Unilateral or bilateral fully or partially implantable bone-conduction (bone-anchored) hearing aid(s) may be considered medically necessary as an alternative to an air-conduction hearing aid in individuals 5 years of age and older with conductive or mixed hearing loss who also meet at least one of the following medical criteria:
Congenital or surgically induced malformations (eg, atresia) of the external ear canal or middle ear; or
Chronic external otitis or otitis media; or
Tumors of the external canal and/or tympanic cavity; or
Dermatitis of the external canal;
and meet the following audiologic criteria:
A pure-tone average bone-conduction threshold measured at 0.5, 1, 2, and 3 kHz of better than or equal to 45 dB (OBC and BP100 devices), 55 dB (Intenso device), or 65 dB (Cordele II device).
For bilateral implantation, individuals should meet the above audiologic criteria and have symmetrically conductive or mixed hearing loss as defined by a difference between left- and right-side bone-conduction threshold of less than 10 dB on average measured at 0.5, 1, 2, and 3 kHz (4 kHz for OBC and Ponto Pro), or less than 15 dB at individual frequencies.
An implantable bone-conduction (bone-anchored) hearing aid may be considered medically necessary as an alternative to an air-conduction contralateral routing of signal hearing aid in individuals5 years of age and older with single-sided sensorineural deafness and normal hearing in the other ear. The pure-tone average air-conduction threshold of the normal ear should be better than 20 dB measured at 0.5, 1, 2, and 3 kHz.
Other uses of implantable bone-conduction (bone-anchored) hearing aids, including use in individuals with bilateral sensorineural hearing loss, are considered investigational.
