IHS is issueing a call to tell the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) that their current policy is NOT RECOGNIZING Hearing Aid Specialists as full providers. This policy MUST BE CHANGED to provide the convenience and access to professional services that our Veterans are due.

Your action is crucial; we need providers AND Veterans to make their voices heard.

Please send comments to the Department of Veterans Affairs by 12/28, the comment deadline, to let the VA know how the existing policy is negatively impacting Veterans in your area.  

Don't stop there; encourage all the Veterans in your life - family, friends, clients, and potential clients - to send a letter urging the VA to permit hearing aid specialists to perform hearing evaluations through the Non-VA Care program, which is the VA's mechanism for contracting with outside providers.

Currently VA clinics are permitted to contract with hearing aid specialists to fit and dispense hearing aids when the clinics cannot fill the need for services. However, only state licensed audiologists are permitted to perform hearing evaluations. With a backlog of hundreds of thousands of Veterans in need of evaluations for service-related disabilities, including hearing loss and tinnitus, hearing aid specialists can help. Hearing aid specialists are appropriately trained and credentialed by the states to perform comprehensive hearing evaluations, and are also uniquely qualified to help with access issues since they often service rural areas and perform home visits.  

Letters can be submitted through regulations.gov; by mail to Director, Regulation, Policy and Management (02REG), Department of Veterans Affairs, 810 Vermont. Ave. NW, Room 1068, Washington, DC 20420, or by fax to 202-273-9026. Comments must indicate they are submitted in response to "RIN 2900-AO46 - Authorization for Non-VA Medical Services". Please send a copy of all comments sent to IHS for their records.

Finally, we invite all interested parties (professionals, Veterans, etc.)  to share their name and contact information if you/they would like to be informed of future updates on this issue or get involved in IHS's "Fit to Serve" campaign, which will be officially launched in 2013.

Thank you for your action to this very important request. With questions, contact Alissa Parady by e-mail or phone, 571-212-8596.