7. Conclusions and Implications for Practice
This study was completed before the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to the points stated above, the current global pandemic has grossly magnified the issue of lack of accessibility to healthcare services. Unfortunately, this lack of accessibility to healthcare has long been part of an ongoing discussion. The pandemic has pushed medical and rehabilitation services to improve access and one of the first steps was giving providers the ability to bill for telehealth services. The smartphone-based platform could positively enhance already-existing telehealth services by offering voice therapy at one’s finger tips and remote patient monitoring. In January 2022, the American Speech–Language and Hearing Association (ASHA) introduced a new family of codes for remote patient monitoring. According to the ASHA, “CMS agreed that these services are important to beneficiaries and will allow therapists—including SLPs (speech-language pathologists)—and certain other nonphysician providers to bill the Remote Therapeutic Monitoring (RTM) codes, as written”. CMS is the center for Medicare and Medicaid Services [