Hearing News Watch

RESTON, VA—A study commissioned by the American Academy of Audiology (AAA) has found that giving Medicare beneficiaries direct access to audiologists would save Medicare about $240 million over 10 years. In a message e-mailed to AAA members on November 7, Deborah L. Carlson, PhD, president of the academy said, “This compelling and comprehensive study shows what the academy has purported

By Fred Cohen MONROE, LA–An employment discrimination case brought by Wanda Smith, a lien release processor with J.P. Morgan Chase, Smith claimed that even using prescriptive hearing aids she still does not hear at the level of a typical adult. She was fired by Chase for failing to meet a productivity benchmark of 13.34 lien releases processed per hour. Chase

WATERTOWN, MA—A web site has been created to give people with both hearing and vision loss access to technology that can connect them with deaf-blind people around the world. iCanConnect.org offers a wealth of advanced communications technology, including video that is both audio-described and closed-captioned, screen-enlargement software, and videophones. The new web site is part of the iCanConnect campaign mission designed

PHOENIX—The Academy of Doctors of Audiology (ADA) unveiled a new campaign last week during its annual meeting that will advocate for changes in the Social Security Act (SSA) to improve audiologic care for Medicare beneficiaries. Among its objectives is to finally achieve audiology’s unfulfilled goal of providing Medicare patients with direct access to audiologic treatment. In announcing the plan at

By Holly Hosford-Dunn PHOENIX–Blogging lived up to its name last week. Starkey’s new “Made for iPhone” hearing aid platform was unveiled, apparently prematurely, in a special student workshop at this year’s Academy of Doctors of Audiology (ADA) conference in Phoenix. Those sessions were marked “students only,” and it seems that an audiology student took good notes and wrote them up.

HAMILTON, ON—Traditionally, hearing aids have helped people with hearing loss by amplifying and processing sound in such a way that users can make the most of their residual hearing. They are not expected to improve people’s ability to hear unaided. But now, for the second time in the past few months, hearing aid technology has been introduced that is intended to

CLEVELAND–Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine filed lawsuits last week against two hearing aid dispensing businesses in northeast Ohio, accusing them and their owners of multiple violations of consumer law, including misrepresenting products and services. Named in the October 24 announcement were American Hearing Centers Network LLC, owned by Joseph Boles, and Southland Hearing Center, owned by Jeffrey Jones. American Hearing

SKODSBORG, DENMARK—Patient-centered care is a popular concept these days, and certainly sounds like a good idea for any area of health care, including hearing care. However, the Ida Institute notes, during its various seminars and workshops and in conversations at professional meetings, audiologists have sometimes expressed skepticism about it. They wonder if patient-centered care is a fluffy, intangible, time-consuming add-on

  By David H. Kirkwood WASHINGTON, DC—Citing “structural and programmatic changes for the Better Hearing Institute (BHI),” the Hearing Industries Association (HIA), which funds BHI, announced that Sergei Kochkin, BHI’s executive director since 2004, “will no longer be associated with the institute” effective November 1. In a press statement issued October 22, HIA said, “While Dr. Kochkin will no longer

PHOENIX—The Academy of Doctors of Audiology (ADA) will be focusing squarely on the future of its profession when it holds its 2012 Annual Convention November 8-10 at the Arizona Biltmore Resort in Phoenix. The meeting’s theme is “Phoenix Rising: Taking Audiology Above and Beyond,” and ADA is urging members to attend and “become part of the movement that is shaping