Figure 1

Coverage and payment rules, as published

Coverage and payment rules, as published

Original Medicare aids and fitting exams	Hearing aids and fitting exams are excluded
Statutory exclusion	The statute excludes hearing aids and examinations for their prescribing, fitting or changing
Regulatory exclusion	The regulation excludes hearing aids and examinations for prescribing, fitting or changing them
Standard Medigap scope	Standard Medigap pays shares of Original Medicare covered services
Standard Medigap aid listing	The standard Medigap overview lists hearing aids outside coverage

Source:

CMS / Medicare.gov,medicare.gov/coverage/hearing-aids
CMS / Medicare.gov,ecfr.gov/…/title-42.xml
CMS / Medicare.gov,medicare.gov/…/coverage
ssa_exclusion,ssa.gov/OP_Home/ssact/title18/1862.htm

Figure 2

Medicare Advantage hearing benefits filed nationally, 2026

Counts are plan segments filed with CMS, not members.

Medicare Advantage hearing benefits filed nationally, 2026

Plan-segment denominator	5599
Distinct contract-plans	5137
Mandatory prescription aid flag count	5298
Mandatory prescription aid flag share (%)	94.6
Routine exam flag share (%)	95.7
Mandatory OTC flag share (%)	37.6

Source:

CMS, Plan Benefit Package files, contract year 2026

Figure 3

Coverage caps filed by Medicare Advantage plans

A cap is the most a plan pays toward hearing aids. It is not the price of a hearing aid.

Coverage caps filed by Medicare Advantage plans

Per ear	Every year	1056	500	750	1250
Both ears combined	Every year	493	1000	2000	3000
Both ears combined	Every two years	299	1500	2200	2200
Both ears combined	Every three years	100	1000	1000	2000
Per ear	Every three years	78	750	1000	1000
Per ear	Every two years	20	537.5	875	1312.5
Both ears combined	Other, Describe	3	Small sample; median withheld	Small sample; median withheld	Small sample; median withheld
Both ears combined	Every month	2	Small sample; median withheld	Small sample; median withheld	Small sample; median withheld
Both ears combined	Every three months	1	Small sample; median withheld	Small sample; median withheld	Small sample; median withheld
One single ear	Every three years	1	Small sample; median withheld	Small sample; median withheld	Small sample; median withheld

Source:

CMS, Plan Benefit Package files, contract year 2026

Figure 4

Lowest and highest copays filed per hearing aid

The lowest and highest copays are two separate lists: do not read them as one plan's range.

Lowest and highest copays filed per hearing aid

Reported minimum per-aid copay	4715	0	199	399	1882
Reported maximum per-aid copay	4715	0	850	1249	1651

Source:

CMS, Plan Benefit Package files, contract year 2026

Figure 5

Hearing aid bills in Congress and their status

A bill is not a law until it is enacted.

Hearing aid bills in Congress and their status

500	Introduced
6218	Introduced

Source:

US Congress,congress.gov/…/all-actions
US Congress,congress.gov/…/all-actions

How to read these numbers (3)

Original Medicare, standard Medigap and Medicare Advantage supplemental records describe different arrangements.
Caps retain the filed ear basis and period. Copay distributions are separate from cap strata, not a joint benefit quote. Missing values remain unknown; small-sample medians are hidden.
Plan segments are not beneficiaries. Neither a benefit flag nor a filed cap establishes an individual's coverage. No plan shopping or enrollment information.

Does Original Medicare cover hearing aids or fitting exams?

No. Three official texts state the exclusion in matching terms:

Medicare.gov marks hearing aids Not Covered and says you pay all costs for non-covered services, including hearing aids and exams.
The statute. § 1862(a) of the Social Security Act, in paragraph (7), lists hearing aids or examinations therefor among the expenses Medicare excludes.
The regulation. 42 CFR 411.15(d) excludes hearing aids or examinations for the purpose of prescribing, fitting, or changing hearing aids.

The regulation also sets the scope of the word hearing aid. It names two device types: air conduction aids, which deliver amplified sound to the cochlea through the eardrum, and bone conduction aids, which stimulate the cochlea mechanically. Its exceptions for auditory prostheses are written apart from that scope, so implant coverage is a separate question; see cochlear implant cost.

For readers asking why Medicare leaves hearing aids out: the cited passages state the rule, and this page does not attach a motive to it. What they do show is where the rule lives, in the Social Security Act itself, with Medicare.gov applying it to claims. The exclusion reaches exams for prescribing, fitting or changing hearing aids; whether Part B pays for a diagnostic hearing exam is answered on does Medicare cover a hearing test.

What do the national Medicare Advantage records report?

Medicare Advantage plans file their hearing benefits with CMS in the Plan Benefit Package files. We counted the CY 2026 files nationally, leaving out employer-only plans and PACE and keeping special needs plans in:

5,599 contract-plan segments. This is the denominator for each share below.
5,137 distinct contract-plans behind those segments, since one contract-plan can file more than one segment.
5,298 segments, or 94.6%, carry the mandatory flag for prescription hearing aids.
95.7% carry the flag for a routine hearing exam.
37.6% carry the mandatory flag for over-the-counter hearing aids.

Read these as flags on filings. Each segment counts once whatever its enrollment, so a share of segments is not a share of members. A benefit sold only as an optional paid package sits outside the count. And a flag shows that a plan files the benefit; on its own it does not settle what that plan pays or whether a given member is covered.

The same flags broken down by service state are on Medicare Advantage hearing aid coverage. Over-the-counter devices are treated on over-the-counter hearing aids and Medicare.

How do coverage caps and copays differ by benefit period?

A cap is the maximum a plan files as its payment toward hearing aids, not the price of a device. CMS records each cap with two qualifiers, the ear basis and the period, and the national table keeps every pair as its own group. In the 2026 filings, with the lower quartile, the median and the upper quartile in that order:

Per ear, every year: 1,056 segments; $500, $750, $1,250.
Both ears combined, every year: 493 segments; $1,000, $2,000, $3,000.
Both ears combined, every two years: 299 segments; $1,500, $2,200, $2,200.
Both ears combined, every three years: 100 segments; $1,000, $1,000, $2,000.
Per ear, every three years: 78 segments; $750, $1,000, $1,000.
Per ear, every two years: 20 segments; $537.50, $875, $1,312.50.

Four groups hold three segments or fewer: both ears with the period coded "Other, Describe" (3), both ears every month (2), both ears every three months (1) and one single ear every three years (1). Their quartiles and medians are withheld in the table. The "Other, Describe" code refers to free text we have not read plan by plan, so those caps stay out of any comparison and are not restated as a yearly amount.

Copays come from a different field and form their own series. Among 4,715 segments that report a per-aid copay:

Reported minimum per-aid copay: lower quartile $0, median $199, upper quartile $399; 1,882 segments report $0.
Reported maximum per-aid copay: lower quartile $0, median $850, upper quartile $1,249; 1,651 segments report $0.

The copay series and the cap groups are separate distributions. A median copay and a median cap do not describe the same plan, and neither one is a retail price.

Can Medigap cover excluded hearing aids?

Not through its standard benefits. Medicare.gov's Medigap overview says the plans help cover your share of costs for services that are covered by Original Medicare (Part A and Part B). It adds that the benefits differ from one plan to the next and that not all plans are offered in every state. Under "What's not covered?", the same overview then lists hearing aids, next to glasses and private-duty nursing, among what Medigap plans, as a general rule, don't cover.

Read with the exclusion above, the logic is short: Original Medicare covers no part of a hearing aid, so a standard Medigap plan has no Medicare share to pick up on one. A hearing discount or extra that an insurer sells alongside a policy is a separate arrangement, not a standard Medigap benefit, and only its own written terms say what it pays.

Medigap and Medicare Advantage are also different products. The plan counts, caps and copays in the two previous sections come from Medicare Advantage filings and do not describe a Medigap policy.

Have the proposed Medicare hearing bills become law?

Not as of our reading of Congress.gov. Two House bills of the 119th Congress concern Medicare and hearing:

H.R. 500, the Medicare Hearing Aid Coverage Act: status Introduced.
H.R. 6218, the HEAR Act of 2025: status Introduced.

Introduced is step 1 of the tracker's Status of Legislation, and the page does not mark any later step as completed for either bill. A proposal at that stage does not alter the exclusion in the first section, which is the rule applied to a claim today. The committee referrals and the steps a bill still has to clear are laid out on will Medicare cover hearing aids in 2026.

Routes outside Medicare

Other pages on this site cover the ways people pay for hearing aids outside Medicare: VA hearing aids, Medicaid hearing aid coverage, free hearing aids and whether hearing aids are tax deductible. For older adults who want every route on one page, hearing aids for seniors sets them side by side, from Medicare Advantage filings to the tax deduction.

Frequently asked questions

Is Medicare going to start paying for hearing aids?

Not under current law. Original Medicare excludes hearing aids and fitting exams, and the two House bills on Medicare hearing coverage, H.R. 500 and H.R. 6218, both carry the status Introduced on Congress.gov, the first step of its tracker. A bill that has not become law does not change what Medicare pays.

At what age do you get a free hearing aid?

No age makes hearing aids free under Original Medicare: Medicare.gov marks them Not Covered and says you pay all costs. In 2026, 94.6% of Medicare Advantage plan segments file a mandatory prescription hearing aid benefit, each with its own copay and cap terms.

Are Costco hearing aids covered by Medicare?

Not by Original Medicare, which excludes hearing aids whoever sells them. For a Medicare Advantage plan, the plan's own documents say which sellers it uses; the national CMS figures on this page do not.

Sources

Coverage rules come from Medicare.gov, the Social Security Act and the eCFR, and bill status from Congress.gov, each read on the date listed with its source. Medicare Advantage counts and percentiles come from the CMS CY 2026 Plan Benefit Package files, national, by contract-plan segment, excluding employer-only plans, PACE and optional packages, not weighted by enrollment. Caps keep their filed ear basis and period; groups of three segments or fewer show no quartiles or median.

Cost and coverage research team Methodology

Cost and coverage research, not medical advice. Medicare Advantage figures are for information only and do not recommend a plan; each plan's Evidence of Coverage sets its own terms.