up-to-date promo codes and discounts here.
🚧 We want to collaborate with YOU. If you would like to lead or join your state team, please email your name and state to [email protected].
🚧 Become a sustaining partner to support our work.
🚧 Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and YouTube.
🚧 Find all our information at fixslp.com, and sign up for our email list to be alerted to new episodes and content.
🚧 Email us at [email protected].
🚧 Leave a message on our Minivan Meltdown line!

SLP advocacy can't stop with data. If Medicare reimbursement fails to cover the cost of providing speech-language pathology services, patients and families ultimately feel the impact through longer waitlists, fewer providers, reduced insurance access, and practice closures.

In Part 2 of our SPEAK Project series, Jeanette Benigas, PhD/SLP, talks with pediatric occupational therapist and private practice owner Pam Marshall about mobilizing patients and families as part of a larger SLP reimbursement advocacy strategy.

After Kentucky therapy providers faced Medicaid reimbursement cuts, Pam helped create a system that made it easy for families to share their individual stories with lawmakers. Her practice generated more than 420 letters in roughly two weeks.

Jeanette and Pam discuss how SLPs and practice owners can turn patient experiences into meaningful advocacy, why individual stories matter to policymakers, how practices can make participation easier for families, and why protecting access to speech therapy will require more than SLPs advocating for themselves.

The economic data is only one piece of the SPEAK Project. Now we need data, dollars, connections, and people willing to SPEAK.

SLP advocacy can't stop with data. If Medicare reimbursement fails to cover the cost of providing speech-language pathology services, patients and families ultimately feel the impact through longer waitlists, fewer providers, reduced insurance access, and practice closures.

In Part 2 of our SPEAK Project series, Jeanette Benigas, PhD/SLP, talks with pediatric occupational therapist and private practice owner Pam Marshall about mobilizing patients and families as part of a larger SLP reimbursement advocacy strategy.

After Kentucky therapy providers faced Medicaid reimbursement cuts, Pam helped create a system that made it easy for families to share their individual stories with lawmakers. Her practice generated more than 420 letters in roughly two weeks.

Jeanette and Pam discuss how SLPs and practice owners can turn patient experiences into meaningful advocacy, why individual stories matter to policymakers, how practices can make participation easier for families, and why protecting access to speech therapy will require more than SLPs advocating for themselves.

The economic data is only one piece of the SPEAK Project. Now we need data, dollars, connections, and people willing to SPEAK.

Learn more, contribute data, and support the project at SPEAKPROJECT.NET.

Get caught up, wherever you stream podcasts!
#110: CPT 92507 Is Being Deleted? What Every SLP Must Know About the New Speech Therapy Codes
#111: CPT 92507 Q&A for SLPs: Your Questions Answered
#113: CPT 92507 Option B: This Is Our Week to Advocate
#115: CMS's NEW Pediatric G Code Explained: What Every SLP Needs to Know
#116: What the New Speech Therapy Codes Mean for Adult SLPs
#117: The End of CPT 92507: Is Your SLP Documentation Ready?
#118: It’s Time to SPEAK: Part 1 - Building the Data to Fight for SLP Reimbursement

✨ Grateful to Chomper Champs for bringing so much positivity and fun to the pediatric SLP space. Follow the link to order the 🦺 Fix SLP Construction Accessory Kit 🧰, or bundle and save. Fix SLP receives 20% of every purchase, so it’s a win for everyone! ✨

🚧 Want to earn some PDHs or CEUs with a discount? Find our most up-to-date promo codes and discounts here.
🚧 We want to collaborate with YOU. If you would like to lead or join your state team, please email your name and state to [email protected].
🚧 Become a sustaining partner to support our work.
🚧 Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and YouTube.
🚧 Find all our information at fixslp.com, and sign up for our email list to be alerted to new episodes and content.
🚧 Email us at [email protected].
🚧 Leave a message on our Minivan Meltdown line!

SLPs have been screaming for a long time that reimbursement is too low, costs are rising, and access to speech-language pathology services is being threatened. But can we prove it with national data?

In this episode, Jeanette Benigas, PhD/SLP, introduces The Speech Pathology Education, Advocacy and Knowledge (SPEAK) Project and its first major initiative: building a national economic dataset that shows what it actually costs to provide SLP services and turn those numbers into credible national evidence we can use to advocate directly with CMS during the current public comment period.

Jeanette is joined by private practice owner Holly Ellis, MS/SLP, and CPA Cody Underwood to discuss how North Carolina built its own cost analysis, why independent financial analysis matters, and what the national SPEAK Project will measure, including CPT 92507, dysphagia and cognitive services, treatment time, payer mix, Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement, workforce pressures, waitlists, and access to care.

The immediate goal: collect high-quality data from all 50 states (+ DC) and turn that evidence into meaningful advocacy.

Give data. Give dollars. Or do both.

Everything starts at speakproject.net.

Get caught up, wherever you stream podcasts!
#110: CPT 92507 Is Being Deleted? What Every SLP Must Know About the New Speech Therapy Codes
#111: CPT 92507 Q&A for SLPs: Your Questions Answered
#113: CPT 92507 Option B: This Is Our Week to Advocate
#115: CMS's NEW Pediatric G Code Explained: What Every SLP Needs to Know
#116: What the New Speech Therapy Codes Mean for Adult SLPs
#117: The End of CPT 92507: Is Your SLP Documentation Ready?

✨ Grateful to Chomper Champs for bringing so much positivity and fun to the pediatric SLP space. Follow the link to order the 🦺 Fix SLP Construction Accessory Kit 🧰, or bundle and save. Fix SLP receives 20% of every purchase, so it’s a win for everyone! ✨

🚧 Want to earn some PDHs or CEUs with a discount? Find our most up-to-date promo codes and discounts here.
🚧 We want to collaborate with YOU. If you would like to lead or join your state team, please email your name and state to [email protected].
🚧 Become a sustaining partner to support our work.
🚧 Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and YouTube.
🚧 Find all our information at fixslp.com, and sign up for our email list to be alerted to new episodes and content.
🚧 Email us at [email protected].
🚧 Leave a message on our Minivan Meltdown line!

92507 is changing, and SLP documentation will have to change with it.

In this episode, Jeanette Benigas, PhD/SLP, is joined by adult and pediatric private practice owners Katie Brown, MA/SLP, and Emily Watkins, MCD/SLP, to talk about what the new code set could mean for documentation, billing, compliance, and audit risk across pediatric and adult settings.

Katie and Emily share firsthand experiences with Medicare, Medicaid, and commercial insurance audits, including what payers requested, what triggered the audits, and why documentation supporting medical necessity and skilled intervention matters. They also deliberate one of the biggest shifts ahead: moving from a catch-all code to multiple service-specific codes means SLPs will need to clearly support what they treated, why it required skilled intervention, and the time spent providing that treatment.

The takeaway: do what you bill, bill what you do, and document what you do.

Whether you’re a clinician, manager, or private practice owner, now is the time to understand the changes and prepare... before January.

Resources Mentioned
👀 Check out Katie's SLPs Blueprint to Medicare Success and get $100 off with the code FixSLP

🎧 Previous episode with Emily Watkins: CMS's NEW Pediatric G Code Explained: What Every SLP Needs to Know
🎧 Previous episode with Katie Brown: What the New Speech Therapy Codes Mean for Adult SLPs

🎧 Previous episode with Katie Brown: Telehealth Coverage Expired: SLP Rules for Medicare Claims
🎧 Previous episode with Katie Brown: Telehealth Under Threat: Protecting Access for Adults and Families

▶️ Watch the Fixing the Coding Chaos series, or this episode on YouTube

✨ Grateful to Chomper Champs for bringing so much positivity and fun to the pediatric SLP space. Follow the link to order the 🦺 Fix SLP Construction Accessory Kit 🧰, or bundle and save. Fix SLP receives 20% of every purchase, so it’s a win for everyone! ✨

🚧 Want to earn some PDHs or CEUs with a discount? Find our most up-to-date promo codes and discounts here.
🚧 We want to collaborate with YOU. If you would like to lead or join your state team, please email your name and state to [email protected].
🚧 Become a sustaining partner to support our work.
🚧 Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and YouTube.
🚧 Find all our information at fixslp.com, and sign up for our email list to be alerted to new episodes and content.
🚧 Email us at [email protected].
🚧 Leave a message on our Minivan Meltdown line!

The new Medicare speech therapy CPT codes are coming, and adult SLPs need to prepare.

In this episode, Jeanette Benigas, PhD/SLP, is joined by Katie Brown, SLP of Neuro Speech Solutions (@neurospeechsolutions), to discuss how the new code family replacing 92507 could impact adult speech-language pathology across Medicare Part B, skilled nursing, outpatient, home health, hospital outpatient, and private practice.

They discuss how the new codes may affect reimbursement, scheduling, productivity, documentation, cognition treatment, Medicare Advantage, commercial insurance, and ethical billing. They also explore why accurate utilization data will be critical to future advocacy for higher reimbursement rates.

Whether you own a private practice, work in a SNF, outpatient clinic, hospital, or even pediatrics, this conversation will help you understand what's changing, what questions remain unanswered, and how to start preparing now.

Topics include:
• The new adult SLP CPT codes
• Replacing 92507
• Medicare Part B billing
• Cognition reimbursement
• Documentation changes
• Productivity concerns
• Private practice and SNF implications
• Ethical billing and future advocacy

Resources Mentioned
👀 Check out Katie's SLPs Blueprint to Medicare Success and get $100 off with the code FixSLP

🎧 Previous episode: CMS's NEW Pediatric G Code Explained: What Every SLP Needs to Know

🎧 Previous episode: New York Early Intervention in Crisis
🎧 Previous episode with Katie Brown: Telehealth Coverage Expired: SLP Rules for Medicare Claims
🎧 Previous episode with Katie Brown: Telehealth Under Threat: Protecting Access for Adults and Families

▶️ Watch the Fixing the Coding Chaos series, or this episode on YouTube

✨ Grateful to Chomper Champs for bringing so much positivity and fun to the pediatric SLP space. Follow the link to order the 🦺 Fix SLP Construction Accessory Kit 🧰, or bundle and save. Fix SLP receives 20% of every purchase, so it’s a win for everyone! ✨

🚧 Want to earn some PDHs or CEUs with a discount? Find our most up-to-date promo codes and discounts here.
🚧 We want to collaborate with YOU. If you would like to lead or join your state team, please email your name and state to [email protected].
🚧 Become a sustaining partner to support our work.
🚧 Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and YouTube.
🚧 Find all our information at fixslp.com, and sign up for our email list to be alerted to new episodes and content.
🚧 Email us at [email protected].
🚧 Leave a message on our Minivan Meltdown line!

CMS surprised speech-language pathologists with a proposed pediatric G code, creating new questions about reimbursement, billing, and the future of pediatric speech therapy.

In this episode, Jeanette Benigas, PhD/SLP, is joined by billing expert Rick Gawenda and pediatric private practice owner Emily Watkins, MCD/SLP, to break down what the proposed G code actually means, who it applies to, and why it matters far beyond Medicare.

Topics include:
• Who the proposed pediatric G code applies to
• Why commercial insurance and Medicaid may choose different billing paths
• Timed CPT codes vs. the proposed G code
• How reimbursement could change for pediatric practices
• Operational challenges for clinics and business owners
• Why giving payers multiple billing options may create inconsistencies
• The risks surrounding untimed codes and future payer audits
• Why understanding RVUs and practice expense matters
• What clinicians and practice owners should consider before submitting comments to CMS

Whether you're an employee, private practice owner, school-based SLP, or administrator, these proposed coding changes have the potential to affect your reimbursement, documentation, scheduling, and future practice.

This episode is designed to help you understand the proposal, not tell you what position to take, so you can make informed decisions on how to comment before the CMS comment period closes.

✨ Grateful to Chomper Champs for bringing so much positivity and fun to the pediatric SLP space. Follow the link to order the 🦺 Fix SLP Construction Accessory Kit 🧰, or bundle and save. Fix SLP receives 20% of every purchase, so it’s a win for everyone! ✨

🚧 Want to earn some PDHs or CEUs with a discount? Find our most up-to-date promo codes and discounts here.
🚧 We want to collaborate with YOU. If you would like to lead or join your state team, please email your name and state to [email protected].
🚧 Become a sustaining partner to support our work.
🚧 Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and YouTube.
🚧 Find all our information at fixslp.com, and sign up for our email list to be alerted to new episodes and content.
🚧 Email us at [email protected].
🚧 Leave a message on our Minivan Meltdown line!

ASHA launched a new consumer-facing website, and SLPs immediately started digging. In this episode, Jeanette Benigas, PhD/SLP, and Stephanie Feero, MS/SLP, unpack the newly rebranded Communication Health Support Association (CHSA), its connection to ASHA, and the financial and organizational questions surrounding the rollout.

The conversation explores CHSA’s 70-year history, ASHA's evolving mission statements and strategic objectives, tax filings, membership positioning, ProFind listings, and the ongoing debate surrounding the CCC. Jeanette and Stephanie also examine public IRS Form 990 data, nonprofit structures, affiliate language, and the broader implications for clinicians and the future of the profession.

This episode discusses publicly available documents, organizational timelines, and the growing questions many SLPs are now asking after discovering a consumer-facing association that has existed for decades with little public awareness, all mixed with a little sass and a few tin foil hat theories from Jeanette.

✨ Grateful to Chomper Champs for bringing so much positivity and fun to the pediatric SLP space. Follow the link to order the 🦺 Fix SLP Construction Accessory Kit 🧰, or bundle and save. Fix SLP receives 20% of every purchase, so it’s a win for everyone! ✨

🚧 Want to earn some PDHs or CEUs with a discount? Find our most up-to-date promo codes and discounts here.
🚧 We want to collaborate with YOU. If you would like to lead or join your state team, please email your name and state to [email protected].
🚧 Become a sustaining partner to support our work.
🚧 Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and YouTube.
🚧 Find all our information at fixslp.com, and sign up for our email list to be alerted to new episodes and content.
🚧 Email us at [email protected].
🚧 Leave a message on our Minivan Meltdown line!

CPT 92507 Option B is officially in front of the AMA Editorial Panel, and this is the week that decides what happens next. In this episode, Jeanette Benigas, PhD/SLP, sits down with a private practice owner of 44 years, Mary Billings, MS, CCC/SLP, who has seen Medicare cuts before, and is sounding the alarm again. What’s being proposed isn’t just a coding change. It has the potential to reshape how SLPs document, bill, and treat patients across every setting, including private practice, schools, hospitals, Medicaid, and Medicare. No one is exempt.

You’ll hear exactly why the applicants submitted Option B, what’s at risk if SLPs stay silent, and why this moment is so rare. Opportunities like this don’t come around often, and once decisions are made, they can take decades to undo. If you care about your practice, your patients, or the future of this profession, this is the time to pay attention. This is the moment.

 
Connect with Mary at Billings Speech Pathology Services or Function Focus Academy

This episode is sponsored by Metro EHS, a growing, clinician-supported organization using a collaborative care model across disciplines. Learn more at metroehs.com.

✨ Grateful to Chomper Champs for bringing so much positivity and fun to the pediatric SLP space. Follow the link to order the 🦺 Fix SLP Construction Accessory Kit 🧰, or bundle and save. Fix SLP receives 20% of every purchase, so it’s a win for everyone! ✨

🚧 Want to earn some PDHs or CEUs with a discount? Find our most up-to-date promo codes and discounts here.
🚧 We want to collaborate with YOU. If you would like to lead or join your state team, please email your name and state to [email protected].
🚧 Become a sustaining partner to support our work.
🚧 Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and YouTube.
🚧 Find all our information at fixslp.com, and sign up for our email list to be alerted to new episodes and content.
🚧 Email us at [email protected].
🚧 Leave a message on our Minivan Meltdown line!

Leaders from the West Virginia Speech-Language-Hearing Association (WVSHA) join the conversation to discuss advocacy, leadership, and the role of state organizations in speech-language pathology.

Dr. Tori Gilbert, SLP, private practice owner and current association president, and Allegra Cornaglia, PhD/SLP, assistant professor and convention chair, share their experiences working within a state association and supporting clinicians across West Virginia. They discuss how WVSHA operates, opportunities for SLPs to get involved, and why clinician leadership at the state level matters.

For SLPs interested in advocacy, professional leadership, or understanding how state-level organizations influence the profession, this discussion offers insight into how change happens within SLP.

🚧 Check out or join the West Virginia Speech-Language-Hearing Association here.

🚧 Register for the WVSHA Convention, April 28-29, 2026, and don't forget to use FIXWV at checkout for the membership rate, no matter who you are or where you live.
🚧 Follow WVSHA on Facebook.

✨ Grateful to Chomper Champs for bringing so much positivity and fun to the pediatric SLP space. Follow the link to preorder the 🦺 Fix SLP Construction Accessory Kit 🧰, or bundle and save. Fix SLP receives 20% of every purchase, so it’s a win for everyone! ✨

Register for the directory at speechconnect.org and support the fundraiser that will help launch Speech Connect nationwide.

🚧 Want to earn some PDHs or CEUs with a discount? Find our most up-to-date promo codes and discounts here.
🚧 We want to collaborate with YOU. If you would like to lead or join your state team, please email your name and state to [email protected].
🚧 Become a sustaining partner to support our work.
🚧 Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and YouTube.
🚧 Find all our information at fixslp.com, and sign up for our email list to be alerted to new episodes and content.
🚧 Email us at [email protected].
🚧 Leave a message on our Minivan Meltdown line!