09/08/2026
To our valued clients: Please take a minute to read this important post about the future of speech therapy. The cliff notes: National reimbursement is being drastically cut for speech therapy and we need families who receive those services to fight back on our behalf. It takes FIVE minutes to fill out the easy survey: https://form.jotform.com/262386270505154
---------------------------------------
You might not know it, but the field of Speech Therapy is on FIRE right now.
Starting January 1, 2027, CMS (Centers for Medicaid) is restructuring how speech-language therapy is billed and reimbursed - and early projections show cuts of 25–40% to speech-language pathology reimbursement. Not a typical annual adjustment. A gutting.
Think about how important the speech therapy is or was for your family - should it be de-valued?
This is not just an issue for me or my practice; it's not personal. It will affect all settings: private practices, clinics, hospitals, schools, and Birth-to-Three programs, not to mention all of the adult, geriatric and medical settings.
Once the rule is finalized in November, the numbers are locked. No appeal, no negotiation, no second round of comments. We will be forced to adapt, and it's scary!!
Will we still be able to afford to run our businesses?
Will we still be able to take insurance?
Will more and more kids be on a waiting list for services because we have to cut the low-paying insurance contracts?
This is very real for a lot of families.
Now is Where You Come In.,..
You don't need to understand healthcare policy, but your voice matters. The lawmakers want to hear from the families who have been or currently are receiving services as well as the SLPs that are providing those services.
ACTION ITEM 1: If you have ever received speech therapy or your child has ever received speech therapy, please click here: https://www.speakproject.net/Friends-of-SLPs and then choose Share Your Story. I promise it will take no more than 5-10 minutes - you need to fill in some blanks about your journey with speech therapy.
Every comment gets collected and sent directly to CMS as part of the public record. One comment might feel small, but thousands of parents saying "my child's access to speech therapy matters" is hard to ignore - as long as it reaches CMS before the rule is final.
ACTION ITEM 2: If you are so inclined, please donate to this worthy cause. I did. https://givebutter.com/speakproject
(FixSLP is a grassroots organization SLPs have recently been gifted with - practice owners nationwide are feeding into a shared database on the real cost of running a clinic like ours, so the numbers can speak for themselves. But building that case and getting it in front of CMS takes real resources - the right lawyers and accounting firms to make sure the data holds up. That's what donations fund. I've already submitted mine.)
Please don't wait and assume someone else will speak up. WE NEED THIS DONE BY SEPTEMBER 13TH, SO PLEASE DON'T WAIT!
Thank you for reading this far and (hopefully) supporting me and, more importantly, our kids who need us!
