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License Renewal now ONLINE!
The Illinois Legislature has been busy this past session approving a few bills that are important to the Illinois Academy of Audiology and Illinois audiologists. The biggest change is that the Legislature passed Bill SB3289/HB5255 allowing audiologists to renew their state license online, which will make remembering the renewal deadline and sending payments easier. Online renewal was an improvement we have been waiting for, for a long time!
In other legislative news, Senator Ira Silverstein has been advocating a bill (HB4924) which amends the Illinois Insurance Code, the Health Maintenance Organization Act, and the Voluntary Health Services Plans Act. This bill essentially provides that health insurance and managed care plans must provide coverage for operations to implant cochlear implants and post-treatment services for children identified within one year of birth as being deaf or hearing impaired, and audiological services and hearing aids for children up to 18 years of age. ILAA is on record as supporting this bill as long as audiologists retain the right to balance bill if patients want more advanced hearing aids that cost an amount over the maximum allowable limit set by the bill. This bill has advanced further this year than any other year, which is great progress and shows the importance of being a member of ILAA. Your PAC support has allowed our voices to be heard for issues such as these.
By Marie Vetter
REIMBURSEMENT COMMITTEE REPORT
Blue Cross/Blue Shield Audiology Network:
Our committee has been working closely with Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Illinois and the Illinois Department of Insurance as a BC/BS provider network for audiologists has been in the process of being developed. These two agencies have finally agreed upon the language differences that were stalling the establishment of this network. Our contacts at BC/BS have advised us that the contracts are due back from the printer “any day now.” In mid April, a blast email was sent to all ILAA members suggesting that they view the BC/BS’s current audiology mailing list to be sure they were listed and that addresses, etc. were correct. Contact information was provided so changes/updates could be reported to BC/BS. (A nice benefit of ILAA membership! Our members were the first to have this opportunity!)
We recommend that anyone receiving this contract read and review it thoroughly to determine if being a provider is in your best interests. We have been advised that there will be some “lag time” in getting everything up and running once all the contracts are received by BC/BS. They advise us that their IT people will have to do some programming to input all the audiology codes and approved providers.
We will keep you posted-we are much closer to seeing this happen than we have been in a long while!
DSCC/CIGNA INSURANCE: Quality Care
Our committee has learned that secondary to the State of Illinois’ budget crisis, DSCC’s reimbursement to audiologists for both diagnostic testing and hearing aids has slowed tremendously. Providers are being told that their claims have been processed and approved but are on “check hold.” Reports are of six month delays in receiving payment. It has also been reported that payment from the State of Illinois’ CIGNA Quality Care plan is running six to nine months after the date of service. This particular plan has hearing aid coverage ($600 towards diagnostic and instrument every three years). Patients who may have this coverage are usually retired State of Illinois employees (teachers, University instructors, civil service workers).
By: Deborah Pitcher, Au.D., Committee Chair
Watch for Details about the ILAA Doctoral Scholarships!
The Illinois Academy of Audiology Board of Directors and the Doctoral Scholarship committee are reviewing the 2010-2011 doctoral scholarship programs. Please watch for additional announcements and updated information posted on the Student Resources section of the ILAA website www.ilaudiology.org
ILAA Earns AAAF Support for IJAS Science Fair 2010
Each year an ILAA representative attends the Illinois Junior Academy of Science (IJAS) Fair State Finals to provide specialty judges in the area of sound, hearing, and balance – all things Audiology. We have attended this event for more than 10 years with the primary goal of increasing awareness and encouraging young scientists to pursue the field of Audiology.
This year, the American Academy of Audiology Foundation enacted a nationwide initiative to encourage all academies to attend local, regional, and state fairs as specialty judges to foster a new generation of audiologists. Academies that submitted applications were eligible for a grant to be used as prize money for science fair winners. ILAA was chosen as a recipient of the $300 grant. The AAAF money supplemented a $300 contribution from ILAA to offer a total of $600 in cash prizes to the 2010 IJAS winners. In addition, industry supporters Etymotic Research, Siemens, Oticon, and Phonak provided prizes from their companies.
Natalie McKee, Au.D. served as the ILAA representative this year. She was accompanied by Au.D. student judges Robert Risley and Tom Christl from Rush University; Katie Myers from Northern Illinois University; and Nisreen Alkhayer, Luke Meyers, Kelcey Cushman, and Mohan Sridhara, all from Illinois State University. There were 21 projects with audiology ties including auditory processing, balance/dizziness, auditory memory, hearing, physics of sound, and hearing conservation. Four winners were chosen and received $150 each.
Allie Winek, an 8th grader from Naperville, addressed the question: "Does background music affect reading efficiency?". Her project was well structured, and used appropriate statistical analyses to determine that background music does indeed interfere with reading efficiency. Several other projects at the science fair were focused on this issue, but Allie demonstrated knowledge of the subject matter that set her apart from her competition. During her presentation, Allie showcased that she was well versed with the anatomy of the ear, and that she had thought deeply about the limitations of her study and future directions for her next project.
Anthony Riskus, an 8th grader from Burr Ridge, answered the question “Do you hear what I hear?” He analyzed ten subjects with normal hearing and ten subjects with a hearing loss. He presented both groups of subjects with a recording of a male voice and a female voice to determine which one was heard better by each subject. His hypothesis was that the female voice should be more difficult to hear for the hearing impaired because when the outer hair cells are damaged the high frequency hair cells are affected first due to the anatomy of the cochlea. He went on to say that the high frequency outer hair cells are at the base of the cochlea and low frequency hair cells are located at the apex. Since sound is first transferred to the base of the cochlea these high frequency hair cells are damaged first making it harder for the subjects with hearing loss to hear the female voice. His results proved this to be true.
Monica Su, an 8th grader from Naperville, found “The effect of hearing on reading.” Her project investigated auditory memory and processing by evaluating her subjects’ abilities to retain information in quiet surroundings and with visual and auditory distraction. She reported on the parts of the brain where listening, seeing, and comprehension occur. Through her studies she found that listening without any competition or distraction is the best way to measure hearing.
Alexandra Paitl, a 7th grader from West Dundee, wanted to know which type of memorization worked better in “Ears versus Eyes.” She analyzed her peers’ visual and acoustic memorization techniques through the use of several fifth grade level word lists. Her participants had a certain amount of time to either read or hear words read to them; after another short time span they were asked to recall every word possible. Alexandra found that her participants’ had better memory recall from the visual tests than the auditory tests. She expressed interest in doing the project over again to eliminate stop-watch malfunctions and distractions in the test room.
ILAA congratulates Allie, Anthony, Monica, and Alexandra on their outstanding projects this year at IJAS and we look forward to their future endeavors.
ILAA would like to thank the student judges Katie, Luke, Mohan, Nisreen, Kelcey, Robert, and Tom for attending the fair and contributing to this article.
By Natalie McKee, Au.D.
Thank you from Monica Su:
Dear Dr. McKee,
Thank you for the generous prize awarded to me at the IJAS State Science Fair. This has encouraged me to keep studying audiology. It has been a great experience to learn about this interesting topic. The students who reviewed my project gave me further insight and understanding about audiology. Thank you again for the generous check and other prizes. I look forward to working with audiologists again in the future.
Sincerely,
Monica Su
Caption on photo:
Katie Myers, Luke Meyers, Mohan Sridhara, Nisreen Alkhayer, Kelcey Cushman, Robert Risley, Tom Christl
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