Medicare Legislation Introduced in the House Effort Underway to Eliminate the Need for a Physician Referral

The profession has been preparing for the introduction of legislation to allow Medicare patients direct access to audiology services for nearly a decade. In 1998, federal employees were provided assess to direct-care audiology services. In 2000, Federal Blue Cross Blue Shield was the primary carrier who took advantage of hearing and balance services provided by an audiologist. This year, the federal government took steps to insure a consistent definition of an audiologist by updating the Medicaid definition. Medicaid will make a final decision by the end of the year. Comments on the new decision were 20-1 in favor of the change. Now that the audiologist is an established federal provider of hearing and balance services and that the federal definition of the profession is consistent between agencies, the profession is now poised for the next step.

Last week, AAA organized the effort to introduce H.R. 2821 the "Hearing Health Accessibility Act". Representative Jim Ryun (R-KS) a long time friend of audiology sponsored this legislation along with Representative Lois Capps (D-CA). Prior to his election to Congress, Representative Ryun attended a number of ADA Conventions.

The bipartisan legislation will allow Medicare beneficiaries the option of going directly to a qualified audiologist for hearing and balance diagnostic services. As you are aware, Medicare currently requires that beneficiaries with hearing loss or balance disorders obtain a physician referral before seeing an audiologist.

What can you do to help?
Without your help, government regulators would not currently recognize the profession. Our goal is to attract 100 co-sponsors of this legislation. We need you to copy the letter of support from https://www.audiologist.org/ and fax it on your letterhead to your Congressional representative. You can locate your representative's fax number in Washington at https://www.house.gov. Then please fax your letter of support to 410-298-6333. ADA will schedule a follow-up visit with your representative to insure they understand the value of audiology services for Medicare recipients. If you have any questions, contact Craig Johnson cjohnson@audiologist.org or 410-944-3100).