Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 25, 1993 TAG: 9303250381
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
IN BUSINESS
Hearing-aid dealers agree to change adsWASHINGTON - Seven hearing-aid dealers accused of misleading customers about Medicare reimbursement have agreed to fix their advertising, government regulators said Wednesday.
The Federal Trade Commission, simultaneously announcing the charges and the settlement, said the firms agreed to end advertising that suggests Medicare will reimburse hearing-aid buyers.
The FTC said the dealers, with more than 30 outlets in California, New York and Massachusetts, will correct misleading ads in phone book Yellow Pages and will give customers accurate information.
Medicare, which helps pay medical bills for those over 65, does not cover the cost of hearing aids and does not reimburse for hearing tests conducted for the purpose of prescribing hearing aids. Medicare does reimburse for hearing tests ordered by doctors to diagnose medical problems.
The hearing aid dealers named by the FTC were Audio Logics, with offices in Long Beach and Santa Ana, Calif.; Brown-Potter Hearing Aid Center in Long Beach, Calif.; Audio Rx Hearing Aids in Los Angeles and Lawndale, Calif.; Hearing Care Associates, with offices in 20 southern California cities; Brooklyn Audiology Associates of Brooklyn, N.Y.; Center for Improved Communications of Brooklyn; and Bay Colony Audiology Center of South Weymouth, Mass. - Associated Press \
Caterpillar markets trading cards
PEORIA, Ill. - Folks who get revved up over construction equipment are the targeted audience for a new Caterpillar Inc. product: trading cards featuring the company's bulldozers.
The cards will showcase 100 machines, from the D11N - the world's largest production machine - to the legendary 1928 two-ton tractor.
"It goes to show that anything is fit to be printed on a card," said Tucker Smith, managing editor of Tuff Stuff - a Richmond, Va.-based magazine for collectors of trading cards and memorabilia.
Caterpillar is trying to copy the success of Harley-Davidson Inc. of Milwaukee, which turned out popular motorcycle cards. - Associated Press\ Frito-Lay rolls out thin tortilla chips
PLANO, Texas - Frito-Lay Inc. said Wednesday it would introduce Doritos Tortilla Thins chips nationwide with an ad campaign tied to the Academy Awards.
The nation's largest salty-snack maker, which has been testing the chip in two Midwestern states since fall, forecast $450 million in first-year sales.
The $50 million rollout is the largest ever for Frito-Lay, a unit of Pepsico Inc. The company will advertise and give away samples of the snack at movie theaters during the weekend before the March 29 Academy Awards ceremony.
Frito-Lay plans to spend $100 million on marketing the chip during its first year.
Doritos Tortilla Thins are the size of potato chips, about two-thirds as thick as the normal Dorito chip.