Legislative Advocacy

WSLHA encourages its members to be active and voice their opinions through legislative efforts on behalf of the profession. ASHA provides an excellent resource for current issues and ways to get involved. ASHA now provides a site to engage ASHA members in state advocacy issues at: www.asha.org/advocacy/takeaction.

Letter to FDA - OTC Hearing Aid Rules | Posted: 1/18/2022

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Dear Commissioner Woodcock:

On behalf of the Washington State Academy of Audiology (WSAA) and the Washington Speech-Language-Hearing Association (WSLHA), we are providing comments on the proposed rule, Medical Devices; Ear, Nose and Throat Devices; Establishing Over-the-Counter Hearing Aids. Our organizations represent audiologists and speech-language pathologists in Washington state. While we recognize the Food & Drug Administration’s (FDA) work on rule-making to implement the law regarding over-the-counter (OTC) hearing aids as established by the FDA Reauthorization Act of 2017 (FDARA), we have conce-rns that these rules will not adequately protect the consumer and could lead to patient harm and further hearing loss.

We know that hearing impairments are not one size fits all, therefore our solutions can’t be either. OTC hearing aids would require consumers to self-diagnose their level of hearing loss and would face undue risk in using these products if left under-regulated. Consistent with consensus recommendations developed by professional hearing care associations, including the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) and the American Academy of Audiology (AAA), we ask for the following changes to the rule:

Lower the proposed output to 110 dB SPL and establish a gain of 25 dB to protect a full-on gain limit of 25 dB
Require input compression and volume control for all OTC hearing aids
Define concise, outside‐of‐the‐box labeling appropriate for medical devices sold OTC, with a strong recommendation to consult with a hearing health care professional
Define the new OTC category so that it is easily comprehensible by consumers and in line with risk class requirements for safety and effectiveness
Clarify the preemption of state laws and ensure adequate provisions for consumer protection

Thank you for the opportunity to comment on these important rules.

Sincerely,

Bethany Davis, SLPD, CCC-SLP, CBIS | President, WSLHA

SB 5169 - Posted: 4-21-2021

Great news! Now that SB 5169 has been signed into law and is effective as of April 16th, healthcare providers can now submit for reimbursement for PPE! The new law requires that providers have “incurred expenses” for PPE for an in-person patient encounter. The billing code to use is 99072. There are no other requirements in the new law. However, it would be prudent to retain documentation of your use of PPE when treating patients in person. This new law applies to commercial insurance plans only; it does not apply to self-funded plans, Medicaid, or plans under SEBB and PEBB. And it only applies for the duration of the federal public health emergency related to COVID-19.

Please let WSLHA know if you are running into any problems with this reimbursement.

SB 5169 was one of WSLHA’s top priority issues this session, and we actively advocated for this bill to be passed into law. This advocacy included direct communication with lawmakers and participation in a coalition of other healthcare professional associations.

Children's Hearing Aid Mandate - Posted: 3-2-2021

Unfortunately, there will be no further consideration of HB 1047 (mandating insurance coverage for children’s hearing aids) this session. However, Rep. Emily Wicks, the prime sponsor of HB 1047, is submitting a budget proviso that will direct the Insurance Commissioner’s Office (OIC) to determine the cost of the hearing aid mandate. With this information, we will have a better chance of passing this bill in the 2022 session.

View the video “Children’s Hearing Aid Mandate” - 2021 here.

A summary Analysis of the Governor's Operating Budget for 2021-2023:

Governor Inslee released his 2021-23 operating budget today. In general, he remarked that his budget will:

Continue its aggressive response to the ongoing pandemic and build more capacity for tackling future public health crises.
Rebuild the state’s economy and continue efforts to support households, students, workers, and businesses impacted by the pandemic.
Protect previous investments in areas such as education, child care and early learning, climate action, behavioral health reform, combating homelessness, and access to health care.
Address racial and economic inequity.

Specific highlights of his budget include:

Funding for nine regional public health directors as a component of regionalizing public health districts
No cut to Adult Medicaid Rehabilitation benefit
Funding is provided to support the ongoing statewide effort to control the spread of COVID-19 through diagnostic testing, case investigation, and contact tracing, care coordination, outbreak response, data collection and analysis, public communications, and necessary operational and information technology support. Funding is for the period of July 2021 to June 2022.
Funding is provided to plan, prepare, and deploy the COVID-19 vaccine once it is available. This requires DOH to scale up its vaccine operations and immunization information system to take on this new body of work.

Governor Inslee also proposed new revenue. He proposes a 9% capital gains tax that would generate $3.5B over four years. Revenue would be collected in the second year of the biennium. He also proposes to reinvest savings from reductions in education funding.

To fund ongoing public health needs, the Governor is proposing a new per member/per month assessment on health insurance carriers. It will raise an estimated $205 million during the second year of the next biennium, then about $343 million in the 2023-25 biennium.

Here’s a link to the budget: https://www.ofm.wa.gov/budget/state-budgets/gov-inslees-proposed-2021-23-budgets