Women make up approximately 85 percent of practicing audiologists in the United States.^1,2 While tremendous strides have been made to increase the percentage of women in medicine and other clinical doctoring professions in recent years, there continue to be significant disparities.³⁴Audiology is well ahead of other clinical doctoring professions in terms of female representation—and way behind in terms of salary and stature, despite the high demand for audiology services, and the scarcity of audiologists. These disparities are borne out in Medicare reimbursement policies.

Beneficiary Direct Access is More Readily Achieved, and with Fewer Restrictions for Male-Dominated Professions
Medicare Part B regulations impose fewer restrictions on beneficiary “direct access” to clinical doctoring professions that have low percentages of females as shown in Table 1. Further, additional requirements and restrictions increase proportionately to the percentage of females in the profession.

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