Abstract
Healthcare reform brought about many changes in the healthcare industry including
the hearing aid delivery model. Third-party payers (TPPs) became a growing trend with
health insurance companies. The traditional hearing aid delivery model changed from
provider and patient to provider, TPP, and patient. Due to the insertion of this middle
man, profit can be diminished from the hearing aid sale, along with processes. Based
on this decrease in revenue, decisions need to be made if using a TPP is profitable
or even affordable for a clinic. Recent polls indicate more than half of those clinics
polled currently do not participate with TPPs.
Keywords
third-party payer - private pay - dispensing fees - hearing aids - healthcare reform
