AN ACT to require the Hearing Aid Dealers and Fitters Board to coordinate a task Force that will develop guidelines for consumers to use when purchasing a hearing aid, as recommended by the North Carolina Study Commission on Aging.

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

SECTION 1.(a)  The Hearing Aid Dealers and Fitters Board shall coordinate a task force to develop recommended guidelines for consumers seeking information and assistance in the treatment of hearing loss and the purchase of a hearing aid.  The task force shall include a licensed practicing fitter and seller of hearing aids, as recommended by the NC Hearing Aid Dealers and Fitters Board; a consumer of hearing aids, as recommended by the Division of Services for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, Department of Health and Human Services; a practicing audiologist, as recommended by the NC Board of Examiners for Speech and Language Pathologists and Audiologists; a physician who treats patients with hearing loss, as recommended by the NC Medical Board; a representative of the Division of Services for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, Department of Health and Human Services; a representative of the Consumer Protection Division, Office of the Attorney General; and may include other interested stakeholders.
SECTION 1.(b)  The Hearing Aid Dealers and Fitters Board shall report the findings and recommendations of the task force, along with recommendations on methods to disseminate hearing aid purchasing guidelines, to the North Carolina Study Commission on Aging and the Joint Legislative Health Care Oversight Committee on or before November 15, 2010.
SECTION 2.  This act is effective when it becomes law.
In the General Assembly read three times and ratified this the 9th day of July, 2010.

	s/	 Walter H. Dalton
	 President of the Senate

	s/	 Joe Hackney
	 Speaker of the House of Representatives

	s/	 Beverly E. Perdue
	 Governor

Approved 3:35 p.m. this 20th day of July, 2010