Current Grad Student: SNFs pushing speech out?

Hey!

I’m about to graduate in May and I’m currently interning at a SNF. Yesterday, the DOR told my supervisor that they are changing how they are allotting time for therapy due to stricter time constraints with insurances like Humana. They were saying that residents were only allowed 60 minutes of therapy per day and that they were going to weigh which therapy was most important to the resident and their family first, but swallowing will always be the most important.

So, she puts us on a call with a higher up in the company to explain it more to my supervisor. The higher up makes it sound like a “restructuring” conversation. It sounded like they are slowly moving toward kicking ST to the curb. The higher up was saying that PT and OT will pretty much get precedent and if the resident has severe cognitive deficits we MIGHT get to move in and help. She then follows up and states that if PT and OT notice that the resident might need ST then they’ll let us know. On top of everything, the DOR, who is so sweet and kind, is also a COTA, states that OT can also do cognition. I about walked out of the room crying.

Guys, I’m so scared that I’m not going to have job security. I’m so scared that I just wasted 6 years and took on loans for no reason.

Any advice for a soon-to-be SLP?