Audiology and Medicare: Where Economic Reality Collides with Hearing Care

Recorded at AAA 2019, Friday, March 29, 2019

Presenters: Ian Windmill, PhD, Jason Freeman, ASA, MAAA, James Hall, III., PhD, and Barry Freeman, PhD

CEUs: 0.3 Tier 1/AAA CEUs

Instructional Level: Intermediate

Description: Medicare plays a key role in providing health insurance to 60M older people. Audiologists are subject to the rules and regulations that govern payment for services to beneficiaries. Recent initiatives have necessitated an in-depth exploration of the economic relationship between audiology and Medicare. This presentation will cover this relationship, including payment trends, future payment possibilities, Medicare Advantage programs, direct access, and best practices. One thing for sure, audiology has to get its shit together to make this work. 

1. Identify trends in payments for audiologic services from Medicare over the past 10 years.
2. Define the impact of changes to Medicare payments on individual practices, and to audiology as a whole.
3. Connect best practices in audiology with the economic realities of Medicare payments.

Ian Windmill, PhD

Dr. Windmill is the Director of Audiology at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center and Professor in the Department of Otolaryngology at the University of Cincinnati. He began his career at the University of Louisville School of Medicine as a faculty member in the Division of Communication Disorders of the Department of Surgery. From

2009 through 2014, he served as Chief of the Division of Communicative Sciences in the Department of Otolaryngology and Communicative Sciences at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. Dr. Windmill is a Fellow of the American Academy of Audiology and is a past-president. He is past Chair of the Board of Directors of the Accreditation Commission for Audiology Education. His interest areas include public policy related to hearing care, the diagnosis of hearing disorders and education of hearing health professionals.

Jason S. Freeman, ASA, MAAA

Jason Freeman, ASA, MAAA, is a senior actuary at Clover Health. As an actuary, Jason helps determine the price of Clover's insurance products, balancing the costs of healthcare and revenues received from the government and members. Jason's work touches most aspects of the insurance business, including submitting bids to CMS, negotiating provider contracts, forecasting risks derived from member health conditions, reviewing claim payment accuracy, and more. Jason has worked as an actuary for two years at Clover and five years at Kaiser Permanente. Prior to this, Jason worked for 12 years in education and public policy, with a focus on informal science and math education.

James W. Hall, III., PhD

James W. Hall III, PhD is an internationally recognized audiologist with 40-years of clinical, teaching, research, and administrative experience. He received his Bachelor's degree in Biology from American International University, his Master's degree in Speech Pathology from Northwestern University, and his Ph.D. in audiology from Baylor College of Medicine. During his career, Dr. Hall has held clinical and academic audiology positions at major medical centers. He is the recipient of numerous professional awards and honors and the author of over 190 peer-reviewed publications, invited articles, book chapters and also 10 textbooks. Dr. Hall now holds academic appointments as Professor (part-time) at Salus University and the University of Hawaii, a position as Extraordinary Professor and the University of Pretoria South Africa, along with numerous other adjunct and visiting professor positions in the USA and abroad. 

Barry A. Freeman, PhD

Barry Freeman is Vice President of Business Development for ZPower LLC. Dr. Freeman owned and practiced at the Center for Audiology in Clarksville, TN before accepted the position as founding Chair and Professor of Audiology at Nova Southeastern University (NSU). Dr. Freeman has taught audiology full time on the faculties of Syracuse, Vanderbilt and NSU and maintains Adjunct Professorships at Florida International University, NSU, Lamar University, Pacific University and the University of South Florida. Dr. Freeman has published more than 50 professional articles and book chapters and continues to lecture and present throughout the world. 

Dr. Freeman is a past president of the American Academy of Audiology and served on the Academy’s Board of Directors for six years. He is president-elect of the Florida Academy of Audiology. He received the Distinguished Achievement Award from the American Academy in 2006.