154A.24 - SUSPENSION OR REVOCATION.
154A.24 SUSPENSION OR REVOCATION.
The board may revoke or suspend a license or temporary permit
permanently or for a fixed period for any of the following causes:
1. Conviction of a felony. The record of conviction, or a
certified copy, shall be conclusive evidence of conviction.
2. Procuring a license or temporary permit by fraud or deceit.
3. Unethical conduct in any of the following forms:
a. Obtaining a fee or making a sale by fraud or
misrepresentation.
b. Knowingly employing, directly or indirectly, any suspended
or unregistered person to perform any work covered by this chapter.
c. Using or causing or promoting the use of any advertising
matter, promotional literature, testimonial, guarantee, warranty,
label, brand, insignia or any other representation, however
disseminated or published, which is misleading, deceptive, or
untruthful.
d. Advertising a particular model or type of hearing aid for
sale when purchasers or prospective purchasers responding to the
advertisement cannot purchase the advertised model or type, if it is
established that the purpose of the advertisement is to obtain
prospects for the sale of a different model or type than that
advertised.
e. Representing that the service or advice of a person
licensed to practice medicine, or one who is certificated as a
clinical audiologist by the board of speech pathology and audiology
or its equivalent, will be used or made available in the fitting or
selection, adjustment, maintenance, or repair of hearing aids when
that is not true, or using the words "doctor", "clinic", "clinical
audiologist", "state approved", or similar words, abbreviations, or
symbols which tend to connote the medical or other professions,
except where the title "certified hearing aid audiologist" has been
granted by the national hearing aid society, or that the hearing aid
dispenser has been recommended by this state or the board when such
is not accurate.
f. Habitual intemperance.
g. Permitting another person to use the license or temporary
permit.
h. Advertising a manufacturer's product or using a
manufacturer's name or trademark to imply a relationship with the
manufacturer that does not exist.
i. Directly or indirectly giving or offering to give, or
permitting or causing to be given, money or anything of value to a
person who advises another in a professional capacity, as an
inducement to influence the person or cause the person to influence
others to purchase or contract to purchase products sold or offered
for sale by a hearing aid dispenser, or to influence others to
refrain from dealing in the products of competitors.
j. Conducting business while suffering from a contagious or
infectious disease.
k. Engaging in the fitting or selection and sale of hearing
aids under a false name or alias, with fraudulent intent.
l. Selling a hearing aid to a person who has not been given
tests utilizing appropriate established procedures and
instrumentation in fitting or selection of hearing aids, except in
cases of selling replacement hearing aids of the same make or model
within one year of the original sale.
m. Gross incompetence or negligence in fitting or selection
and selling of hearing aids.
n. Using an advertisement or other representation which has
the effect of misleading or deceiving purchasers or prospective
purchasers into the belief that any hearing aid or device, or part or
accessory thereof, is a new invention or involves a new mechanical or
scientific principle when such is not the fact.
o. Representing, directly or by implication, that a hearing
aid utilizing bone conduction has certain specified features, such as
the absence of anything in the ear or leading to the ear, or the
like, without disclosing clearly and conspicuously that the
instrument operates on the bone conduction principle, and that in
many cases of hearing loss, this type of instrument may not be
suitable.
p. Stating or implying that the use of a hearing aid will
restore normal hearing or preserve hearing or prevent or retard
progressions of hearing impairment or any other false or misleading
claim regarding the use or benefit of a hearing aid.
q. Representing or implying that a hearing aid is or will be
"custom-made", "made to order", "prescription made", or in any other
sense especially fabricated for an individual person when such is not
the case.
r. Violating any of the provisions of section 714.16.
s. Failure to place in an advertisement, if an advertisement
does not include the words "hearing aid" in the title of the business
which is advertising, the qualifying words in the same size type,
"for the purpose of fitting, selection, adaption, and sale of hearing
aids". However, the qualifying words are not required if the
advertisement includes the words, "hearing test", "hearing
evaluation", "free hearing test", "free hearing evaluation", "hearing
measurement", or "free hearing measurement", and the title of the
business which is advertising appears in the advertisement and
includes the words "hearing aid".
t. Such other acts or omissions as the board may determine to
be unethical conduct. Section History: Early Form
[C75, 77, 79, 81, § 154A.24] Section History: Recent Form
90 Acts, ch 1073, §1; 2001 Acts, ch 58, §18; 2007 Acts, ch 10,
§146
Referred to in § 272C.3, 272C.4