Saturday 9:00 - 11:00

ALD’s and Real Ear Measurement

William Dickinson, AuD
Assistant Professor, Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences
Vanderbilt University Medical Center

Even though real ear measurements (REM) have long been accepted as the gold standard for the fitting and verification of proper hearing aid function, there have been continued reports of inconsistent use. Such data focuses exclusively on using REM to facilitate a proper match to the prescriptive target of the individual patient. Often overlooked, is the opportunity to utilize REM equipment to verify and demonstrate the effective function of advanced hearing aid features, hearing aid accessories and various hearing assistive technologies. Such verification measures are not restricted to the application of prescriptive targets, but rather are objective measures to demonstrate the effectiveness of advanced signal processing, specialized hearing aid features or verify proper function of accessories and assistive devices. It has been demonstrated that utilizing real ear measures beyond a prescriptive target match will improve the overall success and outcomes of the traditional hearing aid fitting process, as well as improve the compliance rate of patients accepting recommended hearing aid accessories and/or assistive devices. This presentation will provided meaningful real-world strategies using non-traditional REM techniques to improve the final outcomes for the selection, fitting and fine-tuning of hearing instruments and assistive technologies. CEU: 0.2

Coding, Reimbursement and Practice Management Issues:
Positioning for the Present and the Future?

Deb Abel, AuD
Director of Reimbursement and Practice Compliance
American Academy of Audiology

With a perfect storm of continued decreases in codes per the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule, an unstable economy, increased competition from many venues, the bundling of our services, and many hearing aid contracts that are not all beneficial, considerations for practice stability will be discussed for capturing reimbursement to enable quality hearing care. CEU: 0.2