Saturday, May 19, 2007

Bilateral Implants to be "Gold Standard"....

This is an interesting and "turn of time" article about the difficulties in acquiring second cochlear implants for bilateral hearing....

Click this to read the article

I am hoping someday soon that two cochlear implant will be mandatory instead of single implants. The best way to make that happen will take an act of Congress to change the Medicare guidelines. Most insurances go by Medicare guideline as health care standard.

2 comments:

Jennifer said...

I have heard that BlueCross BlueShield is approving bilaterals for children under 12 in Tennessee...however, for a 35 year old mama of five, they intend to drag their feet as long as possible, I think :) I got my first denial this week saying that it wasn't "medically necessary". Sure, I'm not going to keel over dead without it, but if I get hit by that firetruck that I still can't hear, or if one of my children is hurt and I can't hear their screams (happened last week), it might BECOME "medically necessary". Argh!
I know I only had one ear for most of my life, but it worked fairly well. Now I have two ears that don't work well, although slowly, slowly I am adjusting to the implant. I would love to have the second implant....not necessarily for the "stereo effect", but because I need all the help I can get!!!

Dan said...

Jennifer,

Thank you for your comments!!! VERRRRYYY INTERESTING.... That is pure BS, in my opinion.


What I would do is to ask your doctor to gather the medical journal articles on bilateral implants and include that in the appeal. Also you can ask your manufactor to back up your appeal, too!

Please let me know what I can do to make it work for you!!!

Dan