How do you determine your professional worth? Do you carefully calculate your business costs, factoring in overhead percentage and profit margin? Do you find out what your colleagues think they’re worth and pick something close to it? Do you allow your reimbursers to set your rates? Are you feeling a little undervalued?

In April 2008 I attended ASHA’s Health Care Conference and Business Institute in St. Louis. For only the second year ASHA has offered seminars on business plan development, pricing professional services, developing a marketing strategy, avoiding litigation, contracting, customer service, coding for reimbursement, and negotiating with health plans. It was well attended and the speakers encouraged questions and interactions. I went there looking for advice on my own private practice and I came away inspired, concerned, and motivated to do better.

Who determines our professional worth? Who determines how much time we should spend with a patient or client? Who determines who determines?

I would like to invite clinical SLPs all over the state of Oregon to participate in a survey to answer some questions about professional time for an average 92507 client. Results will be shared in a poster session at OSHA in October 2008. To participate go to: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=iKyTpL1g8LLAHOBxAY0c1w_3d_3d or just follow the link of the online version of this article.

For more information on matters concerning clinical SLPs, I highly recommend purchasing ASHA’s Health Care Conference and Business Institute Binder for 2008 and 2009 to educate yourself on current trends in business practices and reimbursement. Join the OSHA Clinical Committee and advocate for your profession. Contact Linda D’Onofrio, SLP at linda@donofrioslp.com.

To go to the source:
• ASHA’s Billing & Reimbursement Web site: www.asha.org/members/issues/reimbursement/
• Medicare Fee Schedule (CMS): http://www.cms.hhs.gov/PhysicianFeeSched/
• ICD-9-CM (NCHS): http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/icd9.htm