Understanding Medicare Coverage for Your Hearing

Seniors have a variety of health issues to deal with from very simple and easily addressed situations to those that are more complicated and costly. Often, seniors enrolled in Medicare assume that they are covered for certain health issues or procedures and supplies that they are not covered for. 

Especially in light of the current Medicare changes and the resulting situation and confusion these changes have caused, seniors are often unsure of what they are covered for.  Hearing is one of those areas.

Hearing aids are not covered by Medicare.  Original Medicare and basic Medicare Supplemental Plan together cover the cost of a hearing evaluation.  The evaluation is quite extensive and covers exams determining the cause of hearing loss. 

Hearing aids, however, are considered “treatment” and are not covered.  If you have a Medicare Advantage plan you may have some limited coverage of hearing aids.  If you are still partially covered by your employer’s insurance, the hearing aid may be partially covered.  Also, Medicare Advantage will reimburse you from $50 to $300 toward your hearing aid, depending upon which plan you have.  There are also organizations that will help get state assistance to offset part of the cost of your hearing aid.

There are some things you can do to make sure you are paying as little out of your own pocket for a hearing aid as possible.  The first thing is to shop around.  Check various types of hearing aids, see how much they cost and see how well they do for you.  Cost isn’t everything.  Quite often, a less expensive hearing aid will do as well or even better for you than one that is extremely expensive.

You can also contact your local Office on Aging, Department of Rehabilitative Services (DORS), Medicaid office or County Health Department.  Depending upon your income, Medicaid may cover the cost of your hearing aids.  Another reliable source for information is the Hearing Loss Association of America, who can connect you with resources to help with hearing aid information and costs. 

Some legitimate websites to check for funding and financial assistance are: www.icdri.org,  www.hearingloss.org,  www.focusonhearing.org  and  www.listen-up.org.