“Shrinking Medicare reimbursements, and uncertain implementation of new healthcare laws and regulations have created a business environment in which adding ancillary services may become a real necessity for practice growth,” said ASOA President Lisa Gangi, adding, providing a hearing services component to our practices makes good sense as a majority of the patients we see every day age 50 and over all suffer from a decline in both vision and hearing loss.”

EyeCanHear provides all of the elements an ophthalmic practice needs to make hearing care a significant contributor to growth. The most unique and valuable benefit to the EyeCanHear Program is that it provides the Hearing Care Professional for the client’s practice. “We save you significant expenditures of time and money searching for, qualifying, securing, and managing a key employee – without requiring the practice to employ them,” says Nancy Ware of EyeCanHear.

In addition to the hearing care professional, EyeCanHear has developed sophisticated tools that allow a practice to quickly move forward and start offering hearing services to patients in a very short amount of time. EyeCanHear provides programs that fit any practice, whether utilizing EyeCanHear Complete™ for an all-inclusive program to mEYEcrosite™ for the practice with limited space to EyeCanHear Direct™ for the practice that wants to develop the program on their own.

With over a quarter of a century in the vision industry, EyeCanHear understands how to derive value for your patients through sensory wellness, vision and hearing solutions. According to Ron Greenberg, Managing Partner at EyeCanHear, “The role of a Practice Administrator has gone from vital to critical! With the increasing demands on performance, financial and clinical efficiencies, Administrators must touch every aspect of the practice to ensure the physicians can do their jobs. As we work to bring hearing health in to our practices, the administrator plays a pivotal role and EyeCanHear recognizes the need to develop the next generation of practice leaders”.

EyeCanHear has aligned itself with GN Hearing Corporation, a leader in the hearing care industry in technology advancements, customer satisfaction, and service.

EyeCanHear LLC is the premier hearing solution for the eye care providers. The EyeCanHear program is the industries only Hearing Services Organization and the only one with over 25 years of vision care experience. This provides us the insight and understanding of how to add value for your patients through sensory wellness, vision and hearing solutions. EyeCanHear seamlessly integrates hearing wellness into your day-to-say patient flow. The foundation behind all of our programs is to provide a comprehensive, customized approach that integrates hearing health as part of our See.Hear.Live. Better! approach.
For more information, please visit the EyeCanHear website at http://eyecanhear.com, phone (941) 893-2500, or e-mail info@eyecanhear.com.

Hearing loss is about twice as common in adults with diabetes compared to those who do not have the disease, according to a study funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Yet hearing screenings typically are not part of the regular regimen of care that people with diabetes are routinely recommended to receive. Nor do the vast majority of doctors in today’s health care system include hearing health as a routine part of annual exams, leaving people with diabetes all the more vulnerable to the negative impact that unaddressed hearing loss has on an individual’s life.

BHI is urging hearing health professionals across the country to “Join the Million Challenge.” By encouraging hearing health patients to take the Diabetes Risk Test, the hearing health community can help save lives. The Diabetes Risk Test, by the American Diabetes Association (ADA), helps individuals find out if they are at risk for developing type 2 diabetes. It asks users to answer simple questions about weight, age, family history and other potential risks for prediabetes or type 2 diabetes. It then shows users whether they are at low, moderate or high risk for type 2 diabetes. If an individual is at high risk, he or she is encouraged to talk with their health care provider.

Diabetes is a serious disease that threatens the lives of far too many Americans. While diabetes already strikes roughly 25.8 million children and adults in the United States—8.3% of the population—an additional 79 million people have pre-diabetes and are at high risk for developing type 2 diabetes, according to the National Diabetes Fact Sheet, 2011.

BHI believes strongly that it is important that the hearing healthcare community become increasingly involved in diabetes outreach efforts. Until the day that we can stop diabetes altogether, let’s do what we can to make a meaningful difference in the lives of people with this disease by educating them on how they can identify and address diabetes-related hearing loss and take action to better preserve both their health and quality of life.

There are several ways you can participate in American Diabetes Alert Day. Here are just some ideas:

• Issue a customized press release and share our BHI diabetes and hearing loss backgrounder facts
• Include a BHI article on diabetes and hearing health in your newsletter, on your web site, or as a handout in your office—or send it to your local newspaper for publication.
• Organize a hearing screening in your community on March 22, Diabetes Alert Day, encouraging visitors to take the Diabetes Risk Test as well as to get their hearing tested.
• Host a health fair and team up with other healthcare professionals.
  Host a walk or run in your community.
• Disseminate Diabetes Alert Day and hearing health information, including English and Spanish versions of the Diabetes Risk Test and the Diabetes Alert Day Backgrounder.
• Send out messages on Facebook and Twitter that share the Diabetes Risk Test and information on the link between diabetes and hearing loss.
• Send information through listservs.
• Hang posters in prominent locations such as your office, library, local mall, or church.
• Include a Diabetes Alert Day banner on your web site.
• Include an article on Diabetes Alert Day in your newsletter, on your web site, or as a handout in your office.

To download materials on American Diabetes Association Alert Day, visit http://www.diabetes.org/community-events/programs/alert-day/

To download BHI press information on the American Diabetes Association Alert day, visit http://www.betterhearing.org/professionals/tools.cfm (Under 2011 ADA Stop Diabetes Campaign)

Researchers analyzed data from about 715 elderly people whose hearing was examined as part of the National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey in 2005-6, the first time it included hearing assessments of older Americans.

Sixty-three percent of those 70 and older were found to be suffering from impairment that affects their ability to hear human speech, according to the World Health Organization’s definition.

Hearing loss was more common in men than in women. And it was significantly less common in black adults: just 43 percent, compared with 64 percent of whites.

Yet only a minority of older people with these impairments use hearing aids, said Dr. Frank R. Lin, an assistant professor of otology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, who was lead author of the paper, published Monday in The Journal of Gerontology: Medical Sciences. “There’s a general perception that hearing loss in older adults is not very important,” he said.

The Beltone True is different than other hearing aids because it allows hearing-impaired users to comfortably converse with those nearby, while still listening to music or watching their favorite TV program. It also offers extraordinary sound quality and eliminates the embarrassing high- pitched whistling of past hearing instruments.

“We are thrilled to be among the first in the nation to offer our customers this award-winning hearing aid just in time for the holiday season,” says Chenault House of Hearing, Inc.. “What makes this revolutionary new hearing instrument so unique is that it allows our customers to connect directly to their cell phones, TVs and computers by creating a personal wireless network around them.”

Twice as fast and with four times as much memory, the Beltone True’s integrated circuit enables wireless connections to be made to other devices without audible delay. A remote control offers users the ability to independently adjust each hearing instrument’s volume and sound quality.

Receiving top honors in the Health and Wellness category, the Beltone True will be displayed at the 2011 International CES, which runs January 6-9, 2011 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The product’s innovative features include the following:

•Direct TV Link – Direct 2.4 GHz wireless connection to a television, stereo or computer allows the listener to enjoy entertainment with others comfortably, at a volume that is right for everyone. This enables the individual to hear the television or stereo, while also participating in conversation in the room.

•Direct Phone Link – Direct wireless connection to a Bluetooth-enabled cell phone allows the user to hear a call directly in both ears. A clip attached to the user’s clothing picks up his/her end of the conversation, allowing the cell phone to remain in a bag or pocket during the call. An Auto Phone feature automatically turns on when the phone comes near the ear.

•Feedback Eraser – Automatically eliminates the uncomfortable and embarrassing ringing that feedback can cause in the ear.

•Speech Spotter Pro – Allows users to more easily follow conversations in noisy places such as restaurants, sporting events and parties.

Products entered into the CES Innovations program are judged by a preeminent panel of independent industrial designers, engineers and members of the media. Past recipients of the CES award include Panasonic, Sony, Samsung, LG Electronics, Roku, Yamaha, Belkin, Logitech, Philips Electronics, JBL, and many other brands that have built a reputation for delivering superior innovation and quality.

For More Information, Contact:

Chenault House of Hearing, Inc.
2112 Stonewall Street
Greenville, TX 75401
903-455-5424