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Ask the Audiologist webinar
Hearing Loss Association on America, Michigan State Association (HLAA-MI) will be hosting a Zoom webinar panel discussion. The topic is "Ask the Audiologist". You will be able to get answers to your questions.
To participate, people have to first send an email to events@hearingloss-ggr.org to get the Zoom link. They'll then need to register.
Wednesday, Nov 18, from 6:30 PM until 8:00 PM.
Panelists:
Erica Mandrick of Michigan ENT and Allergy
Darcy Jaarsma of Spectrum Health Audiology
Michelle Rankin of Rankin Audiology & Hearing
Kim Kragt of Constance Brown Hearing Centers
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@judyca7 @barbb HLAA chapters do reach out to ENT's and audiologists. We contact them to be guest speakers at our meetings. Attendees can ask them questions. If these speakers do not know about HLAA before they present, they certainly know about us afterwards. So many people do not know about HLAA. I so appreciate the staff at Mayo Clinic for the great moderation and for the opportunity for us to help spread the word.
Tony in Michigan
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1 ReactionThe Ida Institute (a non-profit organisation committed to advancing person centred hearing care) has some fantastic tools to help you prepare for your appointments, and these tools have also been embedded on the HLAA website. It helps you to think in more detail about who you communicate with, where it is important for you to communicate, what your main priorities are, and any questions that you would like answered by your hearing care professional. You can complete it all online from home, and then either email it to you audiologist/docter, or print it and take it along to your appointment. You can access it from the HLAA website, the Ida Institute website, or the Ida app. It would be amazing to hear about your experiences with these on this forum!
1. https://www.hearingloss.org/hearing-help/hearing-loss-basics/ida-telecare-tools/
2. https://idainstitute.com/tools/telecare/prepare_for_your_first_appointment
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2 ReactionsOh.... I like that. Will check into the Ida Institute. Thanks... Judy
Saw my audi yesterday. Took my list of questions and she wrote out answers. Asked about possibility of setting up a staff meeting after Christmas where 3 or 4 patients could come in and talk to staff about how better to help us. She said this type of thing has been under discussion for over a year and was planned but because of the virus is on hold. Kaiser does not want any training at all scheduled right now..... rooms too small, don't want gatherings, etc.
Also asked her about electronic devices compatible with my aids that might help. She showed me a remote mike that the person I am speaking with can clip on and their voice goes directly into my aids. She programed it to my aids, walked to the other side of the room, turned her back and spoke to me. I'll be darned, I could hear her.... not well of course but I understood the words. So I have ordered one of those.
So why didn't she tell me about this a few months ago? I don't know enough about the options to know what to ask. But I am learning from all of you on this site and that's great!
My hearing is now almost totally gone. Much significant loss since last test in September. Now I am being referred to the Choclear Implant Department for evualuation. We'll see where that goes. I am still hopeful. Thanks for listening.... Judy
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2 Reactions@judyca7 Way to go Judy! As a budding advocate, interested in enhancing your advocacy activity (:-), it would be helpful for you to know what your audie's thinking was in not making a point of mentioning this to you earlier. I would phrase such a question to the audie along those lines. (That might enlighten your future talks with hospital staff! 🙂 ) As far as your poor hearing goes, I hope there's a certain positive in that...i.e. if it's really bad, then you are a candidate for much better hearing, via the CI (which is what happened with me). I hope one of the super experienced here will comment on this last sentence if anything I said seems to need correction.)
I'll be interested to hear how you like the remote mike when you get it. Also, which one did you order? As I've said before, my cochlear implant was a miracle for me. Not perfect, but so very much better. We are lucky to living in times when these incredible solutions exist. When my hearing loss was diagnosed in 1963, I was told that there would NEVER be any help for my progressive hearing loss. I was a college junior then. It bothers me that people we trust with our hearing issues don't always share this kind of information with us.
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1 ReactionAnother issue with cost relates to supply and demand. Data tells us that fewer than 20% of the people who could benefit from hearing aids have them. Cost is a major issue, so is denial. (You know...all the ads that tell us to be ashamed of our hearing loss, but won't be with their 'invisible' products!) Stigma is a real problem. If that 80% bought hearing aids the price would go down. I remember paying over $100 for a hand calculator in the 70s. Today you get them free or for a few bucks at Office Depot. Look at the cost of flat screen TVs and computers. Why are hearing aids so expensive? They just keep going up, up, up!
In 1980 while in Oklahoma City..Dr. Hough said that I was a candidate for a CI..but insurance would not cover it ..my left ear was profoundly deaf. But I could cope with the analog HA. I still do not have a CI He was a pioneer.
@judyca7 You mentioned that your audiologist let you demo a remote mic. I believe ALL major brand hearing aids have a remote mic option. It typically costs about $250 (some remote mics have telecoils so the price may be higher). The AVERAGE cost of a pair of hearing aids is about $4700 and can go up to about $7000. They probably didn't mention a remote mic because of the shock of the cost. In my opinion, the remote mic should come with the hearing aids because of the benefits. As I've mentioned in the past, a remote mic ties you into that manufacturers brand of hearing aid. If you decide to go with a different brand in the future, you'll need to buy their brand of remote mic. Also, there is a universal solution if you have a telecoil. That would be an FM system with the receiver connected to a neck loop. FM's are pricey though. I have a telecoil but wanted the convenience of a remote mic. I wear two Resound's and purchased the remote mic about a year afterwards. It turned out to be a good thing though. Recently, I wanted to buy the Resound TV Streamer device since my wife doesn't need the TV as loud as I need it. (BTW, an FM system could also be used for this application, which offsets the price of the FM system. One device for both applications). As with the remote mic, the TV Streamer is tied to that brand of hearing aids. To get back to my point of a remote mic even though I have telecoils, I found the Resound TV Streamer on eBay. It costs $85 as opposed to the $250 that the audiologist would have charged. The device worked but it may have been because I already had a remote mic program in my hearing aids. I did not have to see the audiologist to set it up. The TV streamer used the program that was set up for my remote mic.
Tony in Michigan
Back then you would have received a single channel implant. CIs were experimental than, so insurance didn't cover them. Now most insurers do, and Medicare does cover them. It's time for Medicare to cover hearing aids, but it has been a battle. Lots of reasons for that. Cost is one of them. Another relates to all the horror stories we hear about hearing aids and people being 'taken' financially. People getting hearing aids and not using them because 'they don't work'. Do you think the insurance industry trusts the hearing aid industry?
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