Skip to main content Skip to office menu Skip to footer
Capital IconMinnesota Legislature

Office of the Revisor of Statutes

153A.13 DEFINITIONS.
    Subdivision 1. Applicability. The definitions in this section apply to sections 153A.13 to
153A.18.
    Subd. 2. Commissioner. "Commissioner" means the commissioner of the Department of
Health or a designee.
    Subd. 3. Hearing instrument. "Hearing instrument" means an instrument, or any of its
parts, worn in the ear canal and designed to or represented as being able to aid or enhance human
hearing. "Hearing instrument" includes the instrument's parts, attachments, or accessories,
including, but not limited to, ear molds and behind the ear (BTE) devices with or without an ear
mold. Batteries and cords are not parts, attachments, or accessories of a hearing instrument.
Surgically implanted hearing instruments, and assistive listening devices not worn within the ear
canal, are not hearing instruments.
    Subd. 4. Hearing instrument dispensing. "Hearing instrument dispensing" means making
ear mold impressions, prescribing, or recommending a hearing instrument, assisting the consumer
in instrument selection, selling hearing instruments at retail, or testing human hearing in
connection with these activities regardless of whether the person conducting these activities has a
monetary interest in the sale of hearing instruments to the consumer.
    Subd. 5. Dispenser of hearing instruments. "Dispenser of hearing instruments" means a
natural person who engages in hearing instrument dispensing whether or not certified by the
commissioner of health or licensed by an existing health-related board, except that a person
described as follows is not a dispenser of hearing instruments:
(1) a student participating in supervised field work that is necessary to meet requirements of
an accredited educational program if the student is designated by a title which clearly indicates
the student's status as a student trainee; or
(2) a person who helps a dispenser of hearing instruments in an administrative or clerical
manner and does not engage in hearing instrument dispensing.
A person who offers to dispense a hearing instrument, or a person who advertises, holds
out to the public, or otherwise represents that the person is authorized to dispense hearing
instruments must be certified by the commissioner except when the person is an audiologist as
defined in section 148.512.
    Subd. 6. Advisory council. "Advisory council" means the Minnesota Hearing Instrument
Dispenser Advisory Council, or a committee of it, established under section 153A.20.
    Subd. 7. ANSI. "ANSI" means ANSI S3.6-1989, American National Standard Specification
for Audiometers from the American National Standards Institute. This document is available
through the Minitex interlibrary loan system.
    Subd. 8. Certification number. "Certification number" means the number assigned to each
certification by the commissioner.
    Subd. 9. Supervision. "Supervision" means monitoring activities of, and accepting
responsibility for, the hearing instrument dispensing activities of a trainee.
    Subd. 10. Direct supervision or directly supervised. "Direct supervision" or "directly
supervised" means the on-site and contemporaneous location of a supervisor and trainee, when
the supervisor observes the trainee engaging in hearing instrument dispensing with a consumer.
    Subd. 11. Indirect supervision or indirectly supervised. "Indirect supervision" or
"indirectly supervised" means the remote and independent performance of hearing instrument
dispensing by a trainee when authorized under section 153A.14, subdivision 4a, paragraph (b).
History: 1988 c 689 art 2 s 55; 1989 c 282 art 2 s 46; 1993 c 201 s 1,2; 1995 c 164 s 24;
1998 c 317 s 17; 2000 c 460 s 51-53; 2005 c 147 art 7 s 11; 2006 c 267 art 2 s 15

Official Publication of the State of Minnesota
Revisor of Statutes