Posts by Matthew R. Naunheim, MD, MBA
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U.S. Insurers Seldom Cover Gender-Affirming Voice and Facial Feminization Surgery
Based on a systematic review, Mass Eye and Ear otolaryngologists determined only 3% of the top U.S. commercial insurance companies provide coverage for gender-affirming voice therapy/voice surgery, and only 18% cover facial feminization surgery, despite the established medical benefits of these procedures.
Biography
Dr. Matthew Naunheim is a fellowship-trained laryngologist who specializes in voice, breathing, and swallowing problems. He focuses on minimally-invasive removal of growths of the voice box with the use of cutting-edge technology.
Dr. Naunheim cares for patients with complex laryngeal pathology including laryngeal cancer, laryngeal dysplasia, airway narrowing, vocal cord paralysis, vocal cord polyps, and respiratory papillomatosis. He is the medicald director of the Mass. Eye and Ear Transgender Voice center.
Dr. Naunheim’s practice also offers in-office (non-sedated, awake) procedures, such as vocal cord augmentation for paralysis, steroid and Botox injections, laser treatments of the vocal cords, and biopsies.
Dr. Naunheim is also on the forefront of research related to patient quality-of-life. He has helped implement a patient-reported outcome measure for subglottic stenosis. He has also established tradeoffs between risk of complication, likelihood of surgical success, and postoperative voice quality for laryngotracheal surgery. He uses advanced econometric methodologies to quantitatively understand patient preferences.
Mass Eye and Ear/Mass General Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery
A teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School, Mass Eye and Ear/Massachusetts General Hospital combines the expertise of highly specialized ear, nose, and throat physicians, audiologists, speech-language pathologists and auxiliary health care professionals to provide care for patients with problems affecting the ear, nose, throat, head and neck areas. The department, which is led by Chief and Chair Mark A. Varvares, MD, FACS, is one of the largest otolaryngology–head and neck surgery (OHNS) departments in the country, with more than 70 physicians staffed at 15 locations in the greater Boston area.
