Instrumental Assessments: Importance, Value, and Payment.

The article discusses the importance, value and payment of instrumental swallowing assessments. It reveals that payers, including Medicare, Medicaid and private plans, may not pay for instrumental studies because they often assume that bedside assessments provide the same level of clinical information. The Amercian Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) has been advocating with payers to recognize and cover instrumental swallowing assessments.