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Committee advances SB 118 to align audiology law with federal regs; senators seek minor clarifications
Summary
SB 118, which updates Arkansas law to modernize audiologists’ scope to order certain tests, remove ear foreign bodies and reduce unnecessary specialist visits, passed the Public Health Committee after proponents said it will speed care and opponents urged clearer guardrails on diagnostic authority.
Senate Bill 118, described by its supporters as a technical modernization of the state’s Audiology Practice Act, passed the Senate Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committee after testimony for and against the bill.
Hope Gillison, an audiologist with more than two decades of experience, testified that SB 118 “streamlines the referral process by eliminating unnecessary visits that result in long wait times for patients,” and said the bill would let audiologists order scans and blood work when seeking specialty care so that patients arrive at specialist appointments with critical diagnostic information already completed.
Amin Amlani, president of the Academy of Doctors of Audiology and a former program chair at the University of…
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