Meet the team who designed the Cochlear™ Baha® SoundArc, the new non-surgical bone conduction wearing option for pediatric patients. Learn how the engineers and designers drove innovation and filled the gap of a product that has never existed.
Meet the team who designed the Cochlear™ Baha® SoundArc
Jamie Schwartz
Related Posts
New Codes for AOI Fitting Services: Five Steps to Prepare for 2024
Effective January 1, 2024, audiologists who program auditory osseointegrated implant (AOI) devices will have two newly established Current Procedural Terminology (CPT©, American Medical Association) codes to report their services.
CPT Codes 92622 and 92623 have established service descriptors and assigned Relative Value Units (RVUs), allowing professionals a predictable pathway for reimbursement of services rendered.
CPT 92622: Diagnostic analysis, programming, and verification of an auditory osseointegrated sound processor, any type; first 60 minutes
CPT 92623: Diagnostic analysis, programming, and verification of an auditory osseointegrated sound processor, any type; each additional 15 minutes
Five recommendations to prepare:
- Familiarize yourself with the new codes and descriptors so you know when and how to use them.
- Update the clinic’s superbill to include these new codes. If you are unfamiliar with superbills or would like to review templates, ASHA, AAA, and ADA offer resources and templates which you may find useful.
- Educate and coordinate with billing staff, billing software vendors, or Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) clearinghouse to ensure they are also aware of and ready for claims with the new service codes.
- Establish charges for the new codes and services which align with the clinic’s pricing protocol and policy and procedures.
- While healthcare professionals have discretion to charge appropriate amounts for their services, charges should remain consistent, regardless of type of payment or patient’s insurance status.
- Need more information on establishing fees? Read more about defining what are usual, customary, and reasonable fees, choosing pricing philosophies and working with private health plans, and calculating hourly rate thresholds.
- Review/Update your clinic’s billing procedures.
- Prior to the appointment:
- Confirm patient information, insurance information, and coverage details.
- Verify coverage of services by health plans and potential prior authorization requirements.
- Confirm/inform patients of any financial responsibility and consider collecting copayments at the appointment.
- After the appointment:
- Complete notes and documentation of services rendered to support medical necessity of care.
- Include a clear description reflecting the time associated with the services.
- Capture relevant information on superbill or in billing software to prepare claims for filing.
- Prior to the appointment:
- Complete a claims review to ensure payers process claims appropriately.
- Track the initial claims with these new CPT codes across insurance payers using the new AOI fitting codes.
- Compare allowed amounts for covered services to fee schedules/negotiated contracted rates.
- Review the remittance advice to understand any denial reasons, and file appeals when pathways are available.
- Follow up with any payers if new CPT codes have not been uploaded in their annual update.
- Share a written request for adoption of codes within the audiology code set. Provide a summary of the CPT code(s), descriptor(s), and service(s) included.
- Appeal any denials for non-covered services based on the CPT code reported.
For any questions or additional resources, please reach out to your Cochlear Market Access & Payer Strategy (MAPS) Manager. You can locate your regional manager’s contact information here: MAPS Manager Contact Information
All specific references to CPT codes and descriptions are ©2023 American Medical Association. All rights reserved. CPT is a registered trademark of the American Medical Association. CPT and CPT material are copyrights of American Medical Association (AMA): CPT Copyright 2020 American Medical Association, all rights reserved. CPT is a registered trademark of the American Medical Association.
The information provided in this document is provided as guidelines only to address the unique nature of implantable hearing solutions technology. This information does not constitute reimbursement or legal advice. Cochlear Americas makes no representation or warranty regarding this information or its completeness, accuracy, fitness for any purpose, timeliness, or that following these guidelines will result in any form of coverage or reimbursement from any insurance company or federal health care program payer. The information presented herein is subject to change at any time. This information cannot and does not contemplate all situations that a health care professional may encounter. To be sure that you have the most current and applicable information available for your unique circumstances, please consult your own experts and seek your own legal advice regarding your reimbursement and coding needs and the proper implementation of these guidelines. All products should be used according to their labelling. In all cases, services billed must be medically necessary, actually performed, and appropriately documented in the medical record.
Feel the Beat, a dance studio for people with hearing loss, uses state-of-the-art bone conduction technology in their vibrational dancefloor
Feel the Beat is a dance studio for people with hearing loss in Denver, Colorado. As a local nonprofit in Denver, where the Cochlear Americas headquarters is located, we are excited to raise awareness about how they are changing our local community. Feel the Beat’s mission is to bring music and dance to all, whether they are deaf, hard of hearing or special needs, anyone can take class and fit right in.
As a dance studio for people with hearing loss, Feel the Beat is dedicated to making music and dance accessible to all. They accomplished this goal by building a specialized vibrational dancefloor embedded with Bone Conduction technology. This allows students with a conductive or mixed hearing loss to be able to hear the music, and lets all students feel the music as the floor vibrates through their bones. Students at Feel the Beat can feel all aspects of the music, including distinction of instruments, singing, beat, rhythm and bass regardless of the type and degree of hearing loss.
Feel the Beat’s specialized flooring combines vibrations from transducers and pliable material that reverberates with the beat. To put it simply, transducers are pieces of equipment that transform sound into vibrations that can be both felt and heard through the body (similarly the way a Baha system works). The TST429 Platinum Professional Transducer provides the ultimate performance and output of full-fidelity, full-frequency sound with a frequency response from 5Hz to 17kHz. With these transducers embedded into Feel the Beat’s specially engineered dance floor–magic happens! Beat, rhythm, bass and all other aspects of music are transformed from auditory signals into vibrations, making music uniquely accessible to all students through physical sensation.
How can this be beneficial to your patients?
Research shows that there are many ways children benefit from dance and movement. When children are engaged in dance and movement, they experience enhanced physical development, emotional maturity, cognitive development, self-confidence and social awareness. 1 Dancing is a medium through which individuals who have hearing loss can more openly express their thoughts and feelings and enjoy this form of physical communication on a higher level.
If your patients live near Denver, Colorado (or are visiting), let them know about Feel the Beat and give them the opportunity to feel the music for themselves.
Learn more about Feel the Beat and their specialized dancefloor in this local news story.
References:
- https://www.ndeo.org/content.aspx?page_id=22&club_id=893257&module_id=55419