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We Won't Take No for an Answer | Otter.ai

We Won't Take No for an Answer

Jeanette Benigas46min

Jeanette Benigas

00:00

Hey fixers. I'm Dr. Jeanette Benigas, one of the cofounders of fix SLP. Our platform exists to discuss the biggest challenges that are currently holding back the field of speech language pathology. We present the issues with facts and invite you to be a part of joining this movement to make things better one conversation at a time. So let's fix SLP

Jeanette Benigas

00:19

Hey, everybody, welcome back. It's Jeanette and Preston. We have a super exciting episode today. We're gonna be talking to a few people from Arkansas. But before we do that, we have a review. I want to read this is from Steph Lee. She said A plus the wealth of information and knowledge that is being shared makes me feel more powerful as this firm takes root. Well done. Thank you, you guys. We really appreciate those five star ratings and written reviews. They really help bump us up in the podcast recommendations. There's still 100,000 SLPs who need to find us and that's one way they can do it. So if you haven't yet, maybe pause, go rate review. We appreciate it. I'm going to hand this off to Preston, because he is from Arkansas. We've got guests from Arkansas. Preston, Do you want to set this up a little bit? What? Why do we have Arkansas I guess today?

Preston Lewis

01:34

Because we have our first speech therapist that is now practicing and is Medicaid credentialed in Arkansas. And he does not drumroll.

Preston Lewis

01:53

Have the CCC. And it's exciting because now even though the fix SLP map doesn't identify Arkansas requiring Medicaid are acquiring the CCC for Medicaid, Arkansas, by practice has always been asking for CCC cards every year, a group of speech therapists got together several months ago, we reached down and a great email effort, some former classmates of mine in graduate school. And when we had that reach out, we received a very positive response from the state which is we recognize that our credentialing system, the actual laws that exist in Arkansas, don't require the CCC and we have been properly doing this. We are going to change it. And next year, there is going to be a policy change that we're going to rewrite. Okay, that sounds fine. Sierra reached out from wolf wellness and holiday Island, Arkansas. Did I say that? Right? Yes, yes, he did. And she said, look, I've got a speech language pathologist, Zane Rankin, who is trying to onboard with us and we have applied to Arkansas. And we've gotten to denial because he doesn't have an active CCC. And so is there anything that the fixers can do and so using some of those same contacts from when we had reached out to Arkansas Department of Human Services? I reached back out again, and I said, you know, since we're going to change this rule, what about if we have somebody who's already there, since they're acknowledging that they're not applying it correctly? Already? Got a response back within I think, the same day, which was in that the question was this, and this is where the policy and Arkansas was going? Has he ever had a CCC? While I reached back out to Sierra, the answer was yes. And so suddenly, my mind starts spinning. I called Jeanette and I said, How do we find out? What's the record? And we actually have a letter, which is kind of cool, from Asha, verifying that Zane had a CCC. And so we put all this information together, we zip that off to Arkansas DHS, and we got an approval pretty quickly. How was that? How long does that takes here?

Sierra Creason

04:11

It only took 24 hours after I emailed your contact letting him know that we had submitted the CS, so it was pretty awesome. I mean, it was streamlined super fast. It was great.

Preston Lewis

04:22

And now it's my pleasure, Zane, you're with us and you have completed the journey. You've made it. How's it feel?

Zane Rankin

04:29

I'm gonna tell you it feels fantastic. You guys have given me back my professional life, which really was stripped away from me pretty unceremoniously. It was life altering in the worst possible way. And this has been life altering in the best possible way that I want to thank every one of you because you've all helped me tremendously and I thank you.

Preston Lewis

04:56

Yeah, well, you're welcome. My we're happy to do that. That's what we're here for. I'm It was a great success, Jeanette. I it was, I mean, she was forward the day I sent her this information and she texts me right away. I think you had a few tears that day. Didn't you Jeanette?

Jeanette Benigas

05:10

I think that day I was sick. But right now I am in fact crying. Don't cry, don's cry! Because Fix SLP is the only thing that makes me cry.

Preston Lewis

05:23

Yeah. Oh, Zane, I want to go back a little bit. You had the CS at one time? Yes. And tell me a little bit about, you know, what's been going on with you the past few years and the circumstances of how you fell out of those?

Zane Rankin

05:35

Well, it's, it's kind of a long, convoluted story out, I'll distill it. I had some health problems. I was diagnosed with depression a good while back and was promptly put on medication. Well, the medication had a terrible side effect, I immediately began to put on weight. I mean, that day, and I've never stopped and my weight doubled within two years, and then kept going. So I started having issues with my joints, my knees and so forth. And then I was falling off. And, and I was working with small children. At that time. I was considerably larger than I am at this point. And I was a danger to myself and to my clients, to my patients, you know, so the doctor said, listen, we're just going to have to sideline you. He said, This will probably be temporary. And well, it turned out it wasn't so temporary, things just progressively got worse. But anyway, I got put on a medical hold by Asha. And apparently, it's only a 10 year there's a 10 year cap on it, which I reached. But I was never alerted that there was a tenure cap. So I had gone 10 years without having to pay any dues, because I was on a medical retirement as it were. In 2020, in the middle of World Wide COVID. Apparently, I was sent a letter from Asher That stated, your 10 year exemption is up, you have to pay your dues now. Well, I didn't get it. I mean, if I did, I never saw it as just swears. They sent it. I never received it. Mail, men were thrown away bags of mail, if you recall, during COVID, they didn't want to deliver, they were putting bags of mail under bridges and stuff. There was all kinds of crazy stuff going on. But anyway, that's where I landed this, this was the perfect storm. So I missed my payment in 2020. I didn't pay my $230. And they never notified me that I didn't pay, you would think if you were going to take with somebody's professional livelihood, that you would at least then send them a certified letter that said, Hey, are you sure you received nothing? And I contacted Ashley, I said, Gosh, I never received anything a certified letter letting me know that this terrible thing was about to befall me. And they said, well, in your case, they said sometimes we send out certified letters. In your case, we didn't feel it was warranted. And I thought, you know, I studied a work, I sacrificed six and a half years of my life to achieve the speech pathologist profession that I have, and that I love. And to just have it stripped away like that, my gosh, I can't begin to tell you the level of depression that I felt and hopelessness and just my self worth dissipated. But that's where I was. And that's where I've been, and until I met you, you three have altered my existence in the most favorable way.

Jeanette Benigas

08:57

I want to point out that a big issue here is that Asha likely did not find it to be warranted, because they don't view what happened as them stripping away your livelihood or your ability to practice because they maintain that this CCC is optional, and that you do not need it to be a speech pathologist with you through in theory, but in practice, we all know we still have a lot of work to do to make that the truth. And so obviously that's why we exist right now. But yeah, that's That's why because they don't they don't recognize the fact that it has become a requirement in many places.

Zane Rankin

09:47

I cannot understand how that little tag can affect my professional life in such a way nothing has changed. My education is still Same I haven't unlearned anything, nothing has altered. I've never had my CS questioned, they were never, you know, never had a grievance filed against my seat. There's nothing there. I've never had a grievance filed against me in any way, as a professional. I just don't understand why Asha chose to be so punitive. Instead of supportive, which is what they're claiming is they are supposedly there to support and uplift and, you know, help out SLPs. Right. I mean, that's, that's their mission, I thought, but I had my doubts now. Yeah, for lack of a canceled check. They were willing to take away my livelihood. Yeah, in effect, and I mean, that's when you get right down to it. That's the basic truth.

Jeanette Benigas

10:49

And they recognize that they did that. Well, that opens them up to a lawsuit, which is why they will never admit what they did to you was exactly that.

Zane Rankin

11:01

Right. Right. And I went through the process, I appealed their decision, I went through the board, it took a long time. Then, of course, I was summarily denied, you know, they said, We're sticking by what we said you didn't pay your fee. And so that's, you know, that was how that ended.

Sierra Creason

11:19

That was another thing you guys is you guys wanted proof of the seas, and that he had his Asha account and everything. And they could have simply been like, okay, here you go, we're going to email it to you. They made him wait, you know, they said, We're going to mail it. And so he's he's sitting here waiting on this proof of something that he he rightfully paid for and acquired, you know. So that part was a little disheartening to to see that the organization would put him through that. But then he also went in front of the group and, you know, submitted, I think, a formal letter trying to get some kind of reconsideration. And again, they just left him in the dark for so long, just to finally, you know, he approached me later. And we were still kinda in the in between, like, is Medicaid gonna go ahead and do this before 2025? Or are they not? And he, you know, after waiting, I think they made him wait a good two weeks, maybe longer just to tell him? No, we're not even going to consider it. We're not that basically thanks for your submission, but no, thank you kind of thing. And that that was, it's not even me personally, and that that sucked to hear. So

Zane Rankin

12:35

They charged me $35 To send me the letter, stating that I had my seat, they charged me $35, they told me seven to 10 business days before it would arrive. And in 10 business days, I received an email.

Preston Lewis

12:51

Wow.

Sierra Creason

12:52

An electronic copy.

Zane Rankin

12:53

That I paid $35 for.

Preston Lewis

12:55

$35. So contrast for a moment because you did go through the process of getting your state license, I'm sure it went through an inactive period. But you got that brought up to date with the Arkansas speech therapy board. So it sounds like you had a very successful process there kind of balance or kind of a contrast those two for me, if you will, the ASHA experience versus the Arkansas speech therapy board.

Zane Rankin

13:19

Polar opposites. ARKSHA, the state board here has a requirement of 10 continuing education units, you know, per year, and since I had and then they had a maximum of 50 units that had to be caught up if you had been out of the loop as I was for a time. So that's what I did. I completed 50 CPUs to get my state license current which they did with no problem, I paid my fees, I performed what was required of me and my my license is active current and good. With Asha, I asked to do the same thing. I said, Well, you know, cannot cannot pay my fee and get this right is what can I do to get? And they said, Well, no, now you're gonna have to retake. You're gonna have to take the Praxis again. That's that's your only option. If you want your CS back. You have to take the practice. Well, I mean, that's that's an option. But let's be honest, the practice is difficult. It was difficult when I just got out of grad school a quarter of a century ago. It's tough. It's an option. But I don't understand why I would have to retake something that I had already earned, that had never been taken away from me that I had not lost, except through the inaction of paying $230 At the appropriate time. And that was enough for them to remove my livelihood. I mean really...

Preston Lewis

14:54

Sounds like a pyramid marketing scheme, apparently,

Zane Rankin

14:56

Well, it's the only thing I've trained for and when they took away SLP from me. I didn't, I didn't have a viable option to support my family. And I just cannot tell you the emotional stress. And this has just been so awful on the one hand, and so wonderful on the other. I mean, I've just what I've been through the gamut of emotions. And today, I went into work out, I wanted to work out. And so I walked into this little gym in my little town that I live in, to work out. And I just noticed that there was therapy going on in there. And I said to the receptionist, wow, I didn't know you guys did therapy up here. And she said, Yeah. And I said, Well, I'm a medically retired speech pathologist. And she said, Well, how retired Are you? Huh? I don't know what, what's going on? And then she said, Well, you ought to talk to Sierra and I did. And here we are. It's, it's just been incre dible.

Jeanette Benigas

16:00

So when you talk to Sierra, did you disclose that you had lost your C's? Well, and you didn't lose your C's.

Zane Rankin

16:07

I didn't lose them.

Jeanette Benigas

16:08

That they were Yeah, that they were? I don't what are we even saying happened?

Zane Rankin

16:14

Unceremoniously striped. That's how I refer to it. That's how it felt to me.

Jeanette Benigas

16:18

Did you tell her that you were unceremoniously stripped? What did you say to her?

Zane Rankin

16:20

I did? I did. I said, you know, I have an issue. I found out that because when I went to get all current, you know, I was going through all the checks and processes. And of course, I got to ash and then that's when my world just kind of turned upside down. When they hit me with that, and just just said, the well, you can't work.

Jeanette Benigas

16:46

Sierra, what did you think when he told you that?

Jeanette Benigas

16:49

So I mean, he was very upfront about his position. And he was actually, you know, so eager or so excited to potentially get back into the field, that he even discussed, maybe doing a tech position, because that's the, you know, the option that he was in, you know, we couldn't be reimbursed for services because we couldn't credential him with Medicaid. So he was so willing, he applied as a tech and of course, you know, I pursued the Arkansas Medicaid credentialing without the Cs in hopes that they could match the Arkansas State guidelines as they are currently because He is a licensed professional, and he did deserve that reimbursement in that position versus, you know, simply being a tech. Actually a big thank you goes to you guys. When I did the credentialing application for Zane, we automatically got hit with just the basic requirements say, he has to have a CS and the underwriting. It didn't go past underwriting. It didn't go to anyone up top that was able to review and go, Well, hey, this doesn't actually match Arkansas guidelines anymore. So I reached out to pretty sure Preston got with me right away or not right away, but be fairly quick. And then he got me a contact to somebody with the Arkansas Medicaid group and had it not been for you guys. I mean, I was hitting that wall every time even when you call in to Arkansas, Medicaid. And you know, you talk to credentialing, basically, hey, it's a requirement. It's on our checklist, it's not gonna go through with your guys's help, we were able to get him into a much better situation. So...

Preston Lewis

18:37

Credit to you see Sierra because a lot of people in hiring positions would have just said, Oh, well, and moved on, but you really kind of stuck with it. And that's a credit to you. I'm really wanting to know also, how did you find us? How did you find picks? SLP?

Jeanette Benigas

18:51

I've been dying to ask that question to who found so

Sierra Creason

18:54

I do have to also name drop and share our other speech therapists. Her name is Melissa Kucyk. She had been following you guys or had known of your website. And she is the one that clued me in you know, when I brought it to your attention, like because in our area, licensed professionals are harder to come by, right that or they have to travel from pretty far and make a commute to work for us. So she was dying for some help. We just had a very full caseload. And I had told her about Zane and said, but hey, he may only be able to tech for you, which means you still have to work those full days, etc, etc. And she's the one that said hey, look, it's actually not an Arkansas state requirement. And so with Medicaid being Arkansas based, maybe you can push through this, maybe there's somebody at fix SLP that can help you. And that's when I went to the website. I there's an inquiry tab. I clicked on that. They did take a couple of days to get a response there. But then they got me connected with Preston. And once Preston got back with me, we were able to move forward. And yeah, I mean, the rest is history. And I mean, it really is history. Zane is groundbreaking for the state of Arkansas. And it sounds like for several speech therapists.

Jeanette Benigas

20:19

Yeah. And I made a face our listeners can't see what you said, it took a couple days to hear back. That was me. And you're lucky, it was only a couple of days. Because sometimes people wait five weeks for a response, because I have really hard time keeping up with the emails. I was so proud the other night that I had it down to like 17 unanswered emails. And then the next morning, it was back up to over 30. Oh, yeah. So that I was answering emails, whatever day that was!

Sierra Creason

20:53

I'm sure with the volume, if you're the only one responding or one of you people responding, I'm sure it's hard to keep up with. Yeah, I was, you know, just on the website, and just with the little knowledge I had I, right, then I was like, This is a shot in the dark, like, there's no way somebody's gonna get back to me. And when they do, like, what are they really going to be able to do, but I mean, collectively, as a group, we push the envelope, and we made it happen.

Preston Lewis

21:23

I think sometimes it's just about having an alternative. And I sort of went, I was thinking earlier about the Arkansas speech therapy board versus Asha. And this is one of the biggest benefits, I think, to trying to detangle ourselves from this national sort of, you know, credential that's posing as a license sometimes, is that we have exceptions in life, we have things that come up, there are medical issues, there are some times where people may have to move out of the country for a while, or they have to care for a loved one. And if you're calling somebody who's in Rockville, Maryland, and you're trying to make a case for that, there's no meeting that you can go to there's no process that you can really walk down. But in Arkansas, we have a speech therapy board that has regular meetings, if Zane had wanted to drive to Little Rock and meet with them to work this out if he had had to didn't have to, but if he had that option, at least, and we don't have that, and so sometimes it feels like you're dealing with this cold, impersonal phone tree. Is that how you felt Zane?

Zane Rankin

22:27

It is exactly. It's difficult to speak with someone, you get passed off, quite a bit shuffle around, and you feel like you're giving canned answers. A lot of times you're and I'm certain that that's, that's true. I'm sure there are legal requirements that involved that sort of thing, but I don't know it. I just wish it was more personal and more supportive. You know, like, I felt as though it was more punitive than supportive. You know, at least in this instance, you know, for my perception. I'm not down on Ash, I don't I you know, I don't hate Asha. But I think they dropped the ball in this case. I think they could have done better. And I hope they do from here, I hope that somebody wakes up and realize that you know, you are you have people's lives in your hands. It's not just a job, it's, it's be part of your life. You know, it's who you are. I'm a therapist, it's what I do. It's what I love, I get pure joy from working with the kids that I work with. It gives me pure joy in my heart. And it keeps me young and active. And I missed that. And I needed that. And it was taken away from me and but the reason I'm here is because of the three of you, again, have just given me back my professional life and more of my personal life than you realize. It's really had a positive impact in my life to be able to work and interact and, and feel like I'm doing something besides taking up space.

Jeanette Benigas

24:13

So have you started already? Are you exercising this credential yet?

Zane Rankin

24:18

Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am. I have been working. I have been having a great time. I've got a schedule and I hope it just grows and grows. I love where I work. I love wolf therapy out. I'm not gonna lie, I feel I feel a loyalty in a sense of purpose with Wolf because, as Preston said, Sierra could have just said, Ah, you know, that's a lot of trouble. We're not going to mess with dads. You know, he's the guy you know, he's older and, you know, a couple of strikes against me. Maybe we're out there. She didn't see it that way. She worked with me. You worked with me and I am Working, I am seeing kids, I'm a therapist again, and I could not be happier.

Jeanette Benigas

25:05

Um, I'm gonna make a little joke here that if you don't follow our content closely, you might not get but we have listeners who are going to understand this question. I need to know how it feels to have a place of employment that has a yoga studio in it.

Unknown Speaker

25:23

I'm gonna be honest, I don't do a lot of yoga. I probably should. As much as I get up and down on that floor, now it's cool. It's cool.

Jeanette Benigas

25:33

Sierra probably doesn't know. Sierra, the ASHA building that is where headquarters is in Maryland is many floors are many spaces are up for rent. But also it has a yoga studio in it. So we have this huge building with very few Asha employees and a yoga studio.

Preston Lewis

25:58

Yeah, majority or about 50% of that workforce is working from home at any given time.

Jeanette Benigas

26:02

Yeah,

Zane Rankin

26:03

I did not understand that.

Jeanette Benigas

26:05

You gotta feel you gotta click a little harder on that content Zane.

Unknown Speaker

26:09

Well. But we have, we have exercise and you know, we have so many things going on, you know? Yeah. No, I did not realize that you were referring to that. No. That makes perfect sense. To me. That's,

Jeanette Benigas

26:21

It's gonna be the joke next to also, you, neither of you might follow this, where they once told us to cry in our cars to relieve stress and anxiety. It was that during COVID I think it might have been was it was?

Sierra Creason

26:39

I feel like I've even heard that.

Preston Lewis

26:42

Right before. And it was supposed to be tongue in cheek, but it just fell flat.

Zane Rankin

26:47

Yeah, that's There's nothing funny about now.

Sierra Creason

26:49

Well, it was probably too real at the time.

Jeanette Benigas

26:52

Yes. Yeah. And then in some of our email correspondence, Zane, I, I'm gonna read this to everybody, I just I pointed out to you, you really have saved a lot of money by not having your seats. And of course, it wasn't on purpose, you would have never elected to let those C's go. I assume. Zane is... and see Zane, again, you guys can't see. But his picture will be up tonight. He's not old, he came up in a time where you had to have your Cs to practice as a speech pathologist. And so this, this verbiage that we hear often is you worked hard for your C's don't let them go. Zane actually did work hard for his C's, because he came up in a time where not every state had a state license. So you know, you would have never let it go. But by non paying that $225 For 10 years, that was $2,250. If you wanted to go ahead with their plan, and reinstate your CCC that would have been 375, you would have had to pay 146 for the Praxis and so all of that you saved $2,271 Right there. And because it's been a minute, since you've been in grad school, if you did decide you wanted to take that practice again, which is saying I've failed it. It's it's not that bad to fail. But but if you wanted to try, you probably would have had to purchase some kind of review course or review book. So there would have been more costs on top of that. But with that excluded $2,271 Is what you saved. And that's something to think about too, because a lot of peep not again, you didn't let it go on purpose. This wasn't a choice. But people who choose to stay at home and raise their children and then want to go back later. And they're paying that CCC almost like an insurance like what if I want to go back someday, it might be worth you know, paying a little bit of money to let it go. And because you start getting into the savings after a bunch of years that paying that much money might not be worth it, you could just actually take the practice again study a little bit. And I always say to you need to have more than a year you're in you don't have to retake it. But you need to have more confidence in yourself. Because if you've stayed up in the area where you practice, you are at least 50% ready for that test. Because you you pass that thing out of grad school with very little information in your brain and no actual real experience. And I see students pass it all the time who don't know what they're doing. So if a practicing clinician has kept up, they should be at least 50% prepared and then you just gotta brush up on the rest. So I think sometimes we don't give ourselves enough credit because of kind of a spirit of fear. A lot of SLPs live in fear. And so we shouldn't have to be afraid For something like that, but it's awesome. And it's also good that Arkansas didn't make you retake it because I didn't hear you say that, that you had to

Zane Rankin

30:08

No, Arkansas was very accommodating and getting my license up to date. And, you know, I did everything they asked, and they gave me my license promptly, you know, no fuss, no moss, which is wonderful. And if as you could have done the same, you know, I wouldn't be here right now.

Jeanette Benigas

30:27

So Sierra is Wolf Wellness, mainly billing Medicaid, is that why it was such a problem? Because he would have been able to bill other insurances.

Sierra Creason

30:37

At the time of Zane's application. And when he approached us, we were moving into our summer months, where Melissa, our main or our first speech therapist, she was doing school based therapy for us, and was really wanting a break in transitioning, wanting more adult patients. And our main one to move forward was was Medicaid because he was taking up seeing Melissa's pediatric caseload at the time. So I just simply breeze through the the enrollment applications. I haven't. Actually, if I made 100% honest, I haven't actually fully submitted it to any other insurance. So I just assumed with Medicaid denying me initially needing the Cs, I assumed it was the same scenario. But I mean, right now, we just have Zane working with kiddos. But he did want to move forward with a more full time position. So as our adult caseload grows, of course, my one of my jobs at work Wellness Center is credentialing. And we accept all insurances we always have. So definitely going to move forward with Medicare and all the others just to see, you know, if we run into any more roadblocks, or if Medicaid was our only one.

Jeanette Benigas

31:57

Yeah, let's, let's keep staying in touch about that stuff. So we can keep reporting it to people. Because...

Preston Lewis

32:02

Yeah, this is our passion. You know, if you run into any obstacles whatsoever, call Jeanette or email me, I'll grab my Lance, and like Don Quixote will just take out after the windmills. Right.

Zane Rankin

32:14

Can I throw a question to you guys? I'm sorry, Sierra, I didn't mean to interrupt you. No, go ahead. Go ahead. Well, I just a question popped in my head for Jeanette and Preston, what was the impetus for you to to get this ball rolling here? I mean, what, what got you started on this mission?

Jeanette Benigas

32:35

How much time do we have? We've shared it a couple times. So I'll try to make it a quick story. There's been a lot of upheaval in the field of speech pathology over the last, I don't know, four ish years with ASHA kind of taking punitive actions on people who really didn't do things for certain reasons. And, you know, people serving cease and desist letters to others in the field and, and Asha, not doing anything about it. And I've just kind of sat back and watched all of this happen and thought, we really need a place to have grassroots movements for to put these kinds of things out through a centralized place. And I kind of had this vision, and it came to be met SLP advocate. So I started a platform and kind of had this vision to do something like that. In the process, I got connected with a bunch of other SLPs, who are just like trailblazers in the field doing awesome things. And we did some research, we did something called the SLP Data Initiative, where we put out a survey we had over 7000 respondents over 5000 completed the entire survey, and then the rest is partially and we were able to see what people thought were strengths and weaknesses in the field. So we could kind of start putting out reasonable solutions to the problems people identified. And in that process with a colleague, we started exploring that more. And we started learning about Asha and their ability to take action or not take action through all of these events. And we just, we kind of landed on the fact that the CCC is a product and that they are a business and because of the FTC and the Sherman Act, and all of these other things, that sometimes they can't take action, literally the federal government is protecting them. And so we started exploring that more and we started learning this and couldn't help but share it and it just started going viral. We established in September hasn't even been a year and now we have pretty darn close we're at about like 47,000 followers across Facebook and Instagram, I think pretty darn close to 50. I'd love to see 50 by one year just for fun, but yeah, we We do it for free. But we have sustaining partners now who pledge like $5 a month or more to help us pay for the platform and the subscription. And they're, you know, there's a lot of cost now, we're making some movements in Michigan where lots of SLPs have been sending mail to their, their state representatives. So we've been funding the postage on that. And so it's just, it's been a whirlwind. And there was never a plan for this. But I guess it was more of like, some in justices were recognized. And in looking for solutions on how to stop these things from happening, there was just a lot of personal growth and learning and how can you not share that when you feel like you're being duped really?

Zane Rankin

35:47

Well, thank goodness for you. Thank you.

Jeanette Benigas

35:51

So, of course, we were already going viral. But of course, then when Asha announced that they were raising their rates in February, it just, the crowd went wild. And so somewhere in there after February, Preston started making these profound posts on Facebook that I couldn't help but notice. And so we connected and talked to him about possibly consulting here and there and now like, how can you not love Preston? So he's just a formal part of the team. And as an old radio guy fits perfectly in on this podcast, and yeah, things are just falling into place. So that's kind of how they started.

Preston Lewis

36:32

I'm just a recovering politician trying to look out for the working class therapists. That's basically it.

Zane Rankin

36:38

Well, thank you so much for what you do.

Preston Lewis

36:42

We're excited that's great.

Jeanette Benigas

36:44

Yeah.

Preston Lewis

36:45

Anything else you guys want to ask or say? I mean, we're, we're just delighted. This has been like the most fun I've had doing. Yeah.

Zane Rankin

36:53

Preston did you say you're an old radio guy?

Preston Lewis

36:56

Yeah, I used to do a lot of sports broadcasting. Back in the day. I was. Did a lot of basketball, football, University of Arkansas, Little Rock, University of Arkansas women's basketball team. Yeah, that was

Zane Rankin

37:10

Yeah, your voice sounds very familiar. I'm an old DJ from back in the late 70s. I was a disc jockey way back when up in Batesville, Batesville, Arkansas independence County. Yeah. Independence County. That's right. Yeah.

Preston Lewis

37:25

Yeah, I think that that radio bug, it's still kind of bites now. And then and it's it's

Zane Rankin

37:30

It's hard to get out.

Preston Lewis

37:33

I often say I have a face for radio too.

Zane Rankin

37:35

That... Well, the same.

Jeanette Benigas

37:39

That explains both of your professional looking microphones.

Zane Rankin

37:45

I'll do a little podcasting. Every now and then just different things and not so professional.

Preston Lewis

37:52

Sierra are your Are you a speech language pathologist? Or what's your role in the Wolf therapy clinic?

Sierra Creason

37:58

So I'm not a licensed therapist. I'm in a health and wellness administrator, and I'm billing coding specialists. I'm the office manager and do all the admin for Wolf Wellness Center.

Jeanette Benigas

38:11

And why don't you tell us about Wolf Wellness Center because I've looked on the website, so I know about it, but most people aren't gonna know. And it's kind of a cool concept.

Sierra Creason

38:21

Yeah, so wolf Wellness Center and 24/7 Fitness is outpatient therapy. So occupational, physical and speech. We have a 24/7 fitness center, which is really great when it comes to the rehab side of things for our postdoc patients and our stroke patients because as they start to progress, we can actually transition them over to the gym instead of saying, Hey, here's a workout program, try it out on some equipment, figure it out, we actually get to take them over there their last few visits and really implement their home program on the equipment. So then we're never just scooting somebody out the door, just unknowing, you know what's next for them. But we also provide school based therapy in Berryville School District, and we've done that for eight years now. And then we have the awesome wellness amenities. So we've got a full spectrum, sauna, a infrared, it's full spectrum, infrared, and then a red light therapy, the full spectrum infrared sauna, and we actually are even able to use as like an additional modality for some of our patients. So we have some neuropathy patients that once they're in there three days a week, they can really tell the difference. We also have a program for oh, why is it slipping my mind? Fibromyalgia There we go. We have a program for fibromyalgia and it includes the full spectrum sauna. So yeah, Sheila Wolff, the owner has really keyed in the importance of the extra Sighs but also some of the treat yourself wellness amenities to then we kind of use that with a large majority of our patients that come here. And then aside from the main clinic and holiday Island, where Zane spends most of his time with wellness centers, our pediatric clinic, it's in Eureka Springs. And we have, I want to say close to 35, kiddos on caseload that they see and impact their lives with developmental delays and things like that. So we're just all around trying to touch the lives of everyone and then Arkansas so

Preston Lewis

40:37

and holiday Island, that part of Northwest Arkansas is really gorgeous. Probably the one of the prettiest parts of the state. I'm overdue for a visit to Northwest Arkansas. So Zane, Sierra, I'm going to give you a call. Let's have a cold drink. And I'd love to meet you guys in person.

Zane Rankin

40:54

Preston Come see. Yes, absolutely.

Sierra Creason

40:56

Yeah, I will take you out on the lake and let you see some of the sights around here. I mean, every drive you think, Gosh, it's a curvy, long, long drive. I mean, we don't live really close to a whole lot. But once you get on the drive, and you're looking around, I mean, everything is beautiful here.

Zane Rankin

41:13

Oh, it is.

Jeanette Benigas

41:15

35 kids on caseload is not. I know, that's not a lot relatively speaking to what some of our school SLPs manage, but that just putting the number 35 with the word kids gives me a lot of anxiety. I'm a I'm a medical adult medical person. 35 kids might kill me so good for you.

Sierra Creason

41:39

That's actually and that's in addition to our full caseload, you know, over 100 kiddos at the Berryville school district. So we've got an occupational we've got an occupational therapist, or speech therapist and one of our occupational therapy assistants that they work all day in the schools during the school year. And then they come in, they see a few kiddos at the outpatient clinic. So I mean, their patience and their kindness is just a match.

Jeanette Benigas

42:07

Awesome.

Preston Lewis

42:10

We're happy that it worked out. We're happy that we increased access to care. In the natural state and we're excited. And, guys, I just want to stay in touch. That'd be great.

Jeanette Benigas

42:19

Yeah. To both of you. Congratulations for being awe... Like... I feel like you're more elevated than a fearless fixer. We need to come up with another name for the King and Queen fearless fixers. Amazing work. Thanks for trusting us to help you with this process - for reaching out. It was so overwhelming to hear this news. And just so exciting because helping people and making impactful changes is what keeps driving us. So hearing from you and getting this good news is... it just keeps us going. So thank you. Thank you for being able to coming on and just doing this even willing to take your hour of your time to be on the podcast.

Zane Rankin

43:06

Well yes, ma'am. It's just my pleasure. And I would like to personally thank Wolf Wellness for for taking a chance on me. I would like to thank the Fix SLP which I was unaware of. But now consider me an advocate, a strong advocate for Fix SLP and I will be wanting to know more about your organization and how I can help moving forward. Absolutely.

Preston Lewis

43:38

You guys are the trailblazers.

Jeanette Benigas

43:40

Yea, for sure!

Zane Rankin

43:41

I did nothing I was just I was pulled along blissfully. I feel like I didn't do anything. I honestly didn't know what was going on for much of it. I had no idea that that I was recoverable. And I just cannot thank you enough. Wolf Wellness Sierra, Sheila, Jeanette, Preston, Fix SLP you guys. Wow. I can't say enough good things about you. Thank you.

Jeanette Benigas

44:16

You're welcome. Well, with that everybody will say thanks for fixing it!

Jeanette Benigas

44:25

Sierra is your mom um, is she a member of the like, is it NBCOT?

Sierra Creason

44:33

Yeah, the NBCOT. Yeah. So I mean, we like clockwork renew and everything. We've never had a situation where they are unwilling to reach out to us. We're busy her and I both stay very busy. So I'm very grateful that they send their emails they send their letters, you know, they keep us up to date. Um, But thankfully nothing along those lines have have happened for her even during the COVID times.

Jeanette Benigas

45:07

Well it's not required. That's the that's the thing is that? Oh yeah, in PT OT and speech the only other thing that is even somewhat comparable is that certification but from NBCOT. But it's not required like the CCC is and it's not sold by Is it AOTA is that? Yeah, it's not sold by AOTA it's sold by another organization and so

Sierra Creason

45:37

That must explain why I couldn't wrap my brain around what Zane was telling me at first I'm like, so you have a license? And he's like, Yes, I have an active license, it's right here. And I'm like, oh, okay, you know, like, what? How could they put you in this position? You know, just over a certification. You know, you have your professional license. And so that was, you know, my, my understanding for what's quote, you know, like what's truly required and not required, I'll be honest, I do the paperwork and the billing but in my mind, you know, because I'm more familiar with the OT things when he said, You know, I have my license, but not my Cs and it's causing me this, this big hiccup. I'm like, you know, why? I just didn't I didn't have quite a knowledge and understanding. So yeah,

Jeanette Benigas

46:29

Yean, it is literally just a certification.

Preston Lewis

46:33

And I would dare to say that probably at least, at least still 50% of our field is just, you know, after three generations of just kind of being ingrained within us. There's still so much of our field that just still doesn't understand that. I think that is their license.

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