“HIA has long-recognized hearing loss as a public health issue that must be addressed and made a national health priority,” said HIA President Carole Rogin.
Rogin added that HIA continues to believe that it is important to involve a hearing care professional in the purchase of hearing aids to ensure that a proper diagnosis of the cause and level of hearing loss is made. While tremendous advances in digital hearing aids have brought great benefits to people with hearing loss, hearing aids still work best when individually programmed to appropriately amplify just those frequencies where a person has difficulty. Custom fittings, personalized programming, individualized adjustments, and aural rehabilitation services all remain important for adequate and optimal hearing benefit.
“We hope that Congress, the medical community and insurers use the Academies’ report as the basis for elevating the importance of hearing health as our healthcare system continues to evolve,” Rogin said. “The report brings together a number of recommendations that we within the hearing health community have been advocating for some time.”
HIA appreciates the time and effort that went into the Academies’ report and believes it will make a useful and important contribution to making hearing health a national priority.
Additional Hearing Review coverage of the report from NAS, or the Academies, can be found here.
Source: HIA
