Advocating On Capitol Hill For ALLY’S ACT, H.R. 4606

Sean Callinicos (Sonova), Ryan Shuman (Ear Community), Keesha Pfeiffer (Cochlear Americas) and Hilary McManus (Oticon Medical) advocate for Ally’s Act, H.R. 4606 in Washington, DC during the 119th Session.

Ally’s Act, H.R. 4606 was introduced again on July 22nd, 2025. Before our bill was reintroduced during the 119th session, Ear Community and some of our endorsers and advocates were already hard at work advocating in Washington, DC on May 2nd and during July 8th, 9th and 10th of this year! Ally’s Act, H.R. 4606 is a small but focused bipartisan bill requiring private insurers to cover bone anchored hearing device systems and cochlear implants for children and adults from birth to age 64. Bone anchored hearing systems and cochlear implants are the only hearing devices some children and adults can benefit from due to having specific hearing loss types, making them medically necessary.

Sean Callinicos and Ryan McDevitt advocating for Ally’s Act, H.R. 4606.

These implantable hearing devices are NOT traditional hearing aids and cost tens of thousands of dollars. Insurance coverage is unpredictable and inconsistent. Of the half million people who require these hearing devices, approximately 200,000 are abandoned by their insurance, needing the critical coverage this bill ensures. Ally’s Act is a narrowly targeted yet deeply impactful bill that is much needed and would make coverage consistent!

A million THANK YOUS to our Advocacy team that included our lobbyists (who have donated their time and services to advocate for our bill) and to our endorsers and advocates (who also donated their time) for sharing their stories! Thank you for your continued support, your passion and determination to continue championing this bill toward passage! Your willingness to advocate, sharing personal stories of why bone anchored hearing devices and cochlear implants matter to them or to their children and the need for private insurers to cover these devices, matters! Advocates in our group during this last Fly-in included parents of children who benefit from these specialized hearing device implant systems, to adults who personally wear these devices allowing them to have the careers they dream of, to the very hearing device manufacturers who consistently see customers denied coverage by private insurers for these hearing devices. Thank you to everyone who came together to advocate recently and to those who will continue to champion our bill and help educate why Ally’s Act is needed. Your voices are what is needed in order to educate why Ally’s Act is so important!

A very special thank you to the following advocates:
Thank you to Sean Callinicos of Sonova for all of your help with Ally’s Act over the past 4 years. Sean has been ranked as one of The Hill’s top lobbyists over the years and we are proud to have him championing Ally’s Act with us! Thank you to Ryan McDevitt of Bristol Myers Squibb for not only leading many of our meetings with his experience in public affairs, but as a father of a child who would benefit from the services under Ally’s Act – Thank you, Ryan, for fighting for children like Brooke and Ally! Thank you to Ryan Shuman for leading our efforts as our Government Affairs Advisor for Ear Community during our Fly-ins this summer and for helping give us the opportunity to have our voices heard when meeting with Congressmen and Senators in DC! Thank you to Bridget Dobyan of the Hearing Industries Association for helping us advocate and for sharing your own personal journey as a bone anchored hearing aid user and how your career depends on hearing! Thank you to Keesha Pfeiffer of Cochlear Americas for advocating for the hearing device industry, but for also advocating for your son, Josh, who also depends on a bone anchored hearing device just like Ally and Brooke. Thank you to  Dr. Hilary McManus of Oticon Medical for advocating as an audiologist who understands why these hearing devices give people their lives back, but for also advocating for so many with hearing loss who are at a loss when insurers deny coverage for these hearing devices. And, thank you to Valerie Eastwood of MED-EL for helping us advocate as an expert attorney over quality and compliance for these hearing devices, seeing how often they are denied for those who need them most!  Thank you for advocating for all of the children and adults who are denied the opportunity to hear when it comes to lack of insurance coverage for these specific hearing devices.

We are asking the community to please write to, email, call and schedule a meeting with your Congressmen asking them to cosponsor Ally’s Act, H.R. 4606. We want Ally’s Act to pass! For more details on how to advocate for this piece of legislation, visit Ear Community’s website here. We ask that you write a personal letter to the DC office location (templates are on the website) and include the Ally’s Act 1-pager, list of endorsers and fact sheet. Please follow up with a phone call 2 weeks later to the DC office of your Representative.

Here are some memories captured during our Fly-ins on Capitol Hill so far this year!
Melissa Tumblin
Founder – Executive Director
Ear Community