Washington Seeks Hearing Aid Mandate

By Jill Bujnevicie, Washington H&V

How did you feel when you were told your child has hearing loss but your insurance company will not offer hearing aid coverage? Were you as irate and disappointed as I was? Nearly three years ago, my son Hugo was identified with hearing loss, and I learned that the recommended hearing aids were not covered by insurance. However, I refused to accept it and embarked on a mission to change the law. 

Can Washington finally join the 28 states requiring private insurance companies to cover children’s hearing aids? The Affordable Care Act does not require this kind of coverage within its Essential Benefits. While the ACA provides pediatric vision screening and glasses as a benefit, somehow hearing technology is ignored. Under Medicaid, states are required to provide coverage for hearing instruments for children and adolescents under 21 years of age. As of January 2021, Washington state employees, including school employees, now have coverage. Overall, only 16% of private insurances are estimated to list any coverage for hearing aids. This leaves an alarming number of children without any hearing aid coverage and results in many going without aids or going much longer than they should between replacing faulty aids. One family in Washington chose to pay for just one hearing aid instead of the two recommended because that’s all they could afford. Without access to language, these children fall behind drastically in terms of literacy and language development, academics and the ability to contribute to society as productive adults.

National evidence demonstrates that every 2-3 babies out of 1000 are born deaf or hard of hearing and that more children develop hearing loss after birth, which matches our Washington State Department of Health (DOH) newborn hearing screening data, which indicates that 1 to 3 out of 1,000 infants are born deaf or hard of hearing statewide. Based on data from DOH’s Early Hearing Detection and Intervention (EHDI) program, in 2017, a total of 157 infants out of 86,070 births (2 out of 1,000 infants) were identified through newborn hearing screening as having hearing thresholds in the mild to profound range. The Washington State Center for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Youth conducts an annual survey of public school districts in Washington State. In 2018, 198 out of 296 school districts (67%) reported that 4,423 children 3 to 21 years of age were deaf or hard of hearing (personal communication, Center for Deaf or Hard of Hearing Youth, January 2020). While numbers are small, for those children, amplification options are critical.

My husband and I live in Normandy Park with our two sons, and we both work in emergency medicine as a doctor and physician assistant. Previously, I had no experience with legislative work nor did I know how to contact my district legislators. After much time researching, I learned of a national organization called Let America Hear and in addition got in touch with the local deaf and hard of hearing organizations like Washington Hands & Voices. I discovered that about half the country was successful in obtaining insurance coverage for kids’ hearing aids. I met with my district legislators and went to meetings in Olympia and started to spread the word. I slowly started to understand that legislators want to hear from families. Influencing policies and even changing the law was possible. I had no idea that I was capable of this and knew it wasn’t going to be easy.

I became aware of the annual disability reception in Olympia, a forum legislators attend and discuss issues in January 2019. I almost didn’t go, I felt nervous and too busy but knew I had to take a chance. I put on my best outfit. With butterflies in my stomach and calling up an unwavering mama bear determination, I marched into the capitol to share our stories, yours and mine. At this forum, Rep. Christine Kilduff agreed to take on the challenge of trying to get a bill passed that required insurance coverage for children’s hearing aids. Rep. Kilduff did not run for re-election in 2021, but she thoughtfully passed the work on to Rep. Emily Wicks who happens to have hearing loss herself. Rep. Wicks filed HB 1047 in the 2021 legislative session. This bill was written with the help of many local stakeholders, including the Hearing Loss Association of America, Seattle Children’s Hospital and the American Academy of Otolaryngology to name a few. Writing this bill has been a result of countless hours of phone calls, emails, reaching out to neighbors, friends, co-workers, meetings, a snowballing large group of stakeholders and so much hard work and determination.

We seemed to be roadblocked because the state did not want to move the bill forward without knowing the cost, thought private insurance would be most affected, with the small number of children using hearing aids spread out among many plans and subscribers. Through December 15, we have a budget proviso for $75,000 for a state study to determine what this bill will ultimately cost, by which time study data must be presented. Working closely with Rep. Wicks and my own district’s Rep. Orwall, we will introduce the bill again in the 2022 legislative session and work to obtain a public hearing in the Health and Wellness committee, moving the bill forward from there. I am so grateful to Rep. Wicks and Rep. Orwall and all of our wonderful group of stakeholders for their hard work and dedication to right this wrong for deaf/hard of hearing children in WA.

I share my story with you to hopefully inspire you to get involved. One person can make a difference, and I need all hands on deck to right this wrong. Please share your stories. Ask them to support Rep. Wicks HB 1047 and cosponsor the bill in the 2022 legislative session. There is no better time than now to reach out. Do not delay. Legislators begin to focus on legislative priorities each September. This is a small “ask” for legislators and helps the bill tremendously. Also, spreading the word to the health committee members and the chairs of both the House and Senate would be beneficial. During non-Covid times, citizens can visit the Capital during session, walk around and drop into the legislator’s offices to tell your story and ask that they support the bill. You can use their legislative assistants to help you, who act as critical connections to legislators. Be bold and help make this change by writing letters, phone calls, emails, and attending forums online and in person now and often. Together, we can help children of WA state have access to the hearing aids they need.

Please “like” the Let Washington Kids Hear Facebook page. I keep it updated with calls to action and updates as they come up, and especially this winter during the legislative session. When we get a public hearing, we need to fill the room with our kids and our stories and tell the legislators why they need to pass this bill. You can also view the Let America Hear website for more information. We can do this!   ~

Editor’s note: Contact the author at jillrb @gmail.com with any questions about the bill or how to get involved.

H&V Communicator – Fall 2021