38-1519.

Hearing assessment; required; procedures; hearing instrument; components.

(1) A licensed hearing instrument specialist shall not engage in the practice of ordering the use and fitting of hearing instruments with respect to a patient without having conducted a face-to-face hearing assessment for the patient or having conducted or reviewed a valid and current hearing assessment for the patient that is dated within six months and signed by a licensed hearing instrument specialist or audiologist. Such hearing assessment shall include the following procedures, or modified procedures as required by the patient's cognitive function or health and appropriate to technological developments as determined by the board:

(a) Completion of a patient history questionnaire;

(b) Otoscopic examination;

(c) Testing to determine the type and degree of hearing loss that includes (i) pure-tone air conduction testing at two hundred fifty hertz, five hundred hertz, one thousand hertz, two thousand hertz, four thousand hertz, and eight thousand hertz, (ii) bone conduction testing at five hundred hertz, one thousand hertz, two thousand hertz, and four thousand hertz, and (iii) appropriate inter-octave testing when needed if the octave to adjacent octave threshold difference is greater than fifteen decibels;

(d) Effective masking when indicated;

(e) Appropriate testing to determine speech reception thresholds, word recognition scores, most comfortable listening levels, uncomfortable loudness levels, frequency-specific loudness discomfort levels, ability to understand speech in noise, and the selection of the best fitting arrangement for maximum hearing instrument benefit when indicated; and

(f) Other speech tests commonly used to assess human hearing acuity for ordering the use and fitting of hearing instruments.

(2) Each component of a hearing instrument shall be adapted to the needs of the patient. A licensed hearing instrument specialist shall conduct a final fitting to ensure physical fit and operational comfort of the hearing instrument.