My only functional hearing aid was just lost or stolen recently. So, now, it’s time for Deaf Bobby to begin his reign of terror at the workplace, replete with oddly fluctuating voice and repeated requests to, “Please write down what you’re saying.”
Ok. I’m a working professional like many readers of this website. I have a health plan from my company, Corporate Executive Board (CEB). It’s a standard corporate health plan. So let’s see if they cover hearing aids.
Oh, big surprise! The plan does not cover the purchase of hearing aids. Apparently, CEB opted not to include that coverage. And I’m not in the mood for a protracted years-long fight to get them to cover hearing aids. I know it’s not fair — they cover glasses but not hearing aids? Arent they the same? They shouldn’t discriminate based on disability.
I prefer to take the path of least resistance and least amount of time, because right now I don’t have the time nor energy to mess with too much red tape. So I started looking around for other options. After a few hours of research, I found out that they are very limited:
- Pay for them myself (about $5000 for two digital hearing aids)
- Find some kind of funding source like VR (takes lots of time, red tape, etc)
- Cochlear implants
So, after calling my insurance company, I find out that hearing aids are not covered but cochlear implants will most likely be covered. So. In order to save money, I have to opt for a $50,000 surgery? Sure! I’d rather avoid surgery and keep using my safe little hearing aids but I don’t have $5,000 right now.
I have an appointment at GWU tomorrow to get an audiogram and find out my options with cochlear implants and my insurance. Have any of you been presented with this dilemma? What would you do in my place?
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I’m confronted with that dilemma now. I haven’t lost my hearing aid, but it’s heading down the clinky road to brokenness. Same cost, same stupidity, same lack of insurance coverage. What they did instead of including the hearing aid option was to offer workers a $300 hearing aid reimbursement. Yay. Not very helpful against $5,000.
I don’t think cochlear implants would be useful for you if you have hearing aids. Implants are for people who have little to no residual hearing. You can’t guarantee what level of hearing or usefulness will be left when the surgery’s done, and they’re not going to freeze your cochlea to put back in case you don’t like it. So I advise against getting the surgery… looks like your best bet would be VR, but sometimes local places to get hearing aids have special deals and maybe you can work out something? The League of Hard of Hearing here has some programs.
Bobby,
Cochlear implant surgery does not involve removing the cochlea. Rather, it involves placing the implant within the cochlea. It is true that in most cases this results in loss of residual hearing in the implanted ear. However, in the overwhelming majority it is done in exchange for better hearing via the cochlear implant. Effective use of a hearing aid does not preclude cochlear implant candidacy. The impetus promoted by lack of insurance coverage for hearing aids to investigate cochlear implants may create a win-win situation for you - better hearing for less money, plus no earmold and no feedback. I encourage you consult a professional for an evaluation of your candidacy. You are probably not far from Johns Hopkins, home of one of the most widely kown cochlear implant programs and the US. News & World report #1 ENT department.
I had the same issue when both of my hearing aids were malfunctioning from wear and tear. When my HR Department recommended I use Unicare’s 30% discount from Beltone, I cringed. Beltone is probably the worst distributors of hearing aids I know. They rust, malfunction and are just too unreliable for me. I only trust certain brands to provide me just the extra edge and durability I need at work.
I decided to send one of them to a lesser known hearing aid repair shop in the middle of Texas for $200. They ended up sending the hearing aid to Widex for a complete factory refinish and recasing. The hearing aid came back just as good as new with a limited warranty.
Deaf and hard of hearing professionals, unfortunately, have to plan and budget their medical expenses for the long term. Here’s how you do it… Set up a Health Savings Account (not your employer’s flexible spending account which requires you to use it or lose it). Every year you can put tax-free funds into this Health Savings Account and use it when you need to repair or replace your hearing aids.
Even if you decide to get your own health insurance, the premiums will be cheaper if you exclude deafness related expenses anyway. So what should you do if you need health insurance? Get a high deductible health plan and use the Health Savings Account to cover the deductible and other expenses not covered by your health insurance. Another option is to get insurance coverage to replace your hearing aids if they become damaged, lost or stolen. That might be cheaper in the long run than paying extra premiums on health insurance.
Most VR programs and non-profit organizations help cover the expense of hearing aids but most professionals make too much money to qualify anyway.
Hi,
Actually Tim, your advice regarding the Health Savings account holds good for pretty much any specialist medical care, and is not restricted to those requiring hearing aids.
or you could talk to the union and ask them to work on including the option in your health care. if you have a union. if they care.
Oh, I also wanted to add that I have a pair of older, analog hearing aids that I have used in the past for emergencies. One situation I had a small fire on my nightstand which destroyed both hearing aids, my glasses, watch and alarm clock. Fortunately my father’s homeowners insurance covered the damage. The analog hearing aids came in handy during the short waiting period. If you don’t want to keep your old ear molds, you can go to your audiologist to get temporary ear molds while you wait 1-2 weeks for the permanent ones.
As a general rule, you should have your hearing aid tubes replaced and the hearing aid cleaned every 3 months, new ear molds every 6 months (changes in weather affect the fit), and hearing exams once a year. For me, all of that costs about $400-500 a year at GWU. I’d also recommend having the hearing aids factory refinished every 3 years for about $500 and new hearing aids every 6 years.
There are no unions where I work unfortunately…
Deaf and hard of hearing organizations need to lobby a law in their State to require all health insurance plans to cover hearing aid expenses. So… send a letter to the Commissioner of the Department of Insurance and Securities Regulation, 810 First Street, NE, Suite 701, Washington, DC 20002.
Nice thing about CIs, though, is that they only do one ear. I’m profoundly deaf (100-110db hearing loss) so I don’t have all that much to lose. Right now I’m 50/50 on the whole issue.
Tim — thanks for the many tips/ideas. Also, good advice on taking care of hearing aids. Mine, I admit, are very poorly taken care of. I’ve never even cleaned them!
I wonder what other experiences are out there. Does anybody else want to chime in with their working-world hearing aid experiences?
Get the implant dude. You scared? What are you scared of, that you’ll find out that *gasp* hearing people are really, really cruel, or that you won’t be eligible for SSDI anymore? If you’re lucky, the implant will successfully work for you, you’ll get recognition of sound and speech in the 90% range and find out just how much of an advantage it is for you to be right there in the moment? Ask many blind people if they would get a surgery that might allow them some or all of their sight and would you be shocked at the answer? So why so much resistance to the implant among the hard core deaf power people? Because they’re scared. Identity? You are what you do, not what handicap you have. Technology is leveling the playing field overnight and more and more children are getting implanted, more and more deaf schools are losing numbers and getting shut down. On the other hand, you have a guy like Doctor Scott Smith, born deaf and never heard a sound in his life yet he worked his butt off to get into medical school and the Harvard school of public health, all the while going to mainstreamed public schools. So where does the truth lie, that the vast majority of deaf people are hiding behind their deafness, working in deaf-related jobs, or that the cochlear implant is not a panacea for the deaf world? Somewhere in the middle, perhaps. Before you flip out, make sure you read it carefully. I said the vast majority of deaf people… the handful of big shot deafies in DC are clearly in the minority. Out of those, how many went to RIT vs. Gallaudet?
and yeah, I’m trollin’
Gary–that whole comment, get the implant, you scared?
Hell yeah i’d be scared if i knew I was going to have a surgery that that close to my brain. i don’t think it’s about deaf pride at all.
Anyway making a decision to get a cochlear implant isn’t the easiest decision. For one, I have usher’s. So say i go through with the surgery, and it doesn’t work. yeah so now i’m completely deaf in one ear, and god knows how long my vision will remain stable. so yea i’m scared of getting a cochlear implant. so the only way i’d go through one is probably down the road when I know i absolutely need it. I wouldn’t get it now because i’m doing just fine.
Erin, I know what you mean about the decision whether to get a CI not easy. I thought about it for years before I finally went ahead with it. My experience with the CI surgery was that it was very easy. Only took an hour and a half, and I had a tiny scar the size of a bobby pin behind my ear. I did not have to have my head shaved either. I had no pain whatsoever and the scar healed in less than a week. If you think you might need a CI down the road due to declining vision, I’d encourage you to think about getting a CI sooner rather than later. The reason is because it takes time to learn how to recognize sounds and get used to hearing at near-normal levels. The evaluation process for candidacy also takes time, with multiple appointments needed. I love my implant and consider it a “super hearing aid.” I also have the option of simply taking it off any time I want. You can have it both ways!
Isn’t there something unlawful or discriminatory about insurance companies offering CI benefits and not hearing aid benefits? I wonder if NAD knows about this.
gary said: deaf people are hiding behind their deafness, working in deaf-related jobs
no its not hiding behind their deafness, its a language issue, is it so wrong for people to choose to work among other people who speak the same language? is it so wrong to choose to live a life with less communication barriers? i think not.
I’m not scared of Cochlear Implant (CI). I just don’t think I need or want to get it. And yeah, I don’t want an ugly scar on my head just to get a marginal improvement in my hearing. Besides, I won’t be allowed to play contact sport anymore, right?
So, whatever your opinions are about CI, just remember that I have already formed mine and there’s no need to try to change it. I think people need to choose what is right for them regarding whether to get CI or not and not let the various opinions bother them. You can still be culturally Deaf, wear a CI and still use ASL– at least in my world.
Hi Tim: someone else replied later on, but I want to share my experience with you too. Just so you can have all the facts. I’m not trying to bend your arm and convince you to get one if you don’t want one, OK? Nowadays the scar is very small, just the size of a bobby pin, and behind your ear. No head shaving necessary. Of course for men with short hair, the implant is visible unless you have long curly hair like me. The improvement in hearing levels is huge. After the adjustment period, your hearing levels should rise to mild or nearly normal. As for contact sports, I had to give up my career as a roller derby queen when I got my CI. –just kidding. I drive a desk. — And YES, you absolutely can be culturally Deaf, wear a CI, and use ASL.
Contact sports? What are you, defensemen for the Capitols?
Regarding the vision correlate, it’s interesting to note that insurance plans generally cover glasses and contacts, but not laser vision correction. It perplexes me why they would cover the “new” method for hearing and the “old” method for vision, but not vice versa, especially since both “old” methods are cheaper.
Because it’s about how they can get more money out of people. Hearing aids don’t raise a lot of money. Laser vision is a one-time corrective. They can make more out of people going again and again. (Implant surgery costs more than HA’s.)
Actually, Joseph, that is incorrect.
An excerpt from my report:
Profits among cochlear implant companies are usually in the 10 to 30 million dollars. One cochlear implant company in Australia earned 27 million dollars in 2002. This is quite low according to many of the investors’ expectation of seeing double amount. Earning projections were usually sometimes at twice what was earned a year earlier or even previous years. Despite the numerous analyses on the potential market of 1.8 million “viable” deaf people with profound and severe hearing loss that could benefit from cochlear implants, cochlear implant companies have so far only produced 61,000+ devices. (Clegg). This produces to date with only a 3.4 percent cumulative market penetration. (Clegg “Investors ignore message from Cochlear.” May 2003. The Australian Financial Review.)
As for hearing aids, they are sold in a much higher quantity than cochlear implant devices. The world’s hearing-aid market is estimated today with 5.5 million units sold totaling up to 4 billion dollars annually. The present growth is approx. 6% a year in volume and 9% in value according to Amplifon (www.amplifon.com). This is a true multi-billion dollars a year hearing aid industry, unlike the cochlear implant industry. Currently the cochlear implant industry is not a “billion dollar a year industry” as some people vehemently would like you to believe but a multi-million dollar-a-year industry, instead.
What would I do in your case, Bobby? Well, I would invent a time machine, first. Second, I would go back in time. Third, I would find your father just at the moment right before your conception and kick him in the nuts, thus prevent you ever being born.
[…] Auditory issues took the front page with discussions around cochlear implants, raising a CODA, and cued speech. We were visited by some nice, sordid stories of ASL-wielding muggers around Gallaudet and the XX Winter Olympics. But as always, living in DC involves random encounters, whether that’s a Mack Daddy or the “IT” person. […]
You are not alone. My company insurance doesn’t cover hearing aid but do cover CI.
I’ve been fighting with my company to offer one in near future. Oddly, they do offer glasses insurance. Duh!
gwlj
Give these guys a call. You have an audiogram done and send it to them. They do a good job fitting a hearing aid and offer good terms. I have bought from them many times and significant discounts.
Monroe Hearing Aid Corp
30 E Adams St # 400, Chicago, 60603
(312) 201-1116
you see, i have VERY little residual hearing. but i can honestly say i would avoid the implant at all costs. think of all the extra work!! electrical wires outside your head. Shower, anyone….
For Mickie,
There are no electrical wires outside the head. The external device is attached to the head by a magent on the external device and the magnet inside the impant. The external device is removed before swimming or showering.
For Bobby,
The criteria for being a CI Candidate is to score under 50% of speech recognition tests with an hearing aid. Cochlear.com is a good website to get info on CI. They now have minimal array invasion to preserve the residual hearing as much as possible. You will get an honest eval from an audie as whether you can be a good candidate for a CI after some testings, and most CI recipients hear all the frequencies at around 20db, which beats the use of an hearing aid! If you desire to hear more sounds and understand speech better, then the CI is the better choice as a speech processor over an hearing aid which only provides amplification. Connect with Cochlear Americas at cochlear.com and they will be happy to refer you to a Consumer Volunteer Advocate who can answer your questions and only you can make an informed decision!
Sorry - I have keyboard problems thus showing typos.
For Mickie,
There are no electrical wires outside the head. The external device is attached to the head by a magnet on the external device and the magnet inside the implant. The external device is removed before swimming or showering.