My ENT made a one-time $75 fee for an adjustment and didn’t bill me thereafter. Seeing he has an insurance claim when I make an appointment, it a good deal for him.
Charging $7000 is at the higher end of cost for a premium aid that can be found in a clinic – often at $6200 which includes adjustments and batteries for 3 years. Online, the same aids can be purchased for a bit under $4000 with limited supplies. It’d be $2800 at Costco with lifetime support/supplies but no free batteries. There are happy people with all 3 choices.
Your last aid was probably the entry level model which are typically $3200 or so. Mid grade aid bounce around the $4800 mark. Those are prices that have adjustments and batteries included.
If you got on well in noise with the old aids, going with the same level aid again is a choice. The mid-level step up would give better noise result – slightly below the premium.
I try to support the few Canadian independent clinics that are left and educate consumers through my website hearingclinics101.org. However, if independents want to truly survive the ongoing manufacturer takeover they must adapt drastically and quickly to the new marketplace. There’s no escaping the fact that they must become more price competitive and lower costs. That’s easier said than done for a longstanding clinic. The benefit we in Canada have is that, by observing the U.S., we can see exactly what is in store for markets that fail to adapt.
The Starkey branded audiologist said that Starkey will not repair any Starkey aids over 8 years old due to new technologies. I would buy a new aid thru audiologist or HIS and buy a used pair of aids on eBay as backup.
I had a Hearing Aid Specialist try to convince me to get a loan of $10,000 USD to buy a pair of Beltone HAs to replace my previous Beltone HA, which were bad. I said no and left them. I later found out the average price of an HA and basically said no to anyone who tried to sell me HA above the average price.
Found out most Audis or Hearing Aid Specialist were profit takers and were not concerned about my hearing loss. I took the initiative to take it upon myself to correct and manage my own hearing health. Found wonderful Phonak Audeo M90R and been happy ever since. Every local Audi where I live has been profit takers. Online Audis were more concerned about my hearing quality than what I have seen in person. Thank you.
Here where i live a law was passed. Actually many laws. An audiologist CAN’T sell hearing aids. Its an audioprothesist and they CAN’T ASSESS what type of hearing aid you need. The good: audi has no interest in lying about ur needs. Bad there are very little private audiologist as the money is not in the business
Also another law stated only an audioprothesist can own or rent a store that sells hearing aids. So all costco where i live NEVER can sell hearing aids . Store not owned by an audioprothesist
