The Noisy Debate Over Hearing Aids: Why So Expensive?

The Wall Street Journal ^ | Wednesday, March 24, 2004 | ANN ZIMMERMAN

[TroutStalker]

A set of hearing aids costs about $2,200 on average. Mead Killion thinks that's crazy. He believes an effective aid for mild-to-moderate hearing loss could be sold over the counter for around $100 -- using technology that already exists.

But bringing inexpensive hearing aids to the masses won't be easy. Dr. Killion, a hearing-aid pioneer, is battling a tight-knit group of licensed specialists who by law are the only people allowed to dispense hearing devices. The Food and Drug Administration, which regulates the industry, so far has sided mostly with the specialists, who are trained to calibrate and fit devices suited to each patient. If anyone could sell a hearing aid, the FDA says, elderly people might be victimized by shoddy merchandise and fail to get treatment for serious medical conditions.

[TroutStalker]

Personally having hearing loss that will eventually approach deafness, I refuse to pay the price of a high end computer for a simple hearing device.

This is just one more example of a special interest group using a government agency's regulatory power to line their pockets, just like the accounting and tax preparation industry wants complex tax laws.

I guess I should start looking at purchasing hearing devices from overseas on the internet, or at the hunting department at Cabela's.

[BigSkyFreeper]

Two years ago, I was wearing a hearing aid in each year. Well, the one in the left ear crapped out on me, so I'm down to one hearing aid, in the right ear. I do have SSI, but they won't help me pay for a new one until 2005 because I had a hearing exam 2 years ago which is the standard procedure in obtaining a new hearing aid. That hearing aid that crapped out on me was over 15 years old, and the one that I have now is about 4 years old.

Why was I wearing a hearing aid that was 15 years old? Well, that article is exactly why. They're F'in expensive. $2200 as the article states, is a average cost. The one that I have now set me back nearly $4000. It's nothing fancy, and it's not even digital. I can't imagine how much a digital hearing aid costs.

I can't even use the in-the-ear hearing aid, the ones that go inside the ear canal, because they're not amplified enough for my type of hearing loss, so I wear the over-the-ear hearing aids that sit on the ear like eyeglass hooks.

[giznort]

When my mother needed a hearing aid, we almost soiled ourselves over the price. With all the advances in technology, where more accurate and long-lasting and smaller units can be made more affordably, it's clear that these "licensed" sellers of hearing aids have a good little racket going. I'm sure they're a powerful group (like the teachers' unions) and won't go down easily. It's a shame that seniors have to get bilked like this, when the technology is out there to provide better units at a lesser cost. How does one start a movement open the door on this? I have no idea.

[The Great RJ]

Why not sell hearing aids like eye glasses? You would have to see a licensed professional to have an evaluation and with their authorization (prescription)go to a vendor of hearing aid products. The cost of eyeglasses has actually gone down with a wide variety of vendors--including discounters like Wal-Mart.

The problem with hearing aids is that the only people you can buy one from are the guys who do the hearing exam. This keeps the number of vendors low and the price high.

[tort_feasor]

I had an ENT diagnosis me with bilateral ottosclerosis. I purchased an $800 hearing aid. I kept getting ear infections went to another ENT and he diagnosised me with a Cholesteatoma (A benign tumor). Had I not followed up the tumor could have crushed my facial nerve. As it is it wrecked my middle ear bones. Hopefully in a couple months I can have surgery to repair/replace the bones. I would highly recomend anyone experiencing hearing loss to see a qualified ENt. But I do agree that over the counter hearing aids should be made available

[coloradan]

Why are they so expensive?

Dr. Killion, a hearing-aid pioneer, is battling a tight-knit group of licensed specialists who by law are the only people allowed to dispense hearing devices.

There's your answer right there.

Those who think that regulatory agencies are to "protect" people are simply mistaken; thy are more like the protection rackets of old.

This is the reason for out-of-control medical costs - and the solution to the problem is not more government (a prescription drug benefit). The solution is less government.

[FreePaul]

I'm with you on the hearing aid issue. I've had a moderate hearing loss for several years. I won't spend the money on a hearing aid now for several reasons. The price is ridiculous. Several friends have spent from $2000 to $6000 on hearing aids that they don't wear because they pick up too much extraneous noise. We had a neighbor years ago who had a hearing aid business. He was a con man with no education and had very little knowledge of hearing problems. I don't think that the business currently has any better requirements. They do however show a remarkable ability to manipulate politics and politicians to their ends. Of course all that takes is money distributed in the right places.

[BigSkyFreeper]

If your friends wore those hearing aids more often, their brains can learn to filter out the extraneous noises. Believe me, when I first started wearing hearing aids 23 years ago, I had that problem too.

[franksolich]

This is a "hot-button" issue for me, too. The most recent quote on a hearing instrument--one, not two--"suitable" for me was in excess of $3,800, given that I have only circa 2% of "normal" hearing. And despite the fact that I was born absent one ear (right side), and a look inside the only "ear" would show merely a vacant tunnel, I have never in my life been able to obtain a hearing instrument without "permission" from a physician--an examination which cost circa $100 during the late 1970s, up until the more-recent circa $250.

And as for this "K-amp" thing, which softens loud sounds and expands soft sounds, I have never been fond of it. The best sort of hearing instrument is that which conveys sound as it actually is, as it really is. Non-hearing people already live in an unbalanced, unreal world, and it is imperative that we know reality (in this case, sounds as they really are). If a particular sound is ear-splitting, that is exactly the way it should be conveyed, because that is reality.

Generally political liberals tend to be "selective" about reality; I surely hope most on this web-site are better than this, accepting all in the world as it is, without "editing."

It seems to me what has hampered the development of hearing instruments for the active, the employed, the engaged-in-the-world hard-of-hearing, was the passage of legislation 30+ years ago that mandated the government to pay for hearing instruments under Medicare.

Then the floodgates opened; governmental clients are a more reliable source of sure income than private individuals, and so suddenly we had all of these old people being fitted for these things. The money was surer, better.

Never mind that loss of hearing usually accompanies old age, and that old people usually like some peace and quiet anyway. Never mind that many of these old people did not necessarily want such things, but were pressured by members of their families, because (a) it is getting inconvenient and even irritating, to always "speak up," and (b) the government is paying for it anyway.

One need only compare advertisements for hearing instruments, to see this evolution of this "market." When looking at old magazines from circa 1900-1960, in the advertisements for hearing instruments, generally they portray an active businessman, a swinging golfer, a busy housewife, a romping child; the young and the middle-aged involved in work, involved in competition, involved in human affairs.

Now the advertisements are of white-haired men and women, senior citizens whose only activity is going to the post office once a month to pick up that social security check.

And so the people who most need such things--the productive, the working, the learning, the private individuals--are now excluded from this, because all "research and development" is now funneled into the needs of the elderly instead.

[Age of Reason]

Somebody here who has the time, should see if hearing aids cost less in Canada.

[glorgau]

I've met Dr. Killion and he is the real deal. The guy knows his stuff. What my company does is sell his high end audiophile earphones. They cost about $250 but beat any headphone out there for sound reproduction. With the pletora of MP3 players out there(iPod, etc.), that scale of production will drive the cost way down.

Also, with the baby boom generation getting older and no longer rocking and rolling like they used to, the market is definitely on the upswing.

[Age of Reason]

"Why So Expensive?"

Beats me.

Especially when you can have one of these for under $200: http://www.pimall.com/nais/bolica.html

This one's even cheaper and smaller: http://www.pimall.com/nais/e.sonic.html

Problem solved.

[kitkat]

***It's a shame that seniors have to get bilked like this, when the technology is out there to provide better units at a lesser cost. How does one start a movement open the door on this? I have no idea.***

I have friend who wears hearing aids and keeps asking why you can buy a computer for $400, but a tiny little aid costs over a thousand each.

Actually, when I lost a hearing aid, my special clause in my home insurance policy allowed only the price of the aid, minus a $250 deductible. That's when I found out that the aid cost $350, and the office that fitted it got over $700.

I do have to say, though, that the hearing aid specialists who fit my aid have very expensive equipment to test the hearing and adjust the aid appropriately. There is NO way I'd believe in a one-size fits all aid.

But, over $700 for their services is ridiculous.

And they really push the limit in trying to sell the most expensive aids.

[Jonx6]

"Why not sell hearing aids like eye glasses? You would have to see a licensed professional to have an evaluation and with their authorization (prescription)go to a vendor of hearing aid products...."

Also if you just want cheap unprescribed general reading glasses you can by them at the grocery store, and, old people aren't getting conned by reading glass shysters. These hearing aid monopoly guys seem to be the real con men.

[kitkat]

***Somebody here who has the time, should see if hearing aids cost less in Canada.***

I hear the ads from Canada on radio. What they say, (if you listen closely) is that the AIDS cost less. What they don't say is that the price of the aids is only about 1/3 of the total cost of being fitted for hearing aids.

[GailA]

Might want to check out this thread Tiny tubular technology makes noise (NEW HEARING device) I posted it a few weeks ago on a new procedure for an internal hearing aide.

[Museum Twenty]

bump for later

[krunkygirl]

bump and save for later

thanks for posting this

[barker]

Hi Trout. I have worn a hearing aid for about 10 years, I need a new onw but just can't afford one now. Checked into the price of a new one and had to go sit down for a while. They're insane.

[merry10]

http://www.hearnow.com