Audiologists: hearing aids.

Existing law, the Speech-Language Pathologists and Audiologists Licensure Act, provides for the licensure and regulation of audiologists by the Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology Board, defines the practice of audiology, and makes a violation of that act a crime. Under existing law, the board is comprised of 3 licensed speech-language pathologists, 3 licensed audiologists, and 3 public members. Existing law, the Hearing Aid Dispensers Licensing Law, provides for the licensure and regulation of hearing aid dispensers, who fit or sell hearing aids, by the Hearing Aid Dispensers Bureau. Existing law exempts audiologists and individuals supervised by audiologists from the hearing aid dispenser licensure requirement if those persons do not directly or indirectly engage in the sale or offering for sale of hearing aids. This bill would define the practice of audiology to include the selling of hearing aids and would also exempt audiologists from the hearing aid dispenser licensure requirements. However, the bill would prohibit a licensed audiologist from selling hearing aids unless he or she has completed an application for a dispensing audiologist certificate, paid all applicable fees, and passed a specified examination approved by the board. The bill would also make various provisions relating to the sale of hearing aids applicable to audiologists, such as, but not limited to, requiring hearing aids sold by catalog or direct mail to meet certain requirements, requiring a specified written receipt to be provided to a purchaser upon the sale of a hearing aid, and requiring specified records pertaining to the sale of a hearing aid to be maintained for 7 years. By making licensed audiologists subject to specified requirements relating to the sale of hearing aids, the violation of which would be a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would also abolish the Hearing Aid Dispensers Bureau and would transfer the bureau's duties, powers, purposes, responsibilities, and jurisdiction over the licensing and regulation of hearing aid dispensers to the Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology Board, which would be renamed the Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology and Hearing Aid Dispensers Board. The bill would also provide for the transfer of funds from the Hearing Aid Dispensers Fund to the Hearing Aid Dispensers Account in the Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology Fund. Under the bill, the board would be comprised of 2 licensed speech-language pathologists, 2 licensed audiologists, one of whom shall be an audiologist that dispenses hearing aids, 2 licensed hearing aid dispensers, and 3 public members. The bill would create the Hearing Aid Dispensing Committee, comprised of specified board members, to review and research the practice of fitting or selling hearing aids and to advise the board about this practice. The bill would require the board, by January 1, 2011, to review specified license fees to assess whether there is adequate revenue to support the board's functions. The bill would make other conforming changes. The bill would incorporate additional changes to Sections 101 and 149 of the Business and Professions Code, proposed by AB 48 and SB 819, to be operative only if this bill and one or both of the other bills are chaptered and become effective on or before January 1, 2010, and this bill is chaptered last. The bill would incorporate additional changes to Sections 2530.2, 3357, 3362, and 3456 of the Business and Professions Code proposed by both this bill and SB 821, to be operative only if SB 821 and this bill are both chaptered and become effective on or before January 1, 2010, and this bill is chaptered last. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.