Advocacy

 Legislative Update:  

The 2018 state legislative sessions have begun meeting. There are forty-four states, Congress, and the District of Columbia that are currently in session. The Governmental Advocacy Committee (GAC) monitors legislation and regulations to protect your interest. The GAC has identified legislation and regulations in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa and Virginia that impact neurodiagnostic technologists. Information may be found on the Neurodiagnostic Legislative & Regulatory Center website.  

Code Revisions to Long Term EEG Monitoring  

As reported previously, the American Medical Association CPT® Editorial Panel is considering changes to the family of long term monitoring codes (95950, 95951, 95953, and 95956). It is hoped that the coding changes will better reflect current monitoring and EEG testing methods.  If the changes do not accurately capture current clinical practice, including the role of the technologist, the physician and variations in the technology, patient access to long term monitoring and reimbursement could be negatively impacted. 

ASET has been working with ADVI, a health care consulting company based in Washington, D.C., which has formed a coalition to advocate for a coding framework that captures current technology and the variety of extended EEG testing being utilized. The long term monitoring CPT codes were scheduled to be debated during the American Medical Association CPT® Editorial Panel Meeting, in February. The coalition came to an agreement on the proposal and was prepared to discuss at the meeting. Just prior to the meeting the CPT® Editorial Panel reviewers made substantial changes to the technical codes and negated the work that had been done by the coalition. The proposed new coding was unexpected and represented a significant shift in the composition of the proposed CPT® codes on which the coalition had reached agreement. Action on the proposal was postponed and will be taken up at the May CPT® Editorial Panel Meeting, which will be held in San Antonio. The earliest changes to the codes will be adopted and implemented is 2020. 

Licensure Update:  

The ASET Governmental Advocacy Committee (GAC) has produced a public service announcement in support of licensure. The animated video provides information that illustrates the importance of having licensed professionals conducting neurodiagnostic procedures. Take a moment to watch the video and share the link with your colleagues and friends. Working together we can help protect our scope of practice and the patients we serve. 

Share Your Story 

ASET is currently working on pursuing professional licensure at the state level. To assist the licensure committees working on this effort we have been collecting stories that will demonstrate to our elected officials that properly educated and trained neurodiagnostic technologists provide the best patient care for their constituents. Recently we received a story that highlights the importance of having highly trained and competent neurodiagnostic professionals providing care to patients. A registered Neurodiagnostic technologist shared this story with us:  

“I feel that having properly educated and trained Neurodiagnostic technologists performing neurodiagnostic studies will ensure proper care and safety of the patients that we encounter. Using personnel not trained in Neurodiagnostics is ill advised, places patients in jeopardy, and diminishes the reputation of trained and educated technologists. The only way to make sure that patients receive the care they deserve is to enact legislation that requires properly educated and trained professionals are the only healthcare providers that are allowed to perform neurodiagnostic procedures.” 

We need your help collecting stories to share with legislators as we lobby for enactment of the legislation. If you have a story to share please submit it by clicking here.