Hearing aids may seem unaffordable to many seniors, leaving them wondering if Medicare covers the costs or how will they pay for them. These costs can range from somewhat affordable to several thousand dollars. Here are the answers to how Medicare health plans cover hearing aids.
Does Medicare Cover Hearing Aids?
Medicare does not cover hearing aids. According to the Center for Medicare Services (CMS) “Medicare doesn’t cover routine hearing exams, hearing aids, or exams for fitting hearing aids.” However, it does cover certain diagnostic hearing tests. If you qualify for a diagnostic hearing test under Original Medicare, you will still be responsible for the Part B deductible plus 20% of the test.
Does Medigap Cover Hearing Aids?
While Medigap offers additional coverage beyond Original Medicare, Medigap usually does not cover hearing aids. If you have Medigap Plan C or F, it will cover 100% of your Medicare Part B deductible and will pay 100% of the hearing diagnostic test’s coinsurance. This means that you would not pay anything for the diagnostic test.
The exceptions that we can find are in the state of California and Nevada. Anthem Blue Cross now offers a Medigap Plan Innovative F that covers $750 towards hearing aids each year. To learn more about this plan visit Innovative Plan F. Blue Shield of California also brings its Blue Shield Plan F Extra and Healthnet joins with its Innovative F. You can compare all three of them here.
If you turned 65 after 2020 or if you are certain Plan G is a better deal for you, in California you can also find Medigap Innovative G and Medigap G Extra. Both of these plans cover hearing aids and vision.
Does Medicare Advantage Cover Hearing Aids?
Medicare Advantage (MA) plans may cover some of the cost of hearing aids and diagnostic testing but most do not. Remember that MA plans are not standardized so each plan can decide if they want to cover some or none of the cost of hearing aids.
What are My Hearing Aid Coverage Options?
Like we mentioned above, if you live in California, consider new Anthem’s Plan F, Blue Shield F Extra or Healthnet Innovative F that have a hearing aid benefit.
For those in other states we have included a few resources below:
- Medicaid and Medicare combined may help cover hearing aid costs
- Civil Service organizations like Seratoma can help find hearing assistance
- Veteran’s benefits for seniors may help cover the costs