Pinellas County teacher raises awareness about expense of hearing aids | wtsp.com

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ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Cory Newsome lost his hearing at birth, but recent complications have him buying and trying five pairs in the last year and a half alone.

Insurance rarely covers hearing aids, but now there might be a solution.

After Newsome was born, live-saving surgeries flooded his body with antibiotics caused him to lose his hearing.

“Once in the inner ear, they can compromise the function of the sensory cells along the coils of the inner ear,” said Dr. Robert Fifer, director of audiology and speech pathology at the University of Miami.

Now an algebra teacher for more than a decade, COVID-19 and mask mandates cost him the ability to read faces and expressions, hurting his ability to converse and understand.

“I realized that I enjoyed the teaching aspect more than the actual stuff I was studying,” he said. “I had to do a lot of work, mainly for my speech.”

Now needing a sixth pair of hearing aids to restore what he lost, friends encouraged him to make a GoFundMe page. But, he said insurance should be covering this essential care.

“I reached out to the school board, they were just not willing to help, and it was a really bad situation,” he said. “I really just don't think people realize, you know, how much these things cost and the ongoing cost of it.”

Debra Golinski runs Sertoma Speech & Hearing Foundation from New Port Richey. When 10 Tampa Bay told her of Newsome’s plight, she said its grants and sliding scale costs could save him thousands.

“We will welcome his call,” she said. “It's our mission to help anyone that needs services who are hard of hearing or deaf.”

And when we told that to Newsome, he said he plans to call her first thing in the morning.

“That's amazing news,” he said. “I'm just so overwhelmed by all of this.”

Three years ago Florida lawmakers tried but failed to mandate hearing aid coverage for children. Instead, $5 million tax dollars each year goes to a fund administered by Sertoma, helping families who can't get Medicaid or afford the devices.