Misleading Hearing Aid Benefits
Hearing aids are expensive. Some devices can be close to $10,000 per side! That’s why it’s no surprise that people are concerned about hearing aid benefits when approaching Medicare.
Although original Medicare itself does not cover hearing aids, many Medicare Advantage plans have started to cover hearing aids as part of the benefit package. Typically you’ll pay anywhere from $200-1000 per side as a co-pay, which can be a substantial savings over the full price of hearing aids.
However, some clients have described the process of getting hearing aids as the same as going through one of those gauntlets to get your free cruise after sitting through 10 different timeshare presentations.
If you do need to get hearing aids and want to go through your Medicare Advantage plan to get them, here are some tips to make sure you save time, money and hassle.
Choose an audiologist that’s in network If you have an audiologist you like to work with or are looking one up, make sure that whoever you go to accepts the Medicare Advantage you’re enrolled in. You can always confirm by calling the number on the back of your insurance card.
Make sure the audiologist prescribes and coordinates with the brand of hearing aids your plan covers
Here’s where most people get tripped up. Just because your audiologist is in the network as a provider, it doesn’t mean that your plan is going to cover your hearing aids. Typically, Medicare Advantage plans that cover hearing aids will have a special deal where they’ll only cover one brand of hearing aids. If you choose another brand or if your audiologist does not offer the covered brand, your visit will be covered but your hearing aids will not be. This usually means you’ll have to start over with someone new.
Understand that there are many models that vary dramatically in price
The third step is to be aware that just because you’ve heard good things about a brand, it doesn’t mean all models from the same brand are created equally. Make sure you understand the price differences since the co-pay differences can be magnitudes apart.
By doing some initial legwork, your process of getting a hearing aid will hopefully be much different than getting a timeshare.
As client of Doctor’s Choice, we welcome you to refer and friends or loved ones navigating Medicare to our team by emailing help@doctorschoiceusa.com or giving us a call at 800-656-0894.