New U of A project provides free hearing health care to the uninsured

The Arizona Commission for the Deaf and the Hard of Hearing and the UA announced the Hearing Healthcare Assistance Project on Thursday, including clinic hours and support classes.

“Hearing aids can often be prohibitively expensive for people without insurance, sometimes costing as much as $3,000,” UA said in the announcement.

The UA clinic offers support from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Fridays.

“At these appointments, patients meet with a student as their primary provider and an audiologist professor is there for support,” the announcement stated. “There, they will focus on diagnosis, counseling, hearing aid selection and fitting, as well as follow-up care.”

Additionally, there is a weeks-long adjustment period in which patients receiving hearing aids can adjust sound levels. The hearing aids may have telecoils which “enables the hearing aid to directly connect to assistive listening systems in places such as The Loft Cinema in Tucson.”

Those seeking care are asked to contact the commission, which refers those eligible to the university. “If you are low-income and need hearing aids, please email Christy Abrams at C.Abrams@acdhh.az.gov,” the commission says on its website, acdhh.org.

Just over 4% of Arizona’s population had a hearing disability in 2021, according to Statista, a website that collects and presents large datasets. The National Council of Aging reported that hearing loss affects about 60.7 million Americans aged 12 and older.

“When patients cannot communicate well with others, it can lead to feelings of isolation and depression,” said Amy Wheeler, an audiologist at the UA’s Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences Clinic. “Not being able to communicate can also lead to difficulties with employment, which in turn can have a large impact on the patient and loved ones.”

She added that it was “a heartbreaking thing to know what treatment would lead to a great outcome for your patient and not be able to get it to them due to cost. With this project, there is a new way for me to get my patients the treatment they need.”

In 2021, Arizona State University received a donation of new hearing aids but did not have funding for testing and fitting, according to the announcement. This prompted the Arizona Commission for the Deaf and the Hard of Hearing, established in 1977, to step in and develop the Hearing Healthcare Assistance Project which funds diagnostic audiology, hearing aid fitting and follow-up appointments and provides free aural rehabilitation.

Northern Arizona University joined the project in January 2023, and the UA joined in fall 2023.

Wheeler said the UA contract is for one year, but that she and her department are working to secure long-term funding for the project.

The UA Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences offers other help beyond clinical appointments, including classes to learn about hearing loss and strategies for communication, also funded by the state commission.

Wheeler is enthusiastic about the work the partnership can produce both for those with hearing disabilities and for students interested in treating them.

“The most fulfilling part of work at the clinic is helping individuals communicate better with those around them,” she said in the announcement. “We also get to help educate future audiologists. Work at the clinic can be a win-win as we help students learn while also helping our community.”