Visiting the Audiologist is like going to a car dealership?

@Neville said:

That I think a fitting fee is reasonable for a trial?

I would also love fitting fees to be separately specified from the HA’s!
When I ask my very friendly audiologist if they could charge me for a session, so that I could come in and do a REM, she told me that they couldn’t put it on the bill, because it wasn’t in the system. They could sell me a service contract, but only if the aids under service were bought there.
And she is friendly: Her solution is just to help people that come in with complaints even when their aids are bought elsewhere. Again, she is not the owner, she is employed to be in the store, so she can do whatever she feels is warranted.

Did a REM session yesterday in the hospital. With an actual care specialist. What a difference! Learned a lot! Also learned that Phonak is quite on spec when it comes to REM and REAIG. With the AudioDirect curve and a REUG filled in manually, he only found that an overall 2dB increase brought the curve a little closer to the NAL1 curve. Hopefully giving me an extra 5% on speech understanding.

Beltone and Miracle Ear are simply franchises that sell their own private label hearing aids. Neither Beltone nor Miracle Ear manufacture hearing aids. Miracle Ear was Sears way to cash in on a lucrative market with locations in all their stores. They later franchised the name out. I was in one metropolitan area where one person had seven Beltone stores located around the city. He had a central location where he received all his calls, and made appointments in the store nearest to where the caller lived. Great way to market hearing aids. My point is that it takes a lot of profit to maintain that many locations. Beltone and Miracle Ear do have different models over a wide price range and with different features. However the standard audiology practices sell HA’s from more than one manufacturer.which gives them more sources to better fit their clients with the best product for them. I am guessing that they also have contracts with different manufacturers that provide sales incentives.

Glasses are sort of like clothing; many people feel it necessary to have a “designer” product. You pay a huge amount just to walk around with an advertisement for a designer on your chest. I had my eyes checked at an optometrist’s office not long ago, and then looked at frames there. All were designer products, and all were twice as much as a generic frame. I bought two pair at Wal-Mart for about $150.00, and with insurance paid nothing out of pocket. What really gets me is that the quality is the same. All are designed so that the screws fall out of the hinges sooner or later.

I have seen both at Vanderbilt Medical Center, because I wanted a copy of my report… In the Dallas area, I had my last audiology test done at Costco and bought a new pair on line based on that report. The seller programmed them to my report.

YEP! My first audiologist is a Costco veteran in West Springfield, MA. Made me feel comfortable about buying a H.A. After that it got a bit iffy. After my second pair at Costco, my hearing got worse. He suggested a Hearing MD. I wound up at a hospital. I’ve had lots of trouble with my new H. A. Purchased a ConnectClip to go with my new H.A. Still not satisfied with them. They’ve been a real problem.

I am based in India and believe me things are much worse out here. Even the ENT doctors are pushing hearing aids. Conflict of interest! The audis are also very pushy and would recommend HAs that give them the max percentage. Incidentally, the prevailing discounts on all hearing aids ranges between 30% to 50% of the MRP. And each hearing aid manufacturer has dozens of models specifically to create confusion! Thing the industry needs regulation.

@ashahuja said:

And each hearing aid manufacturer has dozens of models specifically to create confusion!

I have to agree with you. I am new to HA’s and I found that the most confusing part. It is almost impossible to compare different models and brands of hearing aids. This seems to be a deliberate practice on the part of manufacturers. One example is Rexton and Signia. They are different segments of the same company (originally Siemens), but they use almost totally different terms to describe their features, even though the product is virtually identical. The purpose seems to be to create the illusion there are different products at different prices, and suck you into believing that there is some relationship between the price you pay and the quality you get. My observations is that there is no relationship. There seems to be much more of a relationship between the cost and the method by which they are sold.

Smartphones, while probably more complicated, are very easy to compare. There are on line tools that let you compare them side by side in excruciating detail. See example at link below. I am not aware of any such thing with hearing aids…

Cell Phone Side by Side Comparison12

For that kind of money, the staff should be at your house first thing every morning and last thing every night cleaning, inserting and removing the aids. As well as running a vacuum through the house.

Yes, the Costco’s do vary. I think a starting point is to stop by the one you are considering and ask if you can ask a few questions of the fitting staff. Talking to the front desk staff is not very productive. You need to talk to the ones doing the fitting.

Many of the designer products are actually made better with better quality materials than the generic. The quality is not the same. I’m currently getting glasses frames that are cheaper frames and I can see and feel the difference. My other pair, with the trifocals for the computer are still great after 7 years (I need 2 different sets of glasses now). Yep, they were designer. While I haven’t yet had the screw fall out of these, I do agree with your last statement.

Since you mentioned ear molds, I heard of an online ear mold supplier who will send an impression kit, which you return and they make molds to fit your ears. I have been unable to find any online service that does this. Do you know of any such online business? Thanks in advance.

I still get nervous with certain patients when taking ear impressions and that is with 10+ years experience as an audiologist (and I can see into their ear when I’m doing it too!) To take the risk of performing your own ear impressions seems crazy to me! Unless there is no other option seems like a big gamble to save a few bucks

I have one question for ear impression
What is round soft material attached with thin wire in ear while taking impression. And impact if Audi do not do that and directly take impression without it.

From my understanding it is to ensure nothing is left in the ear and to prevent any damage to the ear drum & also stop the impression as it fills in the ear. In 40 years I have never had impressions taken without using these so have some concern this happened, any audiologists have a comment on this?