On-campus Hearing and Speech Clinic Begins Accepting Private Insurance

October is National Audiology Awareness Month, and visitors to the on-campus Hearing and Speech Clinic can again receive free hearing screenings by emailing the clinic or calling 301.405.4218.

But unlike in years prior, patients found to require comprehensive follow-up evaluations no longer must pay out of pocket if they are enrolled in the university’s preferred Blue Cross Blue Shield and United Healthcare insurance plans; the clinic continues to serve people on Medicare and Medicaid plans.

By accepting private insurance, the clinic is helping improve more individuals’ quality of life, and to provide a higher-quality learning experience for the department’s graduate students, said Nicole Nguyen, associate clinical professor and director of clinical audiology in the Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences.

“Our clinic is a teaching facility for our graduate students, so we wanted to make sure that they see a wide range of different types of patients from different socioeconomic backgrounds and parts of the local community that are more representative of the general population,” Nguyen said.