Community Highlights: Meet Anita Jeyakumar of HEARS, LLC

Today we’d like to introduce you to Anita Jeyakumar.

Hi Anita, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
HEARS, LLC was started in 2024 by Dr. Jeyakumar and her team to meet the needs of patients with complex ear disease and hearing loss. Until 2024, for patients to get complex ear care (beyond the care provided by General Otolaryngology), they had to travel to Cleveland, Columbus or Pittsburgh. Now we have a local option for care.

Dr. Jeyakumar has over 25 years of experience in the field and is a Professor at NEOMED. Dr. Jeyakumar is an Ohio State Champion for the American Cochlear Implant Alliance, and is a national leader and educator in the field of Ear Disease and hearing loss.

Our team which consists of Dr. Jeyakumar (Physician and surgeon), Dr. Richards (Audiologist), Mr Rose (Administrator) and Ms Rose (Marketing Intern) works very closely with community physicians, audiologists, schools and other Otolaryngologists to ensure that patients get personalized, state-of-the-art care.

In addition, in 2025, we founded the “Hears to Hope” foundation. “Hears to Hope” is a non-profit dedicated to help fill the gaps that insurance does not provide when a patient needs implantable hearing surgical technology.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Our biggest challenge has been with Insurance Companies. Often Insurance companies will either try and negatively influence a decision for the patient, or the patient will not have appropriate insurance coverage to meet their needs. To fill this gap in coverage, we founded “Hears to Hope” and are able to work with the patients to get the care they need.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
We are a medical and surgical practice that specializes in the care of patients (adult and pediatric) with complex ear disease. We have brought the field of surgical implantable hearing devices like cochlear implants and bone conduction devices to the Akron area. We also manage other complex ear problems including ear tumors, chronic ear disease and perforations of the ear drum.

We provide personalized attention to our often very vulnerable patients and work with the community to provide them the best access to resources and care.

Networking and finding a mentor can have such a positive impact on one’s life and career. Any advice?
Mentorship can be extremely helpful, especially with the right mentors. Dr. Jeyakumar has been in practice over 25 years before starting HEARS. However, we met with several regional and national practices and visited several offices before setting up the office infrastructure. Knowing we had a vulnerable population to manage, we also made sure our patients would have access to texting, or emailing, in addition to traditional phone calls to ensure access to communication.

Pricing:

• We bill insurance
• In cases without insurance, we provide a self pay pricing option
• We primarily work with a surgery center, which saves the patients considerably in terms of cost

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.hearsotology.com
• Instagram: oh.hears
• Facebook: Hears, LLC
• Other: Tik Tok: oh.hears