TODAY'S BUZZ:

IMPORTANT!   Today is the LAST DAY to register for the OSLHA 2012 Convention... at the PreRegistration Discounted Rate.  The deadline to postmark your form and payment is Today, February 1, 2012!

OSLHA 2012 Convention Program Changes / Additions / Cancellations Being Made Daily: Check the Convention Webpage for all of the listings.

Call for Papers for the 2013 eHearsay, Volume 3:  The theme for the 2013 eHearsay is Fluency.  The deadline for submitting papers is December 1, 2012.  Please contact the 2013 eHearsay issue editor, Rod Gabel if you would like to submit or for further information.

JCARR Criteria for Rules Change Information Available: The Joint Committee on Agency Rule Review (JCARR) may recommend the invalidation of a rule if certain criteria is met.  View the details here.

URGENT: Medicare Outpatient Reimbursement at Stake: We need YOU to assist in a critical and time sensitive effort to ensure that your patients are represented in the analysis that will determine future Medicare Part B reimbursement.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) are in the final stages of data collection to develop a payment system that will replace the therapy caps. The number of speech-language pathology patients in the sample is currently below the target. With data collection due to end in June, the need for more patients is crucial. You must enroll as a data collection site and be prepared to collect data by February.

The data collection involves administering an electronic outcome measurement tool at admission and discharge for Medicare outpatients receiving speech-language pathology services. Information about the DOPTA project is available in an article of The ASHA Leader or by contacting via email Ingrida Lusis at ilusis@asha.org or Janet Brown at jbrown@asha.org. For more information about the data collection process, contact Ann Meadow at ann.meadow@cms.hhs.gov. To see the assessment, email optherapy@rti.org with the subject heading: Send CARE-C/CARE-F Tools.

State of Ohio To Pay More To Medicaid Providers Who's Patients Stay Healthy: Ohio is the first state to join the non-profit Catalyst for Payment Reform, an organization that’s working with major for-profit employers such as Wal-Mart and General Electric to help the state as it prepares to rebid its contracts with Medicaid providers. Read the recent article published online by ideastream.com.

GAO Releases Report on Testing Accommodations and Students with Disabilities: The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has released a report on the results of a study on testing accommodations and students with disabilities in the high stakes testing industry titles, “Higher Education and Disability: Improved Federal Enforcement Needed to Better Protect Students' Rights to Testing Accommodations”, visit GAO’s website at http://gao.gov/products/GAO-12-40 to read the report.

Progress Made on Medicaid Speech Generating Devices (SGD) Rule: There has been a lot of interest in the upcoming SGD ruling.  Our lobbyist Kelly O'Reilly has worked with GAC and members of OSLHA on the SGD ruling so we have provided an overview of the current process and a history of the rule and a timeline of our negotiations on the rule, which outlines the 16 items that we were able to successfully negotiate on the rule.

ODE IS Accepting Nominations for The Kathe Shelby Leadership Award: The Kathe Shelby Leadership Award has been developed by the Ohio Department of Education's Office for Exceptional Children (ODE/OEC) to honor Kathe for her ardent efforts and passion in advocating for the improvement of the education of children with special needs in Ohio. The first of what will become an annual award to the Outstanding Special Education Leader in Ohio will be made at Ohio's 6th Annual Special Education Leadership Conference on September 26-27, 2012 at the Columbus Convention Center.
The Kathe Shelby Leadership Award will be presented to an Outstanding Special Education Leader in Ohio, currently employed, who has demonstrated exceptional and effective skills in improving the quality of special education programming for Ohio's school children. Each nominee should display daily evidence of initiative, influence, and respect towards children with special needs, their parents, special and regular education teachers, related services personnel, and school administrators. Each nominee should demonstrate excellence in providing high educational quality as well as express a genuine concern for the well-being of all children with special needs. The nomination form for the Award is available here. The deadline to submit nominations is March 30, 2012.

Dayton Children's Hospital Quietly Celebrates the 20 Year Anniversary of Their First Cochlear Implant: One of Dayton Children's Hospital cochlear implant recipients, Ashley Justice Sorenson, returned to Dayton Children's Hospital to help them celebreate the 20 year anniversay of their successful first cochlear implant procedure. Read her success story online at http://www.childrensdayton.org/cms/sucess_stories/ashleysorensen/index.html

Participants Needed for Research Study on Kindergarten Students with Speech/Sound Disorders: The Children’s Communication Laboratory at The Ohio State University invites kindergartners with speech disorders to participate in a dissertation research study about alphabet knowledge.  With this information, we hope to help develop effective interventions that will help children improve their early reading and literacy development.  Children will be tested in two sessions and will be assessed on measures of early literacy skills.  Testing will take about two to three hours in total.  Participants will receive a book and stickers for their participation, as well as a $15 gift card. 
Eligible children include those who: Have a diagnosis of articulation and/or speech sound disorder, Have no history of hearing impairment, Are currently attending kindergarten, Use English as the main language at home.  If you have any questions about this study, and/or would like your child to participate, please contact Sherine Tambyraja at tambyraja.1@osu.edu or at 347.415.7615 or Dr. Rebecca McCauley at mccauley.90@osu.edu.

Influence of Clinical Training and Experience Working with Children Survey: This survey is being conducted until February 2012 by Marie Meyer, a second year graduate student in Speech-Language Pathology in the Department of Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities and researcher on the learning to talk research project (http://www.learningtotalk.org).  This project completed research examining the influence of clinical training and experience working with children on the perception of children's speech.  These studies have prviously been conducted with relatively small groups of speech-language pathologists in Minnesota but Marie is expanding this research by looking at a large group of speech-language pathologists across the country.  She is seeking volunteers to participate in a brief online survey study for this project.  Speech-language pathologists with all levels of experience who diagnose and treat children with speech sound disorders are invited to participate. This project examines how differences in clinical experiences and practices influence ratings of the accuracy of children’s speech. This survey is composed of two parts: a short survey about your clinical experience, and a listening task.  If you are willing to devote approximately 30 minutes of your time to partcipate, please contact Marie at spsurvey@umn.edu. Please put "SLP Audio Survey" in the subject line.

All data and information collected in this study will be kept secure.  She is happy to share the results of the study after it is finished, as well.