Mahmoudi E, et al. - Authors ascertained if hearing aids (HAs) use was related to health care costs and utilization in older adults with hearing loss (HL). The beneficial outcomes of use of HAs in reducing the probability of any Emergency Department (ED) visits and any hospitalizations and in reducing the number of nights in the hospital were seen. However, total Medicare costs were reduced by the use of HAs, it notably increased total and out-of-pocket health care spending. For Medicare regarding covering HAs for patients with HL, this information could have implications.

Methods

• Nationally representative 2013-2014 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey data was used by this retrospective cohort study to evaluate the use of HAs among 1,336 adults aged 65 years or older with HL.
• To adjust for potential selection bias between older adults with and without HAs, all of whom reported having HL, an inverse propensity score weighting was applied.
• Experts estimated the mean treatment outcomes of HA use on health care utilization and costs.
• Exposures were the encounter with the US health care system.
• Main outcomes and measures were the total health care, Medicare, and out-of-pocket spending; any emergency department (ED), inpatient, and office visit; and number of ED visits, nights in hospital, and office visits.

Results

• As per the data, among the 1,336 individuals included in the study, 574 (43.0%) were women; mean (SD) age was 77 (7) years.
• Findings suggested that adults without HAs (n = 734) were less educated, had lower income, and were more likely to be from minority subpopulations.
• Results demonstrated that (1) higher total annual health care spending by $1,125 (95% CI, $1114 to $1137) and higher out-of-pocket spending by $325 (95% CI, $322 to $326) but lower Medicare spending by $71 (95% CI, -$81 to -$62); (2) lower probability of any ED visit by 2 percentage points (PPs) (24% vs 26%; 95% CI, -2% to -2%) and lower probability of any hospitalization by 2 PPs (20% vs 22%; 95% CI, -3% to -1%) but higher probability of any office visit by 4 PPs (96% vs 92%; 95% CI, 4% to 4%); and (3) 1.40 more office visits (95% CI, 1.39 to 1.41) but 0.46 (5%) fewer number of hospital nights (95% CI, -0.47 to -0.44), with no association with the number of ED visits, if any (95% CI, 0.01 to 0) were the mean treatment outcomes of using HAs per participant.