Bone-Anchored Hearing Aids

Aetna covers fully or partially implantable bone-anchored hearing aids (BAHAs) and temporal bone stimulators as medically necessary prosthetics for persons aged ≥5 with unilateral or bilateral conductive or mixed hearing loss who cannot be rehabilitated with conventional air-conduction hearing aids and who meet specified audiologic criteria for conditions such as congenital/surgically induced external ear or middle ear malformations (e.g., aural atresia), external ear dermatitis or hypersensitivity to ear molds, otosclerosis when stapedectomy is not possible, or severe chronic external otitis/otitis media. Aetna considers implantable BAHA use experimental/investigational when criteria are not met, for bilateral pure sensorineural loss, for hearing loss in osteogenesis imperfecta outside criteria, for intra‑oral systems (e.g., SoundBite), and generally excludes non‑osseointegrated devices (e.g., BAHA Soft Band, SoundArc, Adhear) except as a temporary bridge for children <5 who meet BAHA criteria, and follows Medicare rules treating osseointegrated implants as prosthetics.