Ancillary: Hearing Insurance
By providing ancillary benefits to your employees, you can improve your employees’ quality of life and ensure they have affordable access to the healthcare services they need when they need them.
Hearing insurance is an important type of ancillary benefit that can help cover the costs associated with hearing aids, cochlear implants, and other treatments. It may also cover audiological services such as counseling, testing, and medical interventions.
Hearing insurance can provide peace of mind for those who need to treat their hearing loss. The right coverage and plan can significantly reduce the financial burden of treating hearing loss.
Many types of hearing insurance plans are on the market today, so it is important to compare coverage and determine which plan best fits your needs.
Here’s what you should know about ancillary hearing insurance.
What is Ancillary Insurance?
Ancillary insurance is supplemental insurance coverage that can be added to a traditional health insurance plan to ensure employees have access to a wider range of healthcare services.
Common ancillary benefits include:
- Hearing insurance
- Vision insurance
- Dental insurance
- Life insurance
- Accidental death and dismemberment insurance
- Disability insurance
- Health savings accounts
These types of benefits provide more comprehensive health coverage to employees and group members, ensuring all of their health concerns are addressed. Ancillary insurance fills gaps left by traditional health insurance and increases the value of your benefits package.
What Does Hearing Insurance Cover?
Hearing insurance coverage helps provide financial support for hearing loss treatments and services.
Ancillary hearing insurance benefits those who need coverage for expensive treatments and devices such as hearing aids, cochlear implants, and assistive listening devices. Ancillary hearing insurance can cover all or part of the costs associated with these treatments and services.
Depending on the plan, ancillary coverage may cover a variety of expenses, including:
- Hearing aid evaluation and fitting
- Hearing aid repair
- Balance therapy/vestibular rehabilitation
- Cochlear implants
- Speech therapy
Hearing insurance can help employees get the equipment and services they need if their hearing ability is impaired.
Why Offer Hearing Benefits to Your Employees?
Adding ancillary hearing insurance to your employees can create a more comprehensive and competitive benefits package.
Hearing insurance is particularly important for employees that work in factories, construction sites, or other environments that expose them to loud machinery.
Offering hearing benefits to your employees provides them with the peace of mind that they will have access to quality equipment, services, and treatment if they need it. It is also an inexpensive benefit — most plans are very affordable and provide excellent coverage.
Hearing loss can impact the overall health and wellness of your employees and make it difficult to focus while at work, leading to productivity and safety issues. For example, an employee in a factory unable to hear an alarm or warning may lead to other more serious injuries.
Does Health Insurance Cover Hearing Aids?
In many cases, traditional health insurance does not cover hearing aids. This coverage may be available for purchase as an endorsement, but it likely won’t be included with your base health plan.
Some health insurance plans do offer allowances for hearing aids. This means they will contribute a certain amount toward hearing aids from certain providers. Health insurance providers may also negotiate discounts for hearing aids from certain providers, making them more affordable.
However, for complete coverage, you will typically need to purchase hearing coverage as an ancillary benefit.
Who Pays for Hearing Insurance?
Ancillary benefits can be voluntary or employer-contributory.
Voluntary benefits require employees to pay the full premium for the benefits. Employers may offer discounts or contributions, but employees are primarily responsible for payment.
Employer-contributory plans require employers to pay part of the premium, ranging anywhere from 0% to 100%. Employees may be required to pay the remainder. Employers can offer additional financial aid for hearing coverage if needed.
While employers can save money through voluntary benefits, employer-contributory ancillary benefits make coverage more affordable and accessible for employees. As a result, employers may see an increase in productivity and employee satisfaction.
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Hearing insurance can help group members diagnose hearing loss and get the devices and treatment they need if their hearing is impaired. Providing ancillary hearing benefits helps employers create competitive benefits packages that improve employee satisfaction and contribute to a healthy workforce.
At KSA Insurance, we work with employers in South Carolina and across the southeastern United States to help them choose affordable ancillary benefits and insurance policies that protect their employees against a variety of common risks.
Contact us today to get a quote and learn more about ancillary benefits for employers.
