Summary:
Audiologists are among the healthcare professionals targeted under the American Medical Association's (AMA’s) growing Scope of Practice Partnership (SOPP) project, an effort intended to unite doctors of medicine and osteopathy in opposition to the increasing use of “non-physician” practitioners. ADA recently gained access to an AMA SOPP publication on audiology, created to foster efforts to limit audiology's scope of practice, to advocate against direct access for Medicare patients, and to advance other objectives that may encroach on audiology as a doctoring profession.

The AMA document, which was intended to be used to constrain audiology's scope of practice and splinter our progress has instead served to unify us as practitioners and professionals. ADA and its leaders harbor numerous concerns about both the content and the intent of the AMA document, including its assertions regarding the impact of direct access to Medicare; however, its publication serves to illustrate the importance of unity and mutual respect among the diverse organizations and entities that serve our profession, for our collective success and survival as autonomous practitioners. The AMA paper also clearly outlines some of audiology's next great challenges and the urgency and care that we must employ to overcome them.

In addition to drafting a response to the AMA document, ADA also joined a task force made up of other audiology organizations, to ensure that our collective scope of practice is defended and protected. Two of ADA's Board members, Charlie Stone, Au.D., and Victor Bray, Ph.D., served on this task force and provided input on the response.

ADA will keep members abreast of critical updates on this and other initiatives in the LegistlativeAlert newsletter.

DISCLAIMER: The ADA is dedicated to leadership in advancing practitioner excellence, high ethical standards, professional autonomy, hearing technology, and sound business practices in the provision of quality audiological care.