Arkansas Rules to Implement Audiology Scope Expansion

The Arkansas Board of Examiners in Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology has finalized rules to implement Act 517 of 2025, which expanded the statutory scope of practice for audiology. The proposed rules update the board’s scope-of-practice provisions to reflect the expanded authorities established by the law.

Under Act 517, the practice of audiology includes “evaluating, diagnosing, managing, and treating auditory or vestibular conditions in the human ear.” The law also specifically authorizes audiologists to prescribe, order, sell, dispense, and fit hearing aids, as well as prescribe, order, sell, dispense, or externally fit sound processors for osseointegrated devices and cochlear implants.

The proposed rules further incorporate several additional activities authorized by Act 517, including:

1. Conducting health screenings;
2. Removing foreign bodies or cerumen from the external auditory canal;
3. Ordering, but not interpreting, cultures and bloodwork related to auditory or vestibular conditions;
4. Ordering and performing in-office, nonradiographic testing of the external auditory canal for evaluation of hearing and balance disorders; and
5. Ordering, but not interpreting, radiographic imaging related to auditory or vestibular conditions.

The proposed rules also mirror Act 517’s limitations, clarifying that audiology does not include surgery, osseointegrated device surgery, cochlear implant surgery, performance of radiographic imaging, or the use or interpretation of cultures, bloodwork, or radiographic imaging to diagnose or treat.