What people living with aphasia think about the availability of aphasia resources.

Purpose: Obtaining health information and resources can influence an individual's (a) access to services, (b) interactions with health care providers, and (c) ability to manage one's own health needs. The purpose of this study was to gather the perceptions of consumers living with aphasia about resource availability and information needs.

Method: An online survey of consumers in the United States was conducted about the availability of aphasia resources.

HIPAA privacy regulations.

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) impacts all health-care professionals, including speech-language pathologists (SLPs). The administration simplification section of HIPAA includes specific regulations designed to protect the privacy of an individual's health records. These privacy regulations are not designed to impede upon essential health-care practices, but do require that covered providers take reasonable steps to limit the use and disclosure of protected health information.

Home health & speech-language pathology.

When a speech-language pathologist began seeing her patients in their homes instead of in the hospital she quickly learned that home health services were very different from center-based or inpatient services. Surprised by how closely involved she became in the children's and families' lives by going into their homes every week, she began to see her clients in a new way.

Speech-language pathologists add value to home care.

Speech-language pathologists play an important role in the management of home care patients. This article describes the types of patients typically seen, the treatments rendered, and how the home care nurse can refer and work with these important team members.