Issue

Stage two of the election process (runoff primary elections) is complete. Candidates for election are set for the general eleection on November 4. Republican Texas House of Representative candidates financially supported by Gov. Abbott won four of the six runoff elections in which school voucher legislation was an issue. The intent was to secure enough House members willing to support his pro-voucher agenda in the 2025 legislative session.

When we hear about federal regulatory changes, such as those from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), we might think such issues only apply to clinicians who work in settings that bill Medicare, but in fact, updates from CMS will often directly influence how all other payers operate and the resulting changes may affect many other payers’ policies, protocols, and rate structures.

As you are aware, we are in the summer months of an election year. State House and State Senate seats are up for reelection across the state. I encourage all of you to see which State House and Senate Districts you live in and note which candidates are running in the general election. Make a contact in their campaign offices, or if they’re an incumbent legislator, make a contact in their Austin or district offices. Every contact we make is an open door to discussion during the legislative year.

The Texas Speech-Language-Hearing Association (TSHA) is conducting a survey of speech-language pathologists, audiologists, and administrators across Texas to understand the challenges you’re facing and resources you need, specifically with billing and/or insurance companies. Regardless of your practice setting, we want to hear from you and encourage you to share your experience in this short survey, which will take about 10 minutes to complete. Your feedback is important. Similar data has been utilized in other states with the support of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) to advocate for adequate reimbursement for services being provided to Medicaid beneficiaries. Questions will collect data on network adequacy as well as current road blocks in insurance coding and billing. Participating in this type of data collection is contributes to the advocacy efforts in our fields.

Stage two of the election process (runoff primary elections) is complete. Candidates for election are set for the general eleection on November 4. Republican Texas House of Representative candidates financially supported by Gov. Abbott won four of the six runoff elections in which school voucher legislation was an issue. The intent was to secure enough House members willing to support his pro-voucher agenda in the 2025 legislative session.

The 68th Annual Convention and Exhibition of the Texas Speech-Language-Hearing Association (TSHA) came to Fort Worth on February 22-24 ready to spark innovation and enlighten with knowledge. More than 5,000 attendees and exhibitors came together from near and far across the great state of Texas for this year’s Convention. There were 18 continuing education (CE) hours available through a broad range of educational offerings. One attendee stated, “Attending TSHA Convention this year gave me a renewed sense of excitement around the profession.”

Save the date for the TSHA 2025 Convention in San Antonio!

At the recent Texas Speech-Language-Hearing Association (TSHA) Convention, the 2024 Honors and Awards recipients were celebrated at the Texas Speech- Language-Hearing Foundation (TSHF) annual breakfast event. This year’s recipients are an outstanding group of individuals who have volunteered their time and efforts to help TSHA, members of our professions, and the clients and families we serve. This year, four outstanding individuals were honored, and a new award was given out for the very first time!

As the co-chairs of the Texas Speech-Language-Hearing Association (TSHA) Leadership Academy (TLA), we would like to update membership on the new direction the TLA is taking as we move forward. For the past several years, we have sponsored the TLA for both members and students interested in learning more about our robust association in order to be placed in volunteer roles within our organization.