Help with hearing aid costs

July 2025

July 4 fireworks in Silverton, Colorado, 2023. Have a safe and not-too-loud holiday!

Getting over the financial gap

By Paula DeJohn

“Treating hearing loss is expensive, but the hearing aids are only part of the cost,” Dusty Jessen, AuD, the Denver Chapter Professional Liaison, explained at the June meeting. The price of a pair, which can range from $2,000 to $7,000, includes a hearing test, fitting, training and various other treatments. This is why over-the-counter brands are much cheaper; no audiologist is involved.

But even if hearing aids are worth the expense, what if you just can’t afford them? Medicare doesn’t cover them—though it may cover diagnostic exams prescribed by a physician, and Medicaid coverage depends on whether your state allows it.

Where to find help

Fortunately, many organizations exist that will subsidize or even donate hearing aids—and auxilliary services—to people who cannot otherwise afford them.

Dusty, who has her own clinical practice in Littleton, participates in one of them, Hearing the Call Colorado. Hearing the Call is a national non-profit organization that raises funds to provide hearing health care to people in underserved communities around the world. The funds subsidize charitable care from private audiology practices in the United States, as well as teams of volunteer audiologists who provide exams and treatment on trips overseas. Her most recent international visit was to Turks and Caicos.

Also at the June meeting, Arthur Belefonte and Kit Mead from Friends of Man explained how their organization works with churches, social services and similar professional groups to find people who need help obtaining medical devices and equipment, including hearing aids. Using donated funds, they work with product vendors and referring professionals to help patients connect with the devices they need.

Not everyone qualifies

To obtain financial help, patients must meet income and other requirements. For example, to get help from Hearing the Call, a patient’s income must not exceed 250% of the federal poverty level. Hearing the Call also asks for “payment” in the form of “10 hours of community service or an act of kindness,” according to Dusty. One client, she recalls, was an artist who donated paintings for fundraising auctions. Friends of Man, in addition to income limits, has certain lifestyle requirements: no alcohol use, for example.

Following are some organizations that can provide financial help related to hearing loss:

• Hearing the Call-Colorado: hearingthecall.org/colorado

• Friends of Man: friendsofman.org

• Colorado Division of Vocational Rehabilitation: DVR.colorado.gov

• Colorado Gerontological Society: senioranswers.org

• Denver Health Audiology Clinic: denverhealth.org/services/audiology

• Denver Lions Club: denverlions.org

• Marion Downs Center: mariondowns.org

Bluetooth: a new idea and an old story

Editor’s note: Technology marches on, but sometimes the frantic pace of inventions can be overwhelming and confusing, so it is good to return on occasion to the basics. The following story appeared in the February 2019 issue of HAH, then known as the Denver Chapter News.

By Paula DeJohn

If it isn’t already a Scrabble word, Bluetooth’s ubiquity has certainly made it as recognizable as “internet” and “world wide web”—but no easier to define. It is of interest to any user of communication devices, including hearing aids.

Many (most?) users will be surprised to learn the name has an ancient and bloody origin. According to Wikipedia, a 10th century king named Harald Blatonn ravaged lower Scandinavia until he managed to consolidate his rule in what is now Denmark. That is, he created a network of smaller states that pledged loyalty to him. The name “Blatonn,” (or “Blatand” in another source), in English means “Bluetooth.”

From there to here

In 1989, a group of Swedish engineers developed technology that used radio waves to allow separate devices to communicate with each other, but only over short distances. The maximum range then, as now, for this short-link radio technology was about 10 meters, or 33 feet. In choosing a name for their invention, the Swedes drew on their ancient history to define another network, not of tributary states, but of communication devices: Bluetooth. The famous logo is based on runes, letters in the ancient Viking alphabet. It combines two runes, Hagall (ᚼ) and Bjarkan (ᛒ), that represent the king’s initials.

Bluetooth’s success is a result of its signal standardization and adoption for use with a large and growing number of devices. About 30,000 companies are members of Bluetooth Special Interest Group (Bluetooth SIG). The companies hold licenses to use Bluetooth in the devices they create, and to use the logo in promoting them. Like WiFi, another radio-based technology, Bluetooth was designed to replace connecting cables to transfer data, especially between computers and telephones. WiFi offers higher speed and more complex applications, while Bluetooth has been adopted for simpler networks and personal devices.

Why you still need a telecoil

With all the talk about Bluetooth and wireless technology, it’s easy to forget that the old familiar hearing aid features are still useful. “Just because your hearing aids have Bluetooth, it doesn’t mean they can connect to anything that also has Bluetooth, such as a Droid device or your automobile,” JoAnne Hirsch, communications technology program manager for the Colorado Commission for the Deaf, Hard of Hearing and Deafblind, explains in the Navigator, the Commission’s newsletter.

A programmed telecoil, or T-coil, allows the user to connect with devices that do not have Bluetooth, such as amplified or captioned phones, music players and FM systems. By adding a neck loop, the wearer can hear an audio signal from another device directly to the hearing aids.

While not all hearing aids can accommodate a T-coil, it is also true that many audiologists fail to offer them to patients. “So, don’t assume your hearing aids will have T-coil,” Hirsch says. “If you feel you may need this technology, you have to ask before the hearing aid is ordered to make sure it’s included.”

The T-coil also makes hearing a public meeting or performance much easier, as long as the room or building is furnished with a hearing loop, which is a long copper wire placed around a room, usually under a carpet. The wire creates an electromagnetic field when an amplifier is connected to an audio source, such as a microphone. Listeners with telecoil-equipped hearing aids can then receive audio signals directly to their ears, without interference from background noise. <>

But will it start the coffee?

Many of us have experimented with gadgets that use light or motion to alert us to sounds we can’t hear, such as a ringing telephone or alarm clock. Results can vary, depending on the situation and level of hearing loss.

The Colorado Commission for the Deaf, Hard of Hearing and DeafBlind, through its Communications Technology Program, has been providing a tool that combines a flashing light, loud ringer, and vibrating bed shaker, known as the HomeAware system. It is designed to respond to telephone signals, including texts, can be set to serve as an alarm clock, and is free for qualified applicants.

HomeAware has now been upgraded to add smoke and carbon monoxide detection to its alerts, according to an announcement by manager JoAnne Hirsch in the June 2025 Navigator.

The updated device now features an integrated smoke and CO sound detector. This means the central unit can detect loud, continuous sounds and the specific sound patterns of smoke (T3) and carbon monoxide (T4) alarms. When one of these is detected, the system alerts you using the flashing light, a loud ringer (up to 105 dB), and the bed shaker, giving you multiple ways to be notified of potential danger. The central unit also includes a bright red, scrolling 2-inch display and a strobe flash. These features can be combined to create a customized alert system tailored to users' needs.

To apply or request a demonstration, email office.ccdhhdb@state.co.us.

When sounds are heard, but unpleasant

By Paula DeJohn

I learned a new word the other day: misophonia. It is a condition associated with hearing, but for sufferers, it is not so much a loss of sound perception, but rather a weird reaction to certain sounds. As Wikipedia explains,

When confronted with specific "trigger" stimuli, people with misophonia experience a range of negative emotions, most notably anger, extreme irritation, disgust, anxiety, and sometimes rage. The emotional response is often accompanied by a range of physical symptoms (e.g., muscle tension, increased heart rate, and sweating) that may reflect activation of the fight-or-flight response. Unlike the discomfort seen in hyperacusis, misophonic reactions do not seem to be elicited by the sound's loudness but rather by the trigger's specific pattern or meaning to the hearer. Many people with misophonia cannot trigger themselves with self-produced sounds, or if such sounds do cause a misophonic reaction, it is substantially weaker than if another person produced the sound.

As it turns out, some of my family members have been living with misophonia for a long time. According to my sister Marie back in Connecticut, it could be a genetic condition. A couple of our siblings also have it. As she describes it, “We each have a similar intense hate of chewing sounds: people chewing or slurping = BAD, but a dog or cat doing the same = ADORABLE, why? Also we have some variations in other hated sounds such as whispering, or music or TV audio other people are playing, loudly or otherwise.”

Dusty Jessen, AuD, the Denver Chapter’s professional liaison, says the condition is rare and chewing is a common trigger. “Treatment is similar to tinnitus treatment, which is why audiologists often come into play—cognitive behavioral therapy is used, sometimes in conjunction with sound therapy, to re-wire the brain's reaction to the offending sound,” she explains.

Readers, please reply in the comments if you have had this experience, or even if you know something about it.

News about our publisher

Technology marches on. When High Altitude Hearing’s monthly issues were deemed “too large” to convey by traditional email carriers, and thanks to the Covid pandemic, impractical to print, we moved to a relatively new platform called Substack. Designed not for marketing, but for sharing information, Substack makes it easy for writers to get the news out, and allows for paid subscriptions (HAH is free unless you’d like to contribute to the chapter for $50 per year).

Now, according to a recent article in The Guardian, traditional newspapers such as The Washington Post have begun to notice the high quality of Substack newsletters and are considering featuring some of them as opinion pieces. No word yet about interest in HAH, but the Guardian quotes Substack official Hamish McKenzie as calling his company “the most significant media disruption since the printing press”.

Upcoming meetings

There will be no meetings in July and August. The chapter’s annual picnic will be July 19 at Picnic Shelter C at the deKoevend Park, 6315 S University Blvd, Centennial, CO 80121, 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Bring your own lunch and drinks. We will provide dessert. The HOPE online meetings will continue on third Wednesdays; the next meeting will be July 16 from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. To learn more or to receive an invitation with the Zoom link, email jen427mcbride@gmail.com. Dues for 2025 are $20 for an individual and $30 for a couple. Please bring a check made out to HLAA Denver, or you can pay online at https://hearinglossdenver.org/ (scroll down to "Pay Annual Dues”).

Grocery fundraiser

The Denver Chapter is promoting a program by King Soopers, in which participants using a shopper’s card (the card you swipe to get a discount) can generate a contribution to the chapter with each purchase. There is no cost to you. Just log on to https://hearinglossdenver.org/community-rewards-program.

Hearing loss comment of the month

There are a lot of negatives to the Nuance Audio Glasses, but in the end, these are far outweighed by the positives. Getting better hearing without having to struggle with uncomfortable hearing aids is a game-changer, even if they aren’t fully tunable and don’t correct my hearing as well as many true hearing aid products. If Nuance releases more and smaller frame options, and perhaps gets the price down a bit, the technology has the chance to take the hearing aid market in a new and exciting direction. I’m in.

From a review of EssilorLuxottica Nuance Audio Glasses by Christopher Null in the May 5 issue of Wired. The glasses feature programable audio components in the arms, and may also be fitted with prescription lenses.

Denver Chapter members watch the June speaker.