BALTIMORE — Angie and Mark King knew life would be a struggle when disease stole the last of their 3-year-old daughter's limited hearing.
But the Celina, Ohio, couple never imagined that their insurance provider would deny coverage for a cochlear implant. As they saw it, the titanium device designed to improve speech recognition was their daughter's only shot at a normal life in a hearing world.
Benicorp Insurance Co. denied coverage, first calling it a hearing aid, then a prosthetic -- neither of which it would pay for.
"I was devastated," said Angie King, 36. "My daughter was deaf and needed a medical procedure immediately. It was essential. They chose to deny my daughter the right to hear."
The denial launched the couple on a journey that would take them to Capitol Hill, prompt a federal lawsuit and raise questions about coverage for the small, high-tech devices.
Advocates for cochlear implants have long tussled with Medicaid and Medicare because they say reimbursements remain thousands of dollars lower than the cost of surgery. More recently, they say, an increasing number of private insurance companies are denying coverage outright. Officials at Indianapolis-based Benicorp did not return calls from the Associated Press requesting comment on the King case.
"Ultimately, this is about the way society views hearing," said Donna Sorkin, vice president of consumer affairs for Cochlear Americas, a manufacturer. "Being deaf is not going to kill you, so the insurance company does not view this as ... necessary."
Meanwhile, the devices, in use since 1978, have grown more efficient and more popular, giving thousands of deaf people a chance to hear the voices of their loved ones.
"Just like our desktop and laptop computers, cochlear implants have gotten smaller, faster and smarter, and more like the real ear in terms of the way they process sound," said Dr. John Niparko, director of ear surgery in the department of otolaryngology at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. "They enable sensitive hearing even in profound deafness."
In the past, cochlear implants were met with resistance from deaf activists who argued the mechanisms were an affront because they emphasized oral communication. In the last 10 years, however, the deaf community has become more accepting.
