One of the things I like best about my family doctor is the way she interviews me during my annual physical about everything going on in my life. In her view, early identification of the causes of potential disease, ranging from big issues like job stress and emotional or marital problems to relatively minor issues such as too much caffeine, are just part of the preventive maintenance a healthcare provider is supposed to perform during the annual checkup. A simple question such as "are your eyes giving you any trouble?" or "how's your hearing?" quickly turns into an in-depth interview and diagnostic tests if I give any hint of a problem. But if you think that level of care should be standard, you will be as stunned and disappointed as I was when I learned that only 12.9 percent of physicians in the U.S. routinely screen patients for hearing loss during annual physicals. Even worse, that number -- from the 2004 Better Hearing Institute MarketTrak survey of the U.S. hard-of-hearing population -- is down from a high of 20.2 percent of doctors who screened patients for hearing loss in 1990. That's 50 percent more than is done today, 15 years later, even with the rapidly growing wave of baby boomers losing their hearing as they age. But perhaps it should be no surprise.
As I mentioned in my previous post on the survey, fewer than a quarter of hard-of-hearing individuals in the U.S. seek treatment for their hearing loss, even when they know it bothers them and/or family members have complained about their inability to hear. Dr. Sergei Kochkin, Executive Director of BHI, says in his upcoming Hearing Review article on the survey that it will take more than public service advertising and awareness-building campaigns to solve the problem. Not until major advocacy organizations such as the AARP start to bring pressure to bear on the medical establishment will physician behavior start to change in a meaningful way. And the federal government may be a source of help as Medicaid requirements evolve, though its reluctance this past year to increase funding for the Early Hearing Detection and Intervention (EHDI) program doesn't give one much cause for optimism. EHDI has been a hugely successful effort to screen newborns for hearing loss (early detection is the biggest factor in helping hard-of-hearing children gain language and literacy skills at an age-appropriate pace), but funding was cut in the administration's budget recommendation before being restored following protests and advocacy by Self-Help for Hard-of-Hearing People (SHHH) and other organizations. (More information on EHDI can be found at the SHHH website.)
Posted by David at 02:22 AM on Jul 15, 2005 in COPING, INDUSTRY NEWS, ISSUES & ADVOCACY
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