What's happening
This bill creates a five-year pilot program in Westchester County allowing certain medical professionals to dispense hearing aids for profit under specific disclosure requirements.
Why it matters
Could increase patient access and convenience. By allowing audiologists and hearing aid dispensers employed by otolaryngologists to directly sell hearing aids, patients might experience fewer steps and faster access to needed devices, streamlining care within the same medical office.
Introduces new transparency requirements. The law mandates that patients receive a written statement disclosing the provider’s profit from hearing aid sales and a list of five alternative dispensers, aiming to promote informed consumer choice and reduce potential conflicts of interest.
May impact competition and pricing. Permitting medical offices to sell hearing aids for profit could influence the local market by changing referral patterns and potentially affecting the prices and variety of hearing aids available to patients in Westchester County.
Tests a model for broader reform. As a pilot program limited to five years and a single county, the results may inform future state policy on integrating hearing aid sales into medical practice, assessing benefits, pitfalls, and effects on both patient outcomes and the hearing aid industry.
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Who cares
Headline styles
Westchester Hearing Aid Pilot
Plain English, a few words. Used as the page title.
Sponsors
No co-sponsors yet.
History
- Referred to higher education
- Referred to higher education
Companion bill
The same bill in the other chamber. A bill becomes law when one version passes both houses and the governor signs it, so either number can carry it.
Test Free Hearing Aid Program
In Senate Committee · Health · Sponsor Pete Harckham
Full text
2 pagesUnderlined is new[Struck] is removedOfficial text on nysenate.gov ↗
STATE OF NEW YORK
8163
2019-2020 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
June 4, 2019
Introduced by M. of A. BUCHWALD -- read once and referred to the Committee on Higher Education
AN ACT to amend the public health law, in relation to establishing a pilot program for the dispensing of hearing aids in the county of Westchester; and providing for the repeal of such provisions upon expiration thereof
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:
Section 1. The public health law is amended by adding a new article 17 to read as follows:
ARTICLE 17
DISPENSING OF HEARING AIDS; COUNTY OF WESTCHESTER Section 1700. Dispensing of hearing aids; county of Westchester.
§ 1700. Dispensing of hearing aids; county of Westchester. 1. The county of Westchester shall establish and implement an comprehensive pilot program to provide for the dispensing of hearing aids pursuant to the provisions of this section. Such pilot program shall continue for a period of five years after the effective date of the chapter of the laws of two thousand nineteen that added this article.
2. An audiologist or hearing aid dispenser licensed under article one hundred fifty-nine of the education law employed by an otolaryngologist practicing otolaryngology in the county of Westchester who has conducted a medical evaluation of hearing loss may dispense hearing aids for profit provided that the otolaryngologist who has conducted a medical evaluation of hearing loss provides to the patient a list containing the name and office location of five hearing aid dispensers with a place of business located within the county of Westchester and a written statement disclosing that the otolaryngologist's office will receive a profit from the sale of any hearing aid device.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[ ] is old law to be omitted.
LBD11146-01-9
A. 8163 2
§ 2. This act shall take effect on the sixtieth day after it shall have become a law and shall expire and be deemed repealed 5 years after such date.
Reflowed for reading: line numbers and page breaks removed. Cite the official text.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.