Prohibition Against Deceptive Advertising and Fee Setting Practices

(1) Deceptive Advertising. The following advertising practices are considered fraudulent, false, deceptive or misleading and are prohibited: (a) advertising which contains a misrepresentation of facts or false statements regarding the registrant’s professional achievements, degrees, trained skills, and qualifications in the hearing instrument profession; (b) advertising the content or the context of which makes only a partial disclosure of relevant facts, such as advertising which advertises a discounted price without identifying the specific product or service to which the discounted price applies and without specifying the usual price for the product or services identified, (c) advertising or permitting to be advertised the price of a specifically-identified hearing instrument if more than one hearing instrument appears in the same advertisement without an accompanying price; 7.02: continued (d) advertising which contains a representation that a product innovation is new, when in fact the product was first introduced by that manufacturer to the general public in the Commonwealth more than 12 months ago; (e) advertising which contains a representation that a continuing education or training program is approved by the Board, if the content of the program departs from the content approved by the Board or is not in fact approved; (f) advertising which contains any representation, statement or claim which the Board determines is misleading or deceptive to the public. (2) All advertisements must include the name and license number of a licensee responsible for the content. Individuals licensed by the Board shall refer to themselves on all advertisements as licensed hearing instrument specialists. (3) Fee Setting. Fees which are significantly greater than the usual and customary fees accepted by hearing instrument industry standards as evidenced by third party insurance payment rates, comparable market values and other industry standard indicators shall be considered unprofessional and improper and are prohibited.