I was told that my first appointment with the audiologist will be about 1 hour + there will be another appointment later and after that I will get my hearing aid. Perhaps the price include the audiologist cost? In any case the cost is outrageous and wonder why the government doesn’t step in to do something.

I live in the Montreal suburbs, an area with approx. a million people and looking for an audiologists there are at least 2 dozen of them and to get an appointment there is about 2 weeks waiting period. So all these guys even if they sell 1 unit per month they must do more than enough to survive. As mentioned here the aid itself cost under $10.00 to manufacture so I don’t know how they arrive at that ridiculous selling price.

 

A friend of mine just got a pair of behind the ear hearing aids and he is quite happy with them. They even connect to his phone and can take calls with them and listen to audiobooks or podcasts as they act the same as Bluetooth headsets. He can also control the volume as well with his phone.

 

Tolyn,
Can you get the name of these units and the approximate cost?

 

I sent him a message and will post back when he replies. Sometimes it can take a day or two.

 

Just my opinion, I wouldn’t like to have Bluetooth waves in my ear! We all know that’s a controversy and many of us use a similar headset to listen to our phones but why take a chance? Plus this feature will be an extra cost to an already supper inflated price!

 

My recommendation for those considering hearing aids - get a referral from your doctor and go to the audiology dept at your local hospital or clinic. Many (most?) of the hearing aid store audiologists typically work on commission.

Here in CT hearing aids are covered by medicaid but ironically not covered by medicare. So if you worked all your life and paid into the SS system you get squat. If you are a deadbeat, unemployed drug addict you get freebies.

You can see a list of states and their medicaid coverage for hearing loss.

 

Thanks, I will be looking into that companies products.

 

I am 68 and have been wearing the high cost ones for about 8 years. I was a low income worker so it was not an easy decision. Well worth it. I hear better, not great. But without them I need people to be close and loud and to speak clearly. My audiologist explained that people who wait until they can barely hear do worse than those who get them earlier. Seems the brain forgets how to decipher speech well and never recovers as far when you wait too long. So, wait a while and you will never get back some sounds.

My latest pair are the high level ones with Bluetooth.they are great. I love hearing phone calls through them. I was really having a hard time there. Talking to my son on the phone is important. Now I can do that again. Also, the TV is in my hearing aids now so my wife no longer complains about the sound level.

Bought my my last pair over the internet for $3000 less than the local people wanted. Be sure you get a good hearing test and graph first, then send it to the sellers who program them before shipping. They can be fine tuned remotely.

I agree the markup is larcenous but my being able to hear is more important. If you cheap out and get ones that don’t work or you don’t wear then good is a deal? Spend the money if you value being able to have real conversations. They don’t have to be top of the line, but get real hearing aids not the TV crap.

 

I've read thru all the posts on this thread, and noted a few posters have mentioned how well the headsets for TVs work for them. I don't personally wear hearing aids and can normally hear the TV pretty well, however I have to often interpret words for my wife and her mom (who lives with us), both of whom wear the high-$ BTE style, if we all are watching a show together at what seems to me to be a reasonable volume. This is particularly a problem with British mystery shows!!

My questions are:
1. What brand of TV headsets work well?
2. Do hearing aids need to be removed to use them?

The Bluetooth feature is probably a non-starter, although both of their HAs do have that capability. I'm pretty tech-savvy, but they are both quite adverse to learning & using new technology .

Adding to the observations regarding ridiculous cost of HAs: My wife's HAs can be controlled from a smartphone. . . but one has to purchase the app to do so, and this is after spending nearly $6K for them to start with. What a racket.

 

I hear the TV through my hearing aids, not headphones. It also requires a connection box device from the hearing aid company. Should also note there are delay issues in that the HA sound is slightly different from The TV speakers. This can be confusing to some. Works for me as I turn the speakers off completely.

Again, cost is high. But I value it worth it to be able to hear and participate. Some things are overpriced but I still pay it. It is a value judgement.

 

Here is my friends' reply:

Oticon mini. Don’t know cost but was told they are expensive.

The reason he doesn't know the cost is he got them through the VA. That is also likely one of the reasons why they are so expensive because insurance is paying for them. People tend to not care about cost when they are are not paying for them. Just like other medical items.

 

It seems the cost ranges from $1500 to $2000

 

A friend of mine got his thru the VA. He claimed the VA paid $6k for the pair.

 

Update on the new hear aid regulations, appears to be kicking in this year, need to do more reading to fully understand the implacations.

https://www.aarp.org/health/conditio...ring-aids.html

 

Yesterday my wife went to her audiologist to get her new hearing aids. When she came home she told me that they weren't ready yet. She also told me the price - $6,000!!!! Unfortunately they aren't covered by our insurance (Medicare/Tricare) (however, here in CT they are covered by Medicaid) Later in the day she pulled her hair back to show me that the hearing aids were in place. She was happy that I could not see them. Right now she has them on a 3 month trial basis while we figure out if they are worth the cost.

 

Was thinking about this the other day, does not appear that the law passed a few years allowing for OTC devices is in effect but appears early 2021 products may be available.

https://www.aarp.org/health/conditio...ring-aids.html

 

Reviving an older thread that had some real hope a couple years ago. I found a recent article on the 2017 law regarding the availability of OTC (over the counter) hearing aids (not PSAP Personal Sound Amplification Products) which are not "true" hearing aids but the mostly cheap items currently advertised for sale.

Apparently the guidelines still have not been written so nobody can legally state their devices meet the requirements but some are selling products directly to consumers.

https://www.forbes.com/health/hearin...-hearing-aids/

Personally, I know I could use something, I can related to all of the "signs of hearing loss" listed in the article.

Anybody have any positive experiences lately?

 

My input may make the decision even more complicated.

When I got my first aid all were analog, digital hadn't made it to this market. They worked but selectively amplifying different frequencies was not basically not possible. I say basically because yes it could be done but not in a package the size of a hearing aid.

Fast forward and the industry has now adopted digital. In fact I have had trouble getting my old analog serviced or replaced. Latest is a digital and I'm not exactly happy, long story.

But (IMO) the true advantage of digital is that they can selectively enhance volume at more precise frequencies. Trying not to get too complicated here but basically hearing loss is difficult to measure and difficult to match with a hearing device. And my guess is, it varies greatly from person to person. Thus the difficulty defining a standard for OTC so those devices will match the needs of each patient.

Their testing methods are poor but better than nothing and they make a necessary starting point for anyone needing aids. Get tested and save copies of all results. Explaining why I say their testing is poor would take more space than we have here.

To select a brand I would look for frequency response graphs that match the testing graphs for starters. Unknown if the low cost units provide a graph but from what I see being advertised I'm not impressed.

I have not listed the company I use as it was not selected through an exhaustive search, simply dumb luck (and policies here might object). But they were at the time also a repair company dealing with many brands and I got to talk to a technician and like talking to the mechanic vs a sales person I felt I got some real guidance.

Good luck
Bud

 

Finally after 5 years they have finalized the guidelines!

Here is a really good article summarizing the changes.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/money...​​

 

Marq,
Funny you should resurrect this thread. I was going take a second look at it also. I know of several people who are now interested to consider hearing aids. I'll read the article after I post this reply.
edit...Looks like one must sign-up to read the article.

 

Hmm, yea, it didn't go anywhere, googled "hearing aids over the counter" see if this link work any better.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/money...y/10356745002/

 

Well I finally made the plunge, noticed that the constant HVAC system in the shop was literally drowning out my ability to have a conversation if I didn't know pretty much what it was about and got tired of having to ask for repeats.

So I sat down and did a lot of reading, forums, articles, expert/independent reviews.

What I found was confusing, especially with these new OTC products that are now starting to become available but with time some clarity.

So in very short summary!

All those cheap $199 units are simple magnifiers, they don't do anything to compensate for specific areas of hearing loss, they just make everything louder.

OTC, these are the new products, they are true hearing aids but with simple algorithms that are programed from an on-line or phone hearing test. If you have very mild hearing loss these might work. If like me with some significant loss, they simply are not powerful enough to compensate and the minor hearing test isn't sufficient to pick up the extreme conditions.

Convention hearing aids, this is what I got but from all the reading and all the recommendations I went with Costco. Every referral, every posting was positive, my experience supported that, a very technical test, through evaluations, detailed explanations.

They provided a demo set and sent me on my way within the store, OMG, I never knew a store could have so many fans, blowers, squeaky carts. It was a very interesting evaluation, improved but confusing but as they say, the brain has to re-learn what it hasn't heard in years.

So, I get mine next week and the adventure will really begin! Oh and for those interested the units were $1600, about a third the cost that the audiologist wanted to sell me a few years ago!

 

Making everything louder can help where needed however it can damage areas that do not need the boost.

Digital I assume?

Did they give you the results of your hearing test? If so be sure to keep it as a baseline for future comparison.

My ears are moving beyond the capability of any hearing aide, need too much power. I have considered the cochlear implant but it is a one way street. Once surgery is done there is no going back and to illustrate why that is a concern consider recent news about brain chips. (which I know nothing about other than a new technology)

My inbetween solution has been an ipad. I let it translate what people are saying to me into text that I can read. Not for crowds but a big step that allows me to deal with face to face like over the counter rx, doctors, and such. The people I have to deal with are getting really used to it. Oh and restaurants. Nice to be able to order my own meals.

The ipad can also translate sound (voice) from a video when CC is not available. Working on translating incoming phone calls with my speakerphone in the same way.

As for your brain needing to learn the new aids I believe that is correct so stay with them and give them time.

Be sure to update as you begin to use them.

Thanks
Bud