Kathy Buckley Talks About Insurance Issues

In an interview with Bonnie Siegler from Bankrate.com, Kathy Buckley talks about the issues surrounding insurance coverage for people with disabilities:

Kathy Buckley Reveals Cracks in the Insurance System

Kathy Buckley is a hard of hearing comedian known for her wise-cracking jokes about life’s misfortunes.  She’s an inspirational speaker for Anthony Robbin’s Life Mastery Classes.

Birth to Age 24 Hearing Aid Coverage in Delaware

Delaware Approves Hearing Aid Benefit

Audiologists Hail New Law That Provides Coverage from Birth to Age 24

 

see also: The Power of Advocacy

cite as:
Shafer, D. N. (2008, Aug. 12). Delaware approves hearing aid benefit. The ASHA Leader, 13(10), 1, 8.

by Dee Naquin Shafer

Effective Jan. 1, 2009, new hearing aid insurance legislation will benefit Delaware residents from birth to age 24. The state’s government passed the legislation June 18, making Delaware the 11th state with a hearing aid insurance law.

The legislation caps reimbursement at $1,000 every three years for each ear. “We wanted $1,500, but the bill was originally written for ages 0-18,” said audiologist Linda Heller, senior planner with Delaware’s Division of Services for Aging and Adults with Physical Disabilities and president of the Hearing Loss Association of Delaware (HLADE). “By giving up $500, we got a wider age range,” she added.

HLADE recognizes that adults also would benefit from hearing aid insurance, but organizers decided that initial passage of a benefit for children and youth probably would be easier to obtain.

“We will be organizing to add adult coverage next year,” Heller said, adding that advocating for coverage for ear molds and cochlear implants also is on the HLADE agenda.

The signing of Delaware’s H.B. 355, Health Insurer Coverage for Hearing Aids Bill for Children, capped a three-year campaign. Consumers, parents, audiologists, and speech-language pathologists all played a role, Heller said.

Audiologist Eileen Reynolds testified in support of H.B. 355 before a Delaware House committee. A hearing-loss simulation tape helped committee members realize the impact of unaided hearing loss on successful communication, she said.

Amplification Benefits

An educational audiologist, ASHA member Reynolds knows firsthand how appropriate amplification can make a difference in the social, academic, and language functioning of children. She noted that many families are denied insurance coverage for reasons that include classifying hearing aids as luxuries, cosmetic, or experimental. Other parents are told their children do not qualify for help through the state because they are “not disabled enough.”

“I believe anger and frustration can be great motivators, so when I learned that HLADE was organizing a lobby for new legislation, I knew I had to get on board and be part of the advocacy,” Reynolds said (see sidebar).

Before the push for H.B. 355, HLADE had received many calls from parents unable to purchase hearing aids for their children, Heller said. She began speaking about the issue in any possible venue. She also wrote articles for the local paper and sought a legislator who would be committed to making the hearing aid benefit happen. Specifically, she looked for a legislator who wore hearing aids and found Rep. Gerald Brady (4th District, Wilmington), a military veteran.

Brady and Heller organized a public forum and invited all interested parties. One of the attendees was Matt Denn, Delaware’s insurance commissioner, and the father of a child who wears hearing aids. He signed on to research other states that had enacted hearing aid benefits.

“We wanted to know what the bill’s impact would be and what had occurred in other states,” Heller said. “If there were positive elements, we could share them. If there were negative parts, we could fix them in our bill.”

Heller launched a massive public education campaign that included e-mails asking for ideas and support. Brady crafted the bill, which was brought up before the House Committee for Banking, Finance, and Insurance. At the hearing, other legislators who have hearing loss made presentations.

“Rep. John Viola made a passionate presentation,” Heller said. “I was really struck by how candid both he and Rep. Brady were in explaining to the committee, and all the insurance company lobbyists, how hearing loss affects them, and then relating it to children,” she said, adding that the legislators also urged hearing aid coverage for adults. The bill gained momentum after the insurance committee passed it, resulting in passage by the full legislature.

At the signing, parents, consumers, advocates, and legislators were joined by Computer Assisted Realtime (CART) reporters and sign-language interpreters, enabling people who were deaf and hard of hearing to understand the proceedings. The occasion marked the first time that CART was used in the governor’s office.

Holistic Approach to Audiology

Heller praised the bill’s passage, noting that if hearing aids were provided as soon as possible after diagnosis, children would not lag academically and schools could avoid spending thousands of dollars on speech-language services and special education. Heller has a severe-to-profound hearing loss diagnosed at age 7. She did not receive a hearing aid until age 17.

“That was only one reason I was so passionate about getting this bill passed,” she said.

Heller, who is working on a PhD in international health, has been forced to leave clinical work as her hearing has gradually worsened. As a rehabilitative audiologist, she consults and teaches communication skills and shares her knowledge of assistive technology. She has served as HLADE president for 15 years.

“If you could write a script for a perfect career, I’ve had it,” she said. “I look at people from a holistic point of view. Some audiologists working for physicians don’t have time for the ‘softer side’ of audiology,” she said.

A former chief of audiology and speech with the Veterans Administration and with a school for the deaf, Heller also had her own practice.

“What keeps me in touch with the field is HLADE,” she said. “We’re all here—whether audiologist or advocate or a member of an organization—to help real people with real problems.”

 

This article reprinted from the ASHA Leader with permission.

Just $1.27 for Insurance Coverage

From the newsroom of the WTMJ-TV, Channel 4 News, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Tuesday, February 19, 2008 …..

On Deaf Ears Folo
by John Mercure

Some deaf Wisconsin children continue to go without the tools that could bring sounds to their silent world.

Insurance companies refuse to pay for hearing aid coverage saying it would raise everyone’s rates. The reality is that the costs would be less than the cost of one Sunday newspaper. That’s what it would cost each policy holder in Wisconsin annually to provide hearing aids to deaf children.

Two and half year old Abigail Brensel needs a $ 100,000 cochlear implant to enter the hearing world, which most of us take for granted. Her insurance doesnt cover it, so Abigail remains in a quiet world.

Ann Brensel, Abigail’s mother recently told us, “We know there’s help out there for our daughter but we aren’t able to access it. We don’t have the funds to pay out of pocket.”

Studies show that forcing insurance companies to cover hearing aids and cochlear implants for kids like Abigail would cost the average policy holder $1.27 per year.

“The children can’t speak for themselves at such a young age and it’s about the children,” Brensel frustratingly told us.

Representative Frank Lasee chairs the insurance committee where the bill is stalled. “I know it’s difficult for them. It’s hard. There are other out of pocket costs that people cover that their insurance doesn’t. This is one of them,” lasee recently told us in Madison.

Coverage for child hearing aids would cost each of us $1.27 per year. Experts say without those hearing aids it cost upwards of one million dollars to educate and subsidize a deaf child who grows into a deaf member of our society.

It would seem to be money well spent to get our hard of hearing kids the help they need now.

© 2008, Journal Broadcast Group, a Journal Communications Inc. company

ABC News Covers Hearing Aid Action

The entire news segment can be found here:

Hearing Aid Action on ABC News

Hearing Aid Action Will Be on ABC News

Tune into ABC News, Channel Seven, at eleven a.m. on Thursday, July 24th to watch Karen Meyer interview the representatives and individuals involved with Hearing Aid Action. The segment will air around 11:20 a.m.

Colorado Governor Signs Hearing Aid Mandate

Colorado Governor Signs Hearing Aid Coverage Mandate

 

 

On June 3, Colorado Governor Bill Ritter signed Senate Bill 57, which mandates that health insurance companies cover the cost of hearing aids for Colorado children ages birth to 18. The law will take effect January 1, 2009. The legislation was spearheaded by the Coalition for Children’s Hearing led by co-chairs Mary Bartholomew of the AG Bell Colorado Chapter and Janet DesGeorges from Hands & Voices. Special thanks to the individuals and groups who worked diligently on this important legislation, including Regina Squibbs, Carolyn Wolfrum, Julie McCloskey, Liesel Thomas, Marcia Taber, Sara Kennedy, Dinah Beams, Vickie Thomson, Dr. Sandy Gabbard, Colorado AG Bell, Hands & Voices, Colorado Academy of Audiology, Children’s Hospital-Colorado and the Advocacy Network, Marion Downs Hearing Center, University of Colorado Hospital, Colorado Association of the Deaf, Colorado Sertoma Clubs, the H.E.A.R. Project, the Listen Foundation, and the American Academy of Pediatrics-Colorado Chapter.

For more information, click here.

News Article on Passing a Bill for Hearing Aid Coverage

From the Southtown newspaper:

Put yourself in these shoes:You have a 3-year-old daughter with speech delays directly related to hearing loss.

The cost of her hearing aids? Upward of $2,500. Your health insurance plan doesn’t cover it.

Add hearing aids to the long list of products and services many insurance companies consider medically unnecessary. Hey, who needs ears, anyway?

A committee of the Illinois House recently agreed. The insurance committee led by state Rep. Frank Mautino (D-Spring Valley) by an 8-to-7 vote rejected House Bill 5600, which would have required insurance companies to cover the cost of hearing aids. Because federal law protects self-funded employer health insurance plans from such mandates, HB 5600 only would have impacted families in individual or small group plans – not a very wide net.

Still, the insurance committee voted the bill down, agreeing with the insurance industry that such mandates, collectively, create a slippery slope. They drive up the cost of health insurance.

Read the rest of the article here:

House Committee Puts Hearing to the Test