May 2012 Newsletter
May 2012
MAY IS BETTER SPEECH AND HEARING MONTH
Happy Mother’s Day to all mothers!
Happy Memorial Day!
Remember our men and women (including moms) that have sacrificed ALL
to fight and maintain our freedom!
Hug a Mom this month, whether it is yours or not!
Clinical Café Newsletter
By: Ronda Polansky M.S. CCC-SLP
Monthly motivator
And I’m proud to be an American, where at least I know I’m free.
And I won’t forget the men who died, who gave that right to me. -Lee Greenwood
DiagnosTEX Holiday – Memorial Day
DiagnosTEX will not be operating vans on Monday May 28th, but will run all vans Tuesday through Friday that week. Please keep this in mind when scheduling your MBSS around that time. Thank you. We have veterans working for DiagnosTEX. We honor them, any others who have served, and those who are currently sacrificing for our freedom! We also remember those who paid the ultimate price for our country and our freedom today!
MAY is Better Speech and Hearing Month – This annual event provides opportunities to raise awareness about communication disorders and to promote treatment that can improve the quality of life for those who experience problems with speaking, understanding, or hearing. ASHA has many resources to help you celebrate BHSM everyday. www.asha.org
New!! Educational Handout for Patients and Their Families for Better Speech and Hearing Month – Be sure to get yours next time we see you!
CEUs – In honor of May BSH DiagnosTEX is hosting a spring CEU course
Legal Implications of Clinical Documentation on Friday May 18, 2012
6 TSHA CEU hours (please see March newsletter for explanation of TSHA and ASHA hours)
Only $30.00 ($5.00 per CEU credit) as a discounted rate for SLPs using DiagnosTEX service.
The course will be located inHurst,Texasfrom 9am to 4:30pm. A registration form is included. Seating will be limited, do not delay.
History/Consult forms – Many of you are still using our older forms, please take this one in the newsletter and make several copies of the one you need (Facility or Home Health) and discard the old ones. When filling these forms out, pleeeeaaaasssseeeee fill it out in its entirety and do not leave blanks. If it is a repeat study please mark “why” in the appropriate section below reason for consult. All the additional information on our new forms is being required for documentation by Medicare. Please help us with this as it is a part of the medical record and you are in direct contact with the patient and the medical record before we are. Thank you.
TSHA video presentation – I have had several phone calls and emails requesting a copy of our video presentation at TSHA. We are not distributing these publically at this time. I appreciate all of the positive feedback about the course inSan Antonio and I know they are great videos with shock and awe to educate facility staff. I can schedule to provide short educational courses for facility staff if a facility is interested in that (locally in the DFW area).
Insurance companies we can no longer service
Although insurance advantage plans follow Medicare fee schedules, they also have their own internal polices and regulations. Insurance reimbursement rates have declined and many are not covering the MBSS. Some are reducing payment down to less than $100.00 by bundling codes, which does not pay for our staff and mobile expenses. We can no longer provide services for: HealthSpring, Bravo Health, Advantra, Universal Healthcare, and Humana. Amerigroup may be close behind… We hate this as much as you all do!! The healthcare changes are becoming more evident in this new year and it is affecting care. Please consider all of this in November when you go to the polls and VOTE!
Cool New Apps for Dysphagia
Decibel – to use with voice treatment and increasing loudness
Dysphagia – put out by NSS. Shows a normal swallow, examples of penetration and aspiration, impairment of bolus flow, impairment of initiation of pharyngeal swallow, impaired anterior hyoid movement and excursion, impaired laryngeal closure, impaired pharyngeal contraction, impaired PES opening and impaired tongue base retraction. They are animated pictures and movement and not as good as seeing the real thing, but still kind of cool for education with family.
Brain Injury Support Groups in Dallas
Anna – Pate Rehab 972-838-2602
Dallas– Pate Rehab 972-241-9334
Dallas – Baylor Institute for Rehabilitation 214-820-9571
Denton–DentonRegional Medical Center 940-384-3973
McKinney– Stonebridge United Methodist Church 972-897-1716
Richardson– Reliant Rehabilitation Hospital 972-398-5853
New evaluations and new patients – If you have a new admit from another facility and you think they might need an MBSS, please do not hesitate to call us and ask if one has been done. We can send you the latest report that you likely did not receive in the transfer. We need to all work together on providing the best services for these patients!