The Academy of Doctors of Audiology (ADA) is pleased to announce that the Florida Academy of Audiology (FLAA) has endorsed the Audiology Patient Choice Act in an effort to improve audiologic care for older Americans.
“The Florida Academy of Audiology Board is excited to join forces with fellow audiology organizations across the United States to advance the Audiology Patient Choice Act on behalf of our patients and our profession,” President Debra Shimon, Au.D. stated. “We look forward to working on a more local level with the more than 800 licensed Florida audiologists and robust Florida universities in this effort as well.”
The Audiology Patient Choice Act will:
- Provide Medicare patients with direct access to audiologists, eliminating the need for a referral from a medical doctor.
- Allow audiologists to be reimbursed for Medicare-covered services that are within their state-defined scope of practice.
- Define audiologists as limited licensed physicians (LLP) under the Medicare program. This is the same status held by other non-medical doctor providers such as optometrists, dentists, chiropractors and podiatrists.
“ADA and its network of more than 25 organizational partners are working toward a speedy reintroduction of this critical legislation in the 114th Congress which began in January,” said ADA President, Kim Cavitt, Au.D. “We commend the Florida Academy of Audiology for its commitment to advance this legislation which will ensure that older adults enjoy the same access to high quality audiologic services as the rest of America, and that audiologists are recognized by Medicare in a manner that is consistent with their education and training.”
For more information, contact Stephanie Czuhajewski.
