Noblesville family wants laws changed to help people with hearing loss
NOBLESVILLE, Ind. (WISH) — An Indiana family is pushing for changes to the price people pay for life-changing technology and wants insurance companies to cover all the needs of people with hearing loss.
The Yonkman family have insurance and were shocked when they were denied coverage for their daughter’s cochlear implant. The parents were instead told the surgery and device would cost $200,000 to $300,000 out-of-pocket. Thankfully, a charity stepped in. However, the family said no one else should be put in this position.
If people see 8-year-old Maren Yonkman, they might not notice her new cochlear implant.
“I put it like this and I like to put the magnet on last,” said Maren.
She is mastering the new technology after losing most of her hearing last year.
“I couldn’t read anybody’s lips because … Because everybody was wearing masks because of Covid,” said Maren.
Maren’s hearing aids were no longer helping her hearing loss. The pandemic just made the situation worse.
“It was just devastating – because we are seeing her struggle every day,” said Maren’s mom, Amy Yonkman. “As a mom, you just stop at nothing to help your daughter hear again.”
Amanda Umstead is Maren’s Pediatric Audiologist at Ascension St. Vincent in Indianapolis. She said it should be up to families whether a child uses American Sign Language or gets a cochlear implant. In Maren’s case, she was an ideal candidate for the hearing device.
“With a hearing aid, there is only so much it can do for you. A hearing aid is essentially giving you back the volume you are missing. In Maren’s case, she had a significant amount of hearing loss, but her hearing aids were already turned up as high as they could be. And with an implant, we don’t even have to worry about that because we can make bigger changes,” said Umstead.
The doctors and family were ready for the surgery, but not what happened next.
“We had the surgery all scheduled and then we found out that our insurance would not pay for it,” said Amy. “Just felt powerless. Just both of us were like we need this for our child to go to school… To hear us and insurance was not going to cover it. And it was just mind-blowing to me.”
The family was told to pay out-of-pocket. But the bill was something they simply couldn’t afford.
“We were sort of in that grey area. We are not below the certain income guideline. We cannot afford to self-pay. We were quoted $200,000 to $300,000 for the surgery. We thought, ‘do we sell our house? What do we do?”‘ said Amy.
The parents turned to local charity groups and finally found Jacob’s Ride. Jacob Landis heard Maren’s story and wanted to help. The group paid for Maren’s surgery in January and Landis was there when her implant was turned on.
“It really opened up her world,” said Umstead.
Maren has a lot of work to do, to strengthen her ability to hear with the cochlear implant. However, having access to verbal language and the ability to hear, is something this family thinks should be an option for everyone.
“We want to be advocates and make sure this does not happen to other families and there is an act right now in congress, Ally’s act where every private insurance company will have to cover any type of hearing device,” said Amy.
The family is speaking out and pushing for both cochlear implants and hearing aids to be covered in all cases. Ally’s Act was reintroduced into the house and senate in January of 2021, however not much has happened with it since. They hope Maren’s story will now be heard.
“We just want to pay it forward. And help as many people as we can,” said Amy.