VA Hearing Aids: What Veterans and Military Retirees Pay

What the VA provides, and on what conditions

VA hearing aids come through VA health care, so the route starts with enrollment, then a hearing evaluation.

Enroll, then see VA audiology

Sign VA Form 10-10EZ and mail it to the VA medical center of your choice; an unsigned application cannot be processed. Once registered, you schedule an evaluation at the Audiology and Speech Pathology Clinic. The audiologist makes a clinical determination on your need for hearing aids or other hearing assistive devices.

What comes at no charge

When hearing aids are recommended and fitted, the VA states that three things are at no charge: the hearing aids, their repairs and future batteries. The condition is that you maintain VA eligibility for care. For any other cost, ask your VA medical center.

Who decides

Veteran status lets you apply. Enrollment and the audiologist's clinical determination decide whether hearing aids follow.

TRICARE and Medicare rules by status

TRICARE gives a different answer for each military status, and retirees get the narrowest one.

• Active-duty service members and families: TRICARE covers hearing aids and hearing aid services only for hearing loss that meets specific hearing criteria. Your provider and TRICARE confirm the criteria, the authorization and your cost share.
• Retired service members: TRICARE does not cover hearing aids for retirees. It points retirees to the VA and to the Retiree-At-Cost Hearing Aid Program.
• Children of retired service members: the exception. TRICARE covers hearing aids and services for a child who has hearing loss meeting specific criteria, is enrolled in TRICARE Prime or the US Family Health Plan, and has a living sponsor. This coverage is not available overseas.

Retirees with Medicare

Original Medicare does not cover hearing aids or exams for fitting hearing aids; you pay all costs for those. A retiree on TRICARE For Life therefore gets no hearing aid coverage from TRICARE or from Original Medicare; the VA and RACHAP are the routes. Some Medicare Advantage Plans (Part C) offer extra hearing benefits that Original Medicare lacks. The plan sets the details, so contact it before you buy.

Does CHAMPVA cover hearing aids?

CHAMPVA is a separate VA health benefits program. It serves spouses, dependents and survivors of veterans who meet certain service-connected disability requirements. The no-charge hearing aids above come with the veteran's own VA health care, not with CHAMPVA.

Ordinary hearing aids are excluded

The CHAMPVA Guidebook lists hearing aids that are not surgically implanted or anchored among the equipment it does not cover. The same line lists cochlear implants and bone-anchored hearing aids as covered. Hearing exams are not covered unless they are in connection with well-child care or a covered illness or injury.

Cost sharing applies to covered care only

For covered outpatient care, you pay a $50 deductible each calendar year, with a $100 maximum for your family. After that, you pay a cost share of 25% of the CHAMPVA allowable amount for each service or supply it covers. Household cost sharing stops at $3,000 each calendar year. These amounts apply to covered care. They set no payment and no ceiling for an excluded hearing aid.

Other insurance

If you have other health insurance in addition to CHAMPVA, you may not need to pay a cost share. To be eligible for CHAMPVA, you cannot be eligible for TRICARE. If another plan covers you, read its hearing aid benefit before you buy.

Buying at cost through RACHAP

The Retiree-At-Cost Hearing Aid Program (RACHAP), also named the Retiree Hearing Aid Purchase Program (RHAPP), is a purchase program. You buy the hearing aids; the program lowers the price.

• What you get: hearing aids sold at cost at participating military hospitals and clinics. The military facility provides the fitting and follow-up services.
• Who can use it: Retired Soldiers and their dependents, in the Army Retired Soldier Handbook. TRICARE adds that you must be eligible for care at a military hospital or clinic.
• Insurance status: the Army handbook states that this program is not a TRICARE benefit.
• Availability: not every medical facility offers it. Participation depends on space, equipment, provider availability and personnel readiness. Contact your military hospital or clinic to check, and ask for its price before the fitting.

One facility's rules: Winn Army Community Hospital

Winn, at Fort Stewart, Georgia, charges retirees and their beneficiaries the government price for the hearing aids they buy. It accepts patients within a hundred-mile radius of Fort Stewart, with priority to those who use the facility for other care. You need a completed consult from your primary care manager or outside provider before you book. The offer can change with clinic demand, and other facilities set their own rules.

Ordering batteries and accessories

The VA lets you order certain free supplies, hearing aid batteries included, when all three of these are true: you are enrolled in VA health care, you are registered as a patient at a VA medical center, and your VA provider prescribed the supplies or the hearing aids.

• Online: open to you if you ordered hearing aid supplies from the VA within the past two years.
• By phone: call the VA Denver Logistics Center.
• By mail: use VA Form VA2346a to order hearing aid batteries and accessories. The same request can be sent through the VA online tool instead of the paper form.

The two-year window decides whether you can use the online channel. It sets no limit on how often you may order.

Repairs, replacement parts and broken aids

Repairs of VA hearing aids are at no charge while you maintain VA eligibility for care, and one form handles them.

1. Fill out a Request for Repairs and/or Accessories, VA Form 1107.
2. For a repair, mail the hearing aid and related parts with the form to the VA Denver Logistics Center.
3. For replacement parts only, such as tubing or cords, send the request and keep your hearing aid.
4. For help with a request, contact the VA Audiology and Speech Pathology Service that issued your hearing aid.

The VA repair pages describe repairs and parts; they set no fixed schedule for a new device. If your aid is broken beyond repair, ask that same audiology service what comes next.

Where to start, by status

1. Veteran. Enroll with VA Form 10-10EZ, then book the VA audiology evaluation.
2. Military retiree. TRICARE does not pay for your hearing aids. Look at VA care, then at a participating military facility for RACHAP.
3. Child of a retiree. Check the three TRICARE conditions: hearing criteria, Prime or US Family Health Plan enrollment, and a living sponsor, inside the United States.
4. Active-duty member or family. Ask your provider whether your hearing loss meets the TRICARE criteria.
5. On Medicare. Original Medicare excludes hearing aids; read your Medicare Advantage plan's hearing benefit, if you have one. Details: Medicare hearing aid coverage.
6. Spouse, child or survivor on CHAMPVA. Ordinary hearing aids are excluded; cochlear implants and bone-anchored hearing aids are listed as covered. Check any other health insurance you have.
7. Still short. Charities, state programs and Lions clubs: see free hearing aids and hearing aid insurance by state.