Maybe I should don my tinfoil hat, but Rush first announced his hearing loss on October 8, 2001, and the LA Slimes published their article on the link between Vicodin use and hearing loss in September, 2001 - the article that is still up on their website and not archived after one week like they usually do.
Rush had been losing his hearing for a number of months, as many of his listeners suspected from the change in his voice. Almost certainly Rush sought out the best hearing doctors he could find as soon as he knew his hearing was going. So Rush probably visited the House Institute in August, or even earlier.
It is not out of the realm of possibility that someone at the House Institute made a little call to the LA Times...