AUDIOLOGY ADVOCATE | The Audiology/Speech-Language Pathology Interstate Licensure Compact Is Operational—Now What?

By Susan Pilch

This article is a part of the July/August 2021, Volume 33, Number 4, Audiology Today issue.

Ten states (Alabama, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Nebraska, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Utah, West Virginia, and Wyoming) have passed legislation to implement the Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology Interstate Licensure Compact (ASLP-IC) and now the compact is officially operational. Implementing legislation was pending in a number of additional states as this issue of Audiology Today went to press.

The ASLP-IC will allow state-licensed audiologists and speech-language pathologists to apply for a privilege to practice in other participating states and enable them to provide services across state lines—either in person or through telepractice. This flexibility is needed in today’s health-care marketplace to help promote continuity of care for patients who travel or relocate, as well as to facilitate job mobility for providers.  

Because each state that participates in the compact will continue to regulate the actual practice of audiology and maintain its individual scope of practice, states will not cede any regulatory autonomy. In addition, states that participate in the compact will be able to share provider disciplinary actions, providing an additional layer of consumer protection. 

Organizing the Compact Commission

While efforts will continue to encourage more states to pass similar legislation, the focus will now shift to organizing the compact commission, an independent coordinating organization that will administer the compact on the states’ behalf. Each state participating in the compact will appoint two delegates to the commission—one audiologist and one speech-language pathologist. 

The state licensing board, or a comparable regulatory body, will have the ability to appoint the delegates. The commission will be governed by the terms of the compact, which provides the authority for the commission to create bylaws, rules, and policies for self-governance.

The commissioners must function within the terms and limitations of the compact and the bylaws, rules, and policies the commission approves. A supporting data system will be put into place to allow for the electronic processing of interstate licensure documentation.