Medicare's Shortsighted Policy on Hearing Loss

Medicare's wrong headed policy about the coverage of hearing aids may be about to get worse. There's already a specific statute in the Medicare law prohibiting coverage for hearing tests and hearing aids.

Seniors with hearing loss either pay for them (at 6,000 dollars or more for a pair), buy a cheap substitute (a PSAP–personal sound amplifying program), or quietly go deaf.

And I do mean quietly. Most older people with untreated hearing loss simply retreat from active life, because it's not that enjoyable when you can't hear. They isolate themselves, which is a strong risk factor for cognitive decline and dementia. They're at a greater risk for falls, because hearing loss is associated with dizziness. If they're still in the workplace, they probably give up and go on unemployment. None of these things are good for their health, or for our country's economy.

Now Medicare is proposing to withdraw coverage for a kind of hearing aid that is surgically implanted. The Bone Anchored Hearing Aid, or BAHA. No one would go this route unless they were seriously hearing impaired, but Medicare doesn't seem to think this is reason enough to cover them.

What's really interesting is to read the relevant passage in the CMS proposal. Medicare won't even save a significant amount of money on this!

Here's the passage:

c. Proposed clarification of the statutory Medicare hearing aid coverage exclusion stipulated at section 1862(a)(7) of the Act. This proposed rule proposes to clarify the scope of the Medicare coverage exclusion for hearing aids and withdraw coverage of bone anchored hearing aids. This proposal would not have a significant fiscal impact on the Medicare program, because the Medicare program expenditures for bone anchored hearing aids during the period CY2005 through CY 2013 are less than $9,000,000. This proposed rule, if finalized, would provide further guidance about coverage of DME with regard to the statutory hearing aid exclusion. The proposed rule, if finalized, would leave unchanged coverage of cochlear implants and brain stem implants.