It is best to approach the need for hearing aids being covered by health insurance coverage with very low expectations. While there are variations from state to state and from one health insurance carrier to the next, as a general rule it is probably best to start out with the assumption that hearing aids will not be covered. Then do your homework on your policy or the ones you are considering when it comes to coverage or non-coverage for such devices. In my experience, coverage for hearing aids in individual major medical plans has been and still is an excluded coverage. The same is true for fully insured group policies that I have been familiar with. Sometimes, a self-insured employer may include coverage for hearing aids in their plan designs but even this is rare in my experience.
Oddly enough, this appears to have been a coverage area overlooked by the Affordable Care Act as well (a head scratcher when you consider all the other things they mandated coverage for). There are stand alone specialty insurance products that individuals and groups can purchase that provide some coverage for hearing aids so it is possible that some people can address their needs in this manner.
I am responding with just ordinary hearing loss and hearing aid issues in mind. The issues can get much more complicated in the cases of infants with issues from birth and the growing use of cochlear implants where arguments over medical necessity are much easier to get into.
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Oddly enough, this appears to have been a coverage area overlooked by the Affordable Care Act as well (a head scratcher when you consider all the other things they mandated coverage for). There are stand alone specialty insurance products that individuals and groups can purchase that provide some coverage for hearing aids so it is possible that some people can address their needs in this manner.
I am responding with just ordinary hearing loss and hearing aid issues in mind. The issues can get much more complicated in the cases of infants with issues from birth and the growing use of cochlear implants where arguments over medical necessity are much easier to get into.