That four or five channels improve speech intelligibility. “For someone with mild to moderate hearing loss, the average hearing aid today is completely overengineered,” Mr. All the customer sees at the end of it is one big fat price tag that says, ‘$2,000.’ ”Īnd all of those channels are mostly marketing. Is the cost of the service that went into testing, advising, programming, your after-sales support. “The consumer has absolutely no idea how much is the cost of the device, how much “The big discussion right now in the industry is about unbundling,” said Audicus’s founder, Patrick Freuler. “Retailers/audiologists account for up to 70 percent of the final price of a hearing aid, because they factor in a bundle of additional expensive services,” The middleman - the hearing aid dispenser. At, prices run from $399 to $599, a discount made possible by eliminating Indeed, less expensive hearing aids are available online. He estimated that most hearing aids cost no more than $100 “Those devices in small volumes cost $10 to $15,” Mr. The microphones, speakers and processing chips aren’t that expensive. “The semiconductor industry traditionally reduces the cost of products by 10 to 15 percent a year,” he said, but “hearing aids go up 8 percentĪ year annually” and have for the last 20 years. Apfel, whose company, Audiotoniq,Īims to sell sophisticated but affordable devices. “The hearing aid industry uses every new thing, like digital or a new algorithm, to raise prices,” said Mr. Why have hearing aids become more expensive, while cellphones, computers and televisions have gotten cheaper? Russ Apfel, an engineer who designed a technology now found in all hearing aids, says there is no good reason I learned not only that now you can buy hearing aids online, but also that Costco -Ī place where you typically get toilet paper in bulk - has gotten into the hearing aid business. But I quickly canceled the order and started researching my options. It was as if I’d gone into a car lot and had been presented with only Mercedeses, Porsches and Ferraris, when I wanted to see a Honda.įeeling pressured, I ordered the “cheap” aid. He likened the expensive model with 16 channels to listening to an orchestra - and the eight-channel model to a car stereo. Perhaps that was why the Hearx salesman bristled when I asked what I could get for $1,000. It isn’t clear why it costs thousands of dollars.īut the digital era has ushered in new technology: Manufacturers boasted of Bluetooth, multiple settings, “channels” and “bands,” which processed sound and fine-tuned it like a stereo’s Scared of what might happen if they don’t buy an expensive aid.Ī hearing aid is basically just a microphone and amplifier in your ear. So I am probably savvier than most first-time customers, many of them elderly and I’ve worn hearing aids for more than 30 years I’ve had profound hearing loss in my right ear and moderate loss in the left ear, the one where I wear the aid, since I was 5. The top-of-the-line model was more than $2,000 - for one ear. There, a fastidious young man spread out a brochure for my preferred brand, Siemens, and showed me three models. He warned me that it could shatter in my ear and advised me to get a new one on the spot.Īlarmed, I visited Hearx, the national chain where I had bought my previous aids. The first salesman I visited, in Los Angeles, looked at the hairline fracture on my wax-encrusted aid. That in the last 10 years, purchasing a hearing aid had become even more difficult and confusing than buying a new car - and almost as expensive. But because hearing aids are so costly and generally aren’t covered by insurance, I had put it off. Last year, when my decade-old analog hearing aid started making popping sounds, I knew I had to replace it. The crackling noises coming from my left ear weren’t a good sign.
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