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Price on Oticon OPN

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In reply to @spingee

@spingee said:

You can buy it in Prague from official Oticon reseller for 2500€ for both sides

and every german audi will refuse to program them for you, since they don’t earn crap, and you’re left with the inital fitting based on your present hearing loss… also with insurance they’re only 4k each and you get full service.

@Gery_R said:

and every german audi will refuse to program them for you, since they don’t earn crap, and you’re left with the inital fitting based on your present hearing loss… also with insurance they’re only 4k each and you get full service.

I’ve heard of a few forum members here who bought online from buyhear.com and were successful with only 1 or 2 fittings for the OPN. But in my case, I’ve already had 3 fittings within 1 week with my local audi so far, and I’ve worked out a few major kinks but still have about 3 outstanding issues left to solve. She had an Oticon rep visiting her office this morning and they discussed my situation. The Oticon rep will be back in town next week and she’s scheduling the rep to meet with me and herself to work with us directly on my next fitting.

So there’s something to be said if you need full service. I thought before that if it was easy to fit for some folks who bought online, I shouldn’t have much problem either. But turns out that it’s different for everyone.

But on the other hand, if it’s easy to program and the online seller sends you a tablet and programming device to do the tweaks yourself until you’re satisfied before you return the tablet and device, I can see very appealing values in doing that as well, as compared to having to go see a local audi for several fittings. You may be able to know immediately how your adjustment works out as opposed to having to do it at the audit’s office, go home and see if it helps, then come back again if it doesn’t help, round and round…

to be honest audis in germany , at least most of them, have the lowest school degree and are a bit stupid and have minority complexes, which makes talking to them a hassle sometimes, so yeah programming them on my own, I was thinking about it.

In reply to @rasmus_braun

I checked out Oticon’s website on 11/11/16. There are now 3 different levels for the OPN’s. It is not uncommon for the power level to be initiated first with a premium price and then subsequent lower levels to follow with reduced features and pricing. I am glad to have waited because I am not a power user and will receive a better value not purchasing features I would likely not use anyway. I was quoted a price of $3900 each for the Level #1 at the end of October. The level #2 and #3 was not available at that time and pricing was not given for them. I put in a call to my audi today and expect to hear back something early next week on price and availability for the Level #2 and #3.

@corona said:

I think by “power levels” you mean features and price point, not maximum output level, which is how the term is usually used. (?)

There is a link in another thread

Hearing Aid Forum - Active Hearing Loss Community

An open forum to discuss hearing aids, cochlear implants, and other hearing solutions. Welcome to the world's most active hearing loss community.

describing the three levels. It reminds me of buying a software application and paying more for added functions. While there is only one piece of software depending on how much of it one has a license for determines how it functions. I have to wonder if all three levels use the same hardware just with some of the functioning limited.

In reply to @gpsgrandpa

@gpsgrandpa said:

There is a link in another thread
Hearing Aid Forum - Active Hearing Loss Community
describing the three levels. It reminds me of buying a software application and paying more for added functions. While there is only one piece of software depending on how much of it one has a license for determines how it functions. I have to wonder if all three levels use the same hardware just with some of the functioning limited.

electronics are dirt cheap. would be more hassle to make different hardware, so you pay for research and developement, and get your extras via software…

an idependant audi wanted 3k € per piece + molds excluded. the chain I’m at now wants 2.6k per piece and mold are only 140€ each side instead of 220€ molds lol. fuck those little stores, they always tell you the chains are evil and they can offer you a better service, but they just fuck with you more because they can’t keep up.

After everything was all said and done with billing my insurance company and my co-pay, my audi got $4K for 2 OPN1 (from my co-pay of $310 plus my insurance payment). I’ve had 5 fittings with my audi so far. This is in the US. And this is not an online purchase. This is a full blown in the office purchase/fitting with a local audi.

Considering this data poinnt with that from buyhear.com for $3,800 for a pair of OPN1 purchase online and that audiologywny.com1 advertised price of (previously $1,995 but now) $2,150 for a single OPN1 (top of the line version) with in-office fitting, I think around $2K US/single OPN1 may be a reasonable baseline to compare to.

I agree that $4000 is a good price. I expect price is largely dependent on volume of business. By taking your insurance, your audi probably guarantees himself/herself a certain amount of business. That amount of business makes it reasonable for the audi to accept $4000 total payment whereas if the audi doesn’t do much business, $4000 is probably not going to cover the cost of doing business. My HMO charges $5800 for the OPN 1s. They are not on commission, but are staffed with all audiologists.
It’s an interesting market.

Edited

I just want to clarify that the $4K is not the original “price” from my audi. The original price is actually $6,200 from my audi to me, which is used as the basis to calculate the 5% of co-pay I’d have to pay out of pocket, which is $310.

I have 95% insurance coverage (and 5% co-pay out of my pocket) if I use an in-network provider. Or 70% coverage with 30% co-pay if I use an out of network provider. My audi is not an in-network provider, so I would not have done business with her but instead would have gone with an in-network provider in the first place. So in order to win my business, she agreed to charge me only 5% out of pocket for co-pay, as if she were in-network from my perspective. She would then bill my insurance as an out-of-network provider for 70% of the rest. So in a way, she’s willing to discount 25% of the $6,200 price in order to win my business. So the discounted price would have been $6,200 * .75 = $4,650 ($4,340 from insurance and $310 from me).

But then audi billed my insurance company not $6,200, but $7,200. I guess she hoped to see if they would bite on the higher price. But of course they balked at this $7,200 price and negotiated down and in the end paid her $3680. I guess another way to look at this is that the insurance agrees to a price of $5,257 (of which 70% coverage is $3680).

So as you can see, the actual pricing was actually all over the place to begin with. Originally, the price was $6,200 quoted to me and used as a basis for my 5% co-pay. Then it was $7,200 billed to my insurance, which was negotiated down to $5,257 by my insurance to the audi and used as the basis from which 70% of insurance payment was made. In terms of the discounted price in order to compete with an in-network provider and win my business, the original “discounted price” was $4,650, which was negotiated down to finally end up at $4K, which is the final “revenue” to my audi.

So I guess that at $4K/pair of OPN1s, my audi still probably makes enough money to cover her overhead costs even with the discount. And although it may not be as much profit as she’d like, I hope still enough profit for her. At least it’s still better than letting me walk away and lose my business to an in-network provider.

In reply to @Volusiano

@Volusiano said:

I just want to clarify that the $4K is not the original “price” from my audi. The original price is actually $6,200 from my audi to me, which is used as the basis to calculate the 5% of co-pay I’d have to pay out of pocket, which is $310.

Your story just confirms my paranoia of the industry. It seems that there is no price, it’s just a judgement by the audiologist on what he/she thinks the customer can pay.

In reply to @d_Wooluf

@d_Wooluf said:

Three levels listed here: https://www.buyhear.com/collections/oticon. So, not an “assumption” it seems. Just out of curiosity, what’s the difference?

According to the Oticon website, the differences are in 1. rapid noise reduction, 2. Sound localization, 3. Speech Clarity and 4. Personalization Experience. The Opn1 has 3 dots for all 4, the Opn2 has 2 dots, the Opn3 has 1 dot.

In reply to @InVision

There are 3 different opns. I am trying out opn 1. I have had oticon alta pro for the last 2 years ($6,600.00)…(first hearing aides)…hated them…now sent off for repair for being tinny and shriek-y. The opn1 s are great, really great…but the audiologist wants another $5000.00 and trade these in. Seriously? $11,500.00 in 2 years…
Maybe can’t do it…thinking of trying Costco…

Probably not good to compare hearing aid in need of repair to new/ top of the line, or have you always hated them? Seems like your audiologist could be a little more generous. You could go the online route for about $3800 and sell your old ones on ebay, or you could try Costco, although Oticons won’t be an option.

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