Interview with Carole Rogin Executive Director of the Hearing Industries Association (HIA)
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Topic: The Hearing Industries Association
www.hearing.org.
703-684-5744
AO/BECK: Hi Carole. Thanks for your time today. I'd like to start by saying that even though you are a speech-language pathologist, you are always welcome on Audiology Online! Let's start with a bio sketch and talk a little about your education and professional background.
ROGIN: Thanks Doug. I have a bachelor's degree from the University of Virginia and as you alluded to, a masters' degree in Speech Pathology from George Washington University in the early 1970s.
AO/BECK: Did you ever practice as an SLP?
ROGIN: I did. I practiced for about five years and was involved in some early normative testing for learning disabilities and multi-disciplinary problems for children. I was one of the first speech pathologists to be involved in that capacity. My first boss was very active in her professional society, which was ASHA, and early in my professional career I became involved as a volunteer in associations too.
AO/BECK: So then you got involved in the management and business end of communication disorders?
ROGIN: Well the fact was that I was a far better manager than a speech-language pathologist! After five years I went to work at the ASHA headquarters directing a government funded project to take some quality assurance mechanisms from the medical model and apply them to educational models for speech pathology and audiology in the schools.
AO/BECK: How long were you with ASHA?
ROGIN: I was at ASHA for three years.
AO/BECK: Where did you go after that?
ROGIN: I was recruited to an association management firm that had just been retained by the Hearing Industries Association. So I started to serve HIA in 1980, and I have just celebrated my 23rd anniversary.
AO/BECK: What was your position when you first started with HIA, and what is it now?
ROGIN: I was the first Director of Market Development. I was made Executive Director in about 1984, and I have been the Association's chief executive officer for almost 20 years.
AO/BECK: Can you give me a definition, or perhaps an explanation of HIA, who are they, what are they, what do they do?
ROGIN: HIA is a non-profit trade association for the hearing aid and hearing aid components manufacturers and suppliers to the manufacturing sector. HIA is a membership organization, but the members are companies rather than individuals. The mission of HIA is to support and enhance the environment in which our products are made and delivered. A large portion of that is, of course, government relations and public relations. HIA is the sole forum in which the manufacturing sector of our industry comes together to look at rules, regulations, and legislation that impact our companies. HIA is extremely tightly focused so we tend not to get involved in some issues that larger individual membership organizations - notably the dispensing organizations - can tackle. We do have tremendous power at the federal level because we represent over 90% of hearing aid production in the United States.
AO/BECK: That's pretty impressive. Can you please highlight some of HIA's goals?
ROGIN: We'd certainly like to increase the number of people who benefit from hearing aids in the United States in the 21st century. To accomplish that, we need to get information into the medical community; information about hearing loss and the treatment for the vast majority of hearing loss - hearing aids. They are the treatment of choice and the sole treatment available to probably 92% of people with hearing losses. HIA is currently carrying out that objective through the funding of the Better Hearing Institute and it's Physician Referral Development Program. Additionally our goals deal with our changing society and aging Americans. If you look at Medicare legislation on the Hill and the whole prescription drug issue, you see America is starting to understand there are going to be 78 million old people who are healthier, wealthier, and noisier than any generation has ever been. As we know from HIA's funding of the National Council On the Aging (NCOA) study, and to quote NCOA's President, Dr. Jim Furman, "Untreated hearing loss is not a benign condition for older Americans." HIA intends to influence legislative and regulatory activities in a way that enhances, rather than impedes, older Americans' access to hearing aids and hearing healthcare. HIA wants to insure that access to hearing healthcare and better hearing is supported by the primary influencers on healthcare -- the medical community. So, another HIA goals is to insure that the regulatory environment is as hospitable and supportive of hearing loss and hearing aids as possible. A third, and equally important, objective is to insure that we, the hearing industry, are responsible for defining ourselves and defining the services and products we provide. And that means research and statistics. One of the key things HIA does is it's statistical program, which catalogs by type of circuit, by model of hearing aid, and by destination into which it's shipped every hearing aid that's produced in the United States on an annual basis. I think any industry, regardless of its size, would be hard pressed to top the comprehensive nature of the report that HIA has developed for the hearing aid industry.
AO/BECK: That really is a phenomenal data base. On a related topic, do you think Medicare will ever cover hearing aids?
ROGIN: While it may not be Medicare, I think that we're going to be talking more about some ways in which people can acquire assistance from the government. A very important bill right now is the one introduced by Congressman Jim Ryan. It was introduced in the last session of Congress, but garnered little attention; it's recently been re-introduced to provide a $500 per hearing aid tax credit for seniors who purchase hearing aids and for taxpayers who purchase them for seniors or dependents. HIA is working aggressively with Congressman Ryan's office to gain co-sponsors for the legislation and to see if we can bring more visibility and action to the issue than it received last time around . In addition to the economic assistance it will provide, a tax credit does a very important thing for all of us, which is to say that hearing aids help! You know we use our tax code in the United States to support behaviors and things we want to see more of, and to reduce things that we'd like to see less of. I think a tax credit for hearing aid purchases not only provides economic assistance to the purchaser but also makes a strong statement about the importance of hearing in our society and the need for a hearing aid or assistance of some kind if you have hearing loss.
AO/BECK: What's the next step on Representative Ryan's bill?
ROGIN: The bill needs to gain a lot of additional co-sponsors and all of the hearing health organizations are working together on that. At this point, there is an impressive group of 17 bipartisan co-sponsors and we'll see if we can move it and see some action on it in this Congress.
AO/BECK: And when you say this Congress, this Congress ends when?
ROGIN: In December, 2005. I hope we can raise the issue to a much more visible level through the current legislation. I think the focus on Medicare and a range of preventive health issues is good for hearing loss. At the same time lots of other prosthetic devices and assistive devices are looking at the whole area as well. HIA is monitoring a coalition here called the Item Coalition , looking for Medicare coverage for a broad array of assistive devices. With hearing aids, we know that assistance has to be carefully crafted and that is why HIA developed it's white paper on reimbursement. And in fact we are elated that all the dispensing organizations, as well as many of the advocacy organizations, have endorsed that and it has become a hearing healthcare paper rather than HIA's white paper.
AO/BECK: For the readers, I'll add a hyperlink here. Audiology Online published the paper in September 2003. The title was: A White Paper Addressing the Societal Costs of Hearing Loss and Issues in Third Party Reimbursement /audiology/newroot/articles/arc_disp.asp?article_id=485&catid=2 . I believe the HIA paper was endorsed by AAA, ADA, SHHH, Deafness Research Foundation, IHS, and others too. Carole, who are the members of the HIA?
ROGIN: The members are: Audiology Online, Beltone Electronics, Bernafon Inc, The DSP Factory, Electone Inc, Elite Physician Services, Energizer, Etymotic Research, Frye Electronics, Gennum Corporation, GNResound, Interton Inc, Knowles Electronics, Micro-Tech Hearing Instruments, Miracle Ear, Oticon Inc, Phonak Inc, Phonic Ear Inc, Rayovac Corp, Resistance Technology Inc, Rexton Inc, Rion Corp Ltd, Sebotek Hearing Systems LLC, Siemens Hearing Instruments, Sonic Innovations Inc, Sonion Microtronic US Inc, Starkey Labs Inc, The Engineering Consortium, The Hearing Journal, The Hearing Review, Tibbetts Industries Inc, Tympany Inc, Unitron Hearing, and Widex.
AO/BECK: One of the things that amazed me as a new HIA member, were some of the regulations that address casual conversations and behaviors within HIA. HIA members are not allowed to speak about things such as price and other competitive information, is that correct?
ROGIN: Correct. One of the major elements of an organization like HIA is that competitors are coming together and we need to insure that they are coming together for the common good. And there is a whole body of law, anti-trust laws primarily, that addresses the behavior of competitors in proximity to each other. HIA is very, very serious about compliance with all of the anti-trust laws. We have legal counsel from Gray, Plant, Mooty, Mooty, and Bennett out of Minneapolis, which has been counsel to HIA since it's founding in 1954. The head of Gray Plant's Anti-Trust Division, Richard Braman, was named HIA counsel at the start of 2003, and we do not hold meetings without him being present. We take our anti-trust responsibilities very, very seriously.
AO/BECK: I'd like to also discuss the relationship between HIA and BHI if you can spare a few more minutes? I think that's one of those issues where people know the names, but are somewhat confused regarding who's who and what's what?
ROGIN: HIA and BHI are closely aligned organizations in their purpose, but their missions are very different. HIA's mission is a business mission and as such HIA is a 501c6 business organization, although it is a non-profit. BHI is a totally separate corporation, and its mission is an educational mission and so it is incorporated under a different section of the IRS code, section 501c3. The two organizations have very different responsibilities and programmatic structures. BHI at this point is largely funded by the hearing aid manufacturers through HIA. The organization was formed by leaders of HIA in the 1970'sto carry out an educational, informational mandate. So, HIA and BHI are complimentary in purpose but they are separate corporate entities, they are exempt under different sections of the IRS code, and they have very different missions. However, they do have a similar funding base.
AO/BECK: Thanks so much for your time Carole. I think you've done an amazing job with HIA, and I appreciate your time.
ROGIN: Thank you too Doug. We appreciate the support of Audiology Online, and we appreciate your work, your membership and your commitment to excellence too.
703-684-5744
AO/BECK: Hi Carole. Thanks for your time today. I'd like to start by saying that even though you are a speech-language pathologist, you are always welcome on Audiology Online! Let's start with a bio sketch and talk a little about your education and professional background.
ROGIN: Thanks Doug. I have a bachelor's degree from the University of Virginia and as you alluded to, a masters' degree in Speech Pathology from George Washington University in the early 1970s.
AO/BECK: Did you ever practice as an SLP?
ROGIN: I did. I practiced for about five years and was involved in some early normative testing for learning disabilities and multi-disciplinary problems for children. I was one of the first speech pathologists to be involved in that capacity. My first boss was very active in her professional society, which was ASHA, and early in my professional career I became involved as a volunteer in associations too.
AO/BECK: So then you got involved in the management and business end of communication disorders?
ROGIN: Well the fact was that I was a far better manager than a speech-language pathologist! After five years I went to work at the ASHA headquarters directing a government funded project to take some quality assurance mechanisms from the medical model and apply them to educational models for speech pathology and audiology in the schools.
AO/BECK: How long were you with ASHA?
ROGIN: I was at ASHA for three years.
AO/BECK: Where did you go after that?
ROGIN: I was recruited to an association management firm that had just been retained by the Hearing Industries Association. So I started to serve HIA in 1980, and I have just celebrated my 23rd anniversary.
AO/BECK: What was your position when you first started with HIA, and what is it now?
ROGIN: I was the first Director of Market Development. I was made Executive Director in about 1984, and I have been the Association's chief executive officer for almost 20 years.
AO/BECK: Can you give me a definition, or perhaps an explanation of HIA, who are they, what are they, what do they do?
ROGIN: HIA is a non-profit trade association for the hearing aid and hearing aid components manufacturers and suppliers to the manufacturing sector. HIA is a membership organization, but the members are companies rather than individuals. The mission of HIA is to support and enhance the environment in which our products are made and delivered. A large portion of that is, of course, government relations and public relations. HIA is the sole forum in which the manufacturing sector of our industry comes together to look at rules, regulations, and legislation that impact our companies. HIA is extremely tightly focused so we tend not to get involved in some issues that larger individual membership organizations - notably the dispensing organizations - can tackle. We do have tremendous power at the federal level because we represent over 90% of hearing aid production in the United States.
AO/BECK: That's pretty impressive. Can you please highlight some of HIA's goals?
ROGIN: We'd certainly like to increase the number of people who benefit from hearing aids in the United States in the 21st century. To accomplish that, we need to get information into the medical community; information about hearing loss and the treatment for the vast majority of hearing loss - hearing aids. They are the treatment of choice and the sole treatment available to probably 92% of people with hearing losses. HIA is currently carrying out that objective through the funding of the Better Hearing Institute and it's Physician Referral Development Program. Additionally our goals deal with our changing society and aging Americans. If you look at Medicare legislation on the Hill and the whole prescription drug issue, you see America is starting to understand there are going to be 78 million old people who are healthier, wealthier, and noisier than any generation has ever been. As we know from HIA's funding of the National Council On the Aging (NCOA) study, and to quote NCOA's President, Dr. Jim Furman, "Untreated hearing loss is not a benign condition for older Americans." HIA intends to influence legislative and regulatory activities in a way that enhances, rather than impedes, older Americans' access to hearing aids and hearing healthcare. HIA wants to insure that access to hearing healthcare and better hearing is supported by the primary influencers on healthcare -- the medical community. So, another HIA goals is to insure that the regulatory environment is as hospitable and supportive of hearing loss and hearing aids as possible. A third, and equally important, objective is to insure that we, the hearing industry, are responsible for defining ourselves and defining the services and products we provide. And that means research and statistics. One of the key things HIA does is it's statistical program, which catalogs by type of circuit, by model of hearing aid, and by destination into which it's shipped every hearing aid that's produced in the United States on an annual basis. I think any industry, regardless of its size, would be hard pressed to top the comprehensive nature of the report that HIA has developed for the hearing aid industry.
AO/BECK: That really is a phenomenal data base. On a related topic, do you think Medicare will ever cover hearing aids?
ROGIN: While it may not be Medicare, I think that we're going to be talking more about some ways in which people can acquire assistance from the government. A very important bill right now is the one introduced by Congressman Jim Ryan. It was introduced in the last session of Congress, but garnered little attention; it's recently been re-introduced to provide a $500 per hearing aid tax credit for seniors who purchase hearing aids and for taxpayers who purchase them for seniors or dependents. HIA is working aggressively with Congressman Ryan's office to gain co-sponsors for the legislation and to see if we can bring more visibility and action to the issue than it received last time around . In addition to the economic assistance it will provide, a tax credit does a very important thing for all of us, which is to say that hearing aids help! You know we use our tax code in the United States to support behaviors and things we want to see more of, and to reduce things that we'd like to see less of. I think a tax credit for hearing aid purchases not only provides economic assistance to the purchaser but also makes a strong statement about the importance of hearing in our society and the need for a hearing aid or assistance of some kind if you have hearing loss.
AO/BECK: What's the next step on Representative Ryan's bill?
ROGIN: The bill needs to gain a lot of additional co-sponsors and all of the hearing health organizations are working together on that. At this point, there is an impressive group of 17 bipartisan co-sponsors and we'll see if we can move it and see some action on it in this Congress.
AO/BECK: And when you say this Congress, this Congress ends when?
ROGIN: In December, 2005. I hope we can raise the issue to a much more visible level through the current legislation. I think the focus on Medicare and a range of preventive health issues is good for hearing loss. At the same time lots of other prosthetic devices and assistive devices are looking at the whole area as well. HIA is monitoring a coalition here called the Item Coalition , looking for Medicare coverage for a broad array of assistive devices. With hearing aids, we know that assistance has to be carefully crafted and that is why HIA developed it's white paper on reimbursement. And in fact we are elated that all the dispensing organizations, as well as many of the advocacy organizations, have endorsed that and it has become a hearing healthcare paper rather than HIA's white paper.
AO/BECK: For the readers, I'll add a hyperlink here. Audiology Online published the paper in September 2003. The title was: A White Paper Addressing the Societal Costs of Hearing Loss and Issues in Third Party Reimbursement /audiology/newroot/articles/arc_disp.asp?article_id=485&catid=2 . I believe the HIA paper was endorsed by AAA, ADA, SHHH, Deafness Research Foundation, IHS, and others too. Carole, who are the members of the HIA?
ROGIN: The members are: Audiology Online, Beltone Electronics, Bernafon Inc, The DSP Factory, Electone Inc, Elite Physician Services, Energizer, Etymotic Research, Frye Electronics, Gennum Corporation, GNResound, Interton Inc, Knowles Electronics, Micro-Tech Hearing Instruments, Miracle Ear, Oticon Inc, Phonak Inc, Phonic Ear Inc, Rayovac Corp, Resistance Technology Inc, Rexton Inc, Rion Corp Ltd, Sebotek Hearing Systems LLC, Siemens Hearing Instruments, Sonic Innovations Inc, Sonion Microtronic US Inc, Starkey Labs Inc, The Engineering Consortium, The Hearing Journal, The Hearing Review, Tibbetts Industries Inc, Tympany Inc, Unitron Hearing, and Widex.
AO/BECK: One of the things that amazed me as a new HIA member, were some of the regulations that address casual conversations and behaviors within HIA. HIA members are not allowed to speak about things such as price and other competitive information, is that correct?
ROGIN: Correct. One of the major elements of an organization like HIA is that competitors are coming together and we need to insure that they are coming together for the common good. And there is a whole body of law, anti-trust laws primarily, that addresses the behavior of competitors in proximity to each other. HIA is very, very serious about compliance with all of the anti-trust laws. We have legal counsel from Gray, Plant, Mooty, Mooty, and Bennett out of Minneapolis, which has been counsel to HIA since it's founding in 1954. The head of Gray Plant's Anti-Trust Division, Richard Braman, was named HIA counsel at the start of 2003, and we do not hold meetings without him being present. We take our anti-trust responsibilities very, very seriously.
AO/BECK: I'd like to also discuss the relationship between HIA and BHI if you can spare a few more minutes? I think that's one of those issues where people know the names, but are somewhat confused regarding who's who and what's what?
ROGIN: HIA and BHI are closely aligned organizations in their purpose, but their missions are very different. HIA's mission is a business mission and as such HIA is a 501c6 business organization, although it is a non-profit. BHI is a totally separate corporation, and its mission is an educational mission and so it is incorporated under a different section of the IRS code, section 501c3. The two organizations have very different responsibilities and programmatic structures. BHI at this point is largely funded by the hearing aid manufacturers through HIA. The organization was formed by leaders of HIA in the 1970'sto carry out an educational, informational mandate. So, HIA and BHI are complimentary in purpose but they are separate corporate entities, they are exempt under different sections of the IRS code, and they have very different missions. However, they do have a similar funding base.
AO/BECK: Thanks so much for your time Carole. I think you've done an amazing job with HIA, and I appreciate your time.
ROGIN: Thank you too Doug. We appreciate the support of Audiology Online, and we appreciate your work, your membership and your commitment to excellence too.
Carole Rogin
Hearing Industries Association
Carole Rogin has led HIA, the hearing aid industry’s trade association, for the past several decades. After earning undergraduate and master’s degrees in speech-language pathology at the University of Virginia and the George Washington University, Carole practiced in the schools, worked at the ASHA National Office and ultimately founded her own association management firm to serve HIA and BHI, as well as an array of other not-for-profit organizations.