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Minutes for HB2021 - Committee on Insurance
Short Title
Providing insurance coverage for hearing aids.
Minutes Content for Thu, Feb 2, 2017
Chairperson Vickrey opened the hearing on HB 2021
Melissa Renick, Legislative Research, summarized the HB 2014 fiscal note. She said the Division of Budget contacted KDHE for fiscal information. She described their findings regarding additional expenditures of covering hearing devices (Attachment 1)
William Sneed testified they opposed the bill because they believed mandates hindered the flexibility of health insurance plans and raised the cost of insurance. They were strongly convinced that hearing aids did not fall under essential services and any additional cost may go back to the state. Further, there could be changes to health care insurance under the new federal administration (Attachment 2)
Lucy Crabtree testified that although she supported the idea of the bill she didn't like the way it was written because: 1) it allowed the insurance company to make the choice of vendor for her and 2) she feared it would cover only a small portion of the cost. She explained she had lost her hearing at age 4. The hearing aid set she had now was 10 years old but she can't afford the $5,000 cost for new ones. She explained she would support the bill if it required hearing aids be fitted by an audiologist or hearing health profession and was rewritten to specify a coverage amount in line with other states ($1,500 - $1,700 per year. As far as the economic impact of coverage, she was only on her third pair of aids since age 4 so not every Kansas would need new aids at the same time and that would reduce the cost (Attachment 3).
Dr. Timothy Steele and Taylor Schettler provided written testimony (Attachment 4) and (Attachment 5).
Chairperson Vickrey said he would hold the hearing open for later testimony from Brad Smoot, Counsel, on behalf of Blue Cross / Blue Shield.
