AB 1950: Hearing aids: audio switch.

Existing law, the Speech-Language Pathologists and Audiologists and Hearing Aid Dispensers Licensure Act, regulates the licensure of hearing aid dispensers and dispensing audiologists by the Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology and Hearing Aid Dispensers Board. The act makes it unlawful for a licensed hearing aid dispenser to fit or sell a hearing aid unless he or she first, among other duties, provides the purchaser with specified information. Existing law requires a licensed dispensing audiologist to, upon the consummation of a sale of a hearing aid, deliver to the purchaser a written receipt, containing specified information. Existing law makes the violation of these provisions a misdemeanor.

This bill would make it unlawful for a licensed hearing aid dispenser to fit or sell a hearing aid unless first informing the purchaser of an audio switch, which may be referred to as a telecoil, t-coil, or t-switch, that increases access to a telephone and provides noninvasive access to assistive listening systems that are compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. would, on and after July 1, 2017, require a licensed hearing aid dispenser to, upon the sale of a hearing aid, provide the purchaser with a copy of a consumer hearing aid disclosure that this bill would require the board to develop and make available on its Internet Web site before July 1, 2017. The bill would require a licensed dispensing audiologist to do the same. By creating new requirements, the violation of which would be a crime, this bill would impose a state mandated state-mandated local program.

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.