{"id":13727,"date":"2022-11-29T22:11:28","date_gmt":"2022-11-29T22:11:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ziphearing.com\/blog\/?p=13727"},"modified":"2023-09-26T15:30:32","modified_gmt":"2023-09-26T15:30:32","slug":"hearing-health-news-november-22","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ziphearing.com\/blog\/hearing-health-news-november-22\/","title":{"rendered":"Hearing Health News – November ’22"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

CMS proposes direct access to audiologists<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), has recently finalized an exception to the physician order requirement for certain diagnostic testing services to broaden patient access to services furnished by audiologists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This means that by (we think) July 2023, Medicare Part B beneficiaries will be able to directly access an audiologist for a hearing test (once every 12 months), without a doctor\u2019s referral. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We think this is a great development for Medicare beneficiaries and is overdue. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Audiologists have long fought for their services to be directly accessed, and CMS is finally acknowledging that people are capable of recognizing a loss of hearing and removing barriers to accessing audiologists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sonova pulls products from Costco<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

That headline could also read, \u2018Costco pulls Sonova from its shelves,\u2019 because we\u2019re not entirely sure what went down here. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What we do know is that as early as the first week of October we started hearing from our customers that they were being told they could no longer buy the Kirkland Signature 10.0 hearing aids from Costco. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Costco has not made a formal announcement, but rumor is that the KS 10.0 product was pulled due to reliability issues. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is a bit surprising, because the KS 10.0 was a very similar product to the Phonak Aud\u00e9o Paradise<\/a>, and we didn\u2019t notice any reliability issues with the thousands that we sold. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We then learned late Novemeber via an email announcement from Sonova to its providers, that the company has decided to cease offering Phonak branded hearing aids \u201cin certain large retail chains.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Phonak hearing aids were available in Costco for nearly 10 years\u2014and they were an incredibly compelling offering. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We continue to have tremendous confidence in Phonak, and their latest flagship model, Aud\u00e9o Lumity<\/a>, is currently our best selling hearing aid nationwide. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

HP throws their hat in the OTC hearing aid ring<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

After mastering the printer business \ud83d\ude42, HP has recently launched the \u2018HP Hearing PRO\u2019 OTC hearing aid. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Available at BestBuy<\/a>, among other retail outlets, these new OTC hearing aids start at $699 for the pair. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
The HP Hearing Pro doesn’t look like a traditional hearing aid\u2014 it follows the design trends adopted by many competing Hearable and PSAP manufacturers. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

While I\u2019ve yet to get my hands on a pair, so far, this is the most impressive OTC hearing aid I\u2019ve seen. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It comes in several hundred dollars less than competing models from Sony and Bose, and is the first OTC hearing aid I\u2019ve seen that can stream audio from the user\u2019s phone to the hearing aids. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

HP Hearing PRO is self-fitted, designed for users with mild to moderate hearing loss, and like all OTC hearing aids, does not require an audiologist\u2019s support. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Using the soon-to-be-released HP Hearing App, users can self-test their hearing and the devices will automatically program themselves. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The setup process is about 15 minutes, and HP claims it is \u2018substantially equivalent\u2019 to a professionally fitted hearing aid. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The app will then allow users to control settings such as volume, and microphone directionality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are a few downsides to be aware of\u2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rechargeable li-ion batteries only last 8 hours.<\/strong> They\u2019ll probably last even less than that if a user is doing any Bluetooth streaming\u2014I\u2019d bet that cuts battery life up to a third. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The occlusion effect. <\/strong>It\u2019s a well-known problem with in-the-ear hearing aids. When you wear a hearing aid like HP Hearing Pro, you are much more likely to complain of a feeling that you\u2019re talking in a barrel, like you have a head cold. These devices tend to plug up the wearer\u2019s ears more than other OTC devices on the market, and soon enough we\u2019ll see by way of reviews how users are feeling about this (likely) problem. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those downsides aside, overall this is an impressive device\u2014 here\u2019s to hoping HP doesn\u2019t eventually require users to buy Authentic HP Batteries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CMS proposes direct access to audiologists Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), has recently finalized an exception to the physician order requirement for certain diagnostic testing services to broaden patient access to services furnished by audiologists. This means that by (we think) July 2023, Medicare Part B beneficiaries will be able to directly access […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":13740,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ziphearing.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/hphearing.png?fit=1024%2C576&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ziphearing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ziphearing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ziphearing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ziphearing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ziphearing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13727"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/www.ziphearing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13727\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13911,"href":"https:\/\/www.ziphearing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13727\/revisions\/13911"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ziphearing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ziphearing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ziphearing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ziphearing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}