Mariane Fahlman, professor for the College of Education in Health and Physical Education, quoted in MLive, “Cochlear implants can be life-changing, but few receive them. Medicare expansion could help”
Cochlear implants can be life-changing, but few receive them. Medicare expansion could help
By Danielle Salisbury
Mariane Fahlman, professor of health and physical education at Wayne State University, had lived most of her adult life with hearing loss, but it began getting worse in recent years. It affected her work because she could not understand students. She stopped going to church and started to isolate. Fahlman says a cochlear implant, an electronic medical device designed to restore the ability to perceive sound and understand speech, saved her life. It kept her working and engaged. Cochlear implants improve sentence recognition, often significantly, for people with severe hearing loss who find hearing aids no longer affective. However, less than 10% of candidates in the United States receive the surgery. The rate could improve following changes in Medicare coverage.