Medicaid Support For Hearing Aids
The health conditions of individuals may be supported financially by two types of public health insurance; Medicare and Medicaid health insurance, which covers the individual’s medical, surgical and prescription expenses.
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These two public health insurance programs are funded by different parts of the government, the state or federal. The health coverage they provide is specific to certain groups of individuals that range from those with disabilities to older people over sixty-five years of age.
Medicare is a federally run program that provides health coverage to those that are above sixty-five years of age and for those with disabilities irrespective of their income. In contrast, Medicaid is a state and federal funded system that offers health coverage to only those that have meagre incomes.
Do Medicare offer coverage for medical treatments involving hearing issues and a hearing aid?
Medicare health insurance programs, however, do not pay for all medical expenses incurred by the insured programs and are divided into parts (part A to part D) depending on the health coverage they provide.
Medicare Part A: Medicare part A is hospital insurance that provides health coverage for individuals, hospital care, health services and nursing health care.
Medicare Part B: Medicare Part B is a medical insurance program that provides two types of coverage services, medical and preventative services such as hospitalization for mental illness (inpatient & outpatient), durable medical equipment, ambulance services and clinical research. It also covers screening test together with preventative services such as bone mass measurement, glaucoma test, cardiovascular disease screening, HIV screening, and sexually transmitted disease screening
Medicare Part C: Medicare part C is health insurance that includes the services of private insurance. It comes with an advantage plan that covers a few health conditions that are not covered by a medicare service — such as the examination of hearing loss.
Medicare Part D: Medicare part D is primarily a drug coverage plan that deals with the expenses of an individual’s medication expenses. However, there are two types of drug plans that depend on the quota the insured will pay in the overall medication expenses. The types of drug plans are top tier and low tier, in which the low tier drugs are inexpensive when compared to that of the high tier.
There are several items that are not covered by a Medicare health insurance program, and the individual suffering from such will have to pay the entire medical expenses such as hearing aids, foot care, dental care, cosmetic surgery, eye care, acupuncture and dentures. All of which may be due to the intermittent demand for medical attention regarding these health conditions and their inexpensive characteristics.
The Medical Act of 1965 clearly excluded the hearing aids coverage because they were regularly or intermittently needed and low in cost leaving affected individuals with the responsibility of the total expenses that come with the treatment of hearing loss with the use of hearing aid (Sensorineural hearing loss). However, there are instances whereby medicare health insurance provides coverage for the diagnosis of hearing and balance examination, but this occurs only with the referral of your doctor or another physician to check if your current condition will need medical treatment. Hence, individuals with hearing issues can not go to a hearing clinic for treatment and expect medicare to sort out their expenses without the referral of a doctor or any other physician. Furthermore, among the several Medicare plan parts that offer several health coverages, only part C may provide coverage for hearing aids primarily due to the involvement of a private health insurance body.
Do Medicaid health insurance program offer coverage for hearing aid
Medicaid health insurance offers coverage for the diagnosis, treatments and procedures for hearing issues that also include the use of hearing aids. But the age and state of residence are significant factors that influence this coverage. All individuals under twelve years of age suffering from hearing loss —that is, children can receive treatments for their hearing issues as well as hearing aid anywhere in the United States so long as they are on Medicaid. On the contrary, adults who have hearing loss may be beneficiaries of the health insurance coverage that comes from Medicaid; however, it depends on their state of residence.
Medicaid coverage policies for hearing loss treatment and a hearing aid in several states are different. Medicaid covers individuals with hearing problems that range from mild to severe in states such as NJ, ND, OR, WY, MT and FL. On the contrary, several other states only offer Medicaid coverage on the basis of the patient’s audiologist referral—that is, without the recommendation of hearing aid to a patient by an audiologist, Medicaid will not cover the incurred expenses. These states include the following: HI, RI, MA, NE and WI.
There are two government-funded health insurance — that is, Medicare health insurance and Medicaid health insurance that offers coverage to medical, surgical and prescription expenses incurred by the patient. But, Medicare health insurance does not offer general coverage for several health conditions. They come with limitations that may leave the patients with the responsibility of paying for all their incurred expenses without any discount. These health conditions may include hearing problems and hearing aid, foot care, dental care and cosmetic care. But if the patient has Part C Medicare health insurance, they will benefit from hearing problems and hearing aid expenses coverage. The other factor that may allow the patients to benefit from Medicare coverage is a referral from an audiologist or any other physician. Hence, without the following factors, one will have to pay for all expenses incurred from the treatment of hearing loss that may come with a hearing aid.
A Medicaid health insurance program offers coverage for all expenses incurred from the diagnosis and treatment of hearing problems and hearing aid. The coverage, however, depends on two factors —such as the patient’s age and state of residence. However, it covers the expenses of underage individuals —that is, children in every state in the United States. The adults’ coverage is limited to several states, because not all states offer such coverage for adults with hearing problems.
