Cognitive-communicative disorders of right cerebrovascular accident patients and reimbursement for treatment

Speech-language pathologists frequently diagnose and treat individuals with cognitive-communicative disorders, but they sometimes encounter difficulty receiving reimbursement for those services from third-party payers. Often, reimbursement becomes an issue because the documentation provided fails to emphasize the linguistic and communication aspects of treat-ment that are precisely the components that make the speech-language pathologist's role with this population unique. By analyzing how the elements of language, cognition, and communication are interactively affected for each patient and by emphasizing those relationships in treatment, speech-language pathologists can communicate the importance of their role in the treatment process and increase the likelihood of reimbursement for services.