Hearing News Watch

LIVONIA, MI–Although United Healthcare (UHC) and leaders of several professional associations in hearing care sat down last month to talk with one another (see our February 7 post), there’s little sign that the differences between them can be reconciled. On the one hand, UHC’s subsidiary, hi HealthInnovations, seems fully committed to selling hearing aids directly to consumers. On the other

By David H. Kirkwood PITTSBURGH–The Academy of Doctors of Audiology and the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) have reached an agreement on one of the issues raised by ADA in a suit filed August 2, 2011 against ASHA in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania. However, other issues remain unresolved and the legal battle continues. In its suit,

TAIPEI, TAIWAN—Researchers have found that found that men in a study group with sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SSNHL) were nearly 50% more likely also to have obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) than men in the group who had not suffered sudden hearing loss. The results of the large-scale retrospective study were published last month in the Archives of Otolaryngology–Head & Neck

BALTIMORE—Only one out of seven Americans age 50 and over with hearing loss wears hearing aids. So reports a paper published online February 13 in Archives of Internal Medicine  by Wade Chien, MD, and Frank Lin, MD, PhD, both from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore. That one-in-seven (14%) figure indicates that hearing aids are even more underutilized

BOSTON—The Voice, America’s Got Talent, and, most famously of all, American Idol, have proven that when it comes to garnering a blockbuster television audience, there’s nothing like an old-fashioned talent show with a new twist, say, an obnoxious host, thrown in. If that concept rocks the Nielsen ratings, it should do the same at AudiologyNOW! 2012. That’s the thinking behind

NAERUM, DK—Hearing healthcare providers, patients and their families, and students are being enlisted into a global online campaign that will identify the best ideas for encouraging people to take action, change public perception, and generate better understanding of hearing loss. This innovative idea-generating effort will be launched next month in Boston during AudiologyNOW! 2012, the American Academy of Audiology (AAA)

PARK RIDGE, IL–Brian Kinnerk, a former CEO of Unitron U.S. and Siemens Hearing Instruments, Inc., has been appointed president of Comfort Audio, Inc., as the Swedish-based parent company expands its organization in the U.S. Kinnerk succeeds Ragnar Åhgren, who will continue as chairman of the board of directors. In announcing the hiring, Comfort Audio said that Kinnerk would bring to

DENVER–A Denver mother whose daughter was born with microtia, a congenital condition in which the outer ear is underdeveloped or absent, has launched a web site to offer support to families around the world who face the same situation. About 1 in every 6000 children is born with microtia or aural atresia, another congenital deformity of the ear. The conditions

By David H. Kirkwood WASHINGTON, DC–A coalition of 19 organizations concerned with hearing loss and other disabilities has called upon U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Kathleen Sebelius to define coverage of hearing aids as an essential health benefit (EHB) nationwide In their letter, e-mailed on January 31, the petitioners state, “The Affordable Care Act (ACA) explicitly required

WASHINGTON, DC—Executives with United Healthcare (UHC) and its subsidiary, hi HealthInnovations, held a series of meetings last week with leaders of professional organizations that have been strongly critical of its newly introduced direct-to-consumer hearing aid distribution model Since the beginning of January, the company has been selling hearing aids directly to consumers, without any involvement by qualified hearing professionals. The