[Dysphagia] Off topic - recent ASHA Leader

[chcky619 at bellsouth.net (Ralph and Patti)]

This is off topic, but I need to vent somewhere and I know this list serve is savvy.  I just received my new ASHA Leader and now BCBS is denying claims for cognitive/linguistic deficits and MEDPAC is placing a barrier for services.  This coupled with the intermediary denials of claims for dysphagia unless a VFSS confirms a deficit sets us back to the stone age.  My question is why do I bother to practice when the powers that be seem to have so much more knowledge about intervention than I do.  Did I fall asleep in school and miss a lesson of the world???ASHA is certainly advocating, but in the meantime, where am I as a clinician.  When I see powerful functional outcomes, I cannot deny the interventions.  Is anyone else tired of defending their profession or is it just me?  Patti