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Costco Kirkland hearing aids vs. TruHearing

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Does anyone here have experience with Costco’s Kirkland hearing aids, and those offered by TruHearing? I’d especially like to hear from someone who has tried both and can compare them.
FWIW- I have a mild to moderate hearing loss on the left, severe high frequency loss on the right. I’ve had tinnitus since 1971, but don’t care about masking it.

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I do not have experience with both, only Costco. I have the KS8 aids which are made by Rexton/Signia. A couple of years ago Consumer Reports used a survey of about 17,000 members to rate hearing aid providers and brands of hearing aids. Costco rated #1 as a provider, and TruHearing was not on the list. The Costco Kirkland Signature hearing aids rated #1 as well. At the time the survey was done, they were being made by Rexton/Signia, but users may have had older ones. In brands Signia was #2. And Phonak was down just a touch. The KS7 and KS8 aids were both made by Rexton/Signia. The current KS9 aids are made by Phonak.

The current KS9 aids are priced at $1500 a pair in the US. The Rexton Adore Li aids I believe are priced at about $1800 a pair. They are very similar to the KS8 aids but are rechargeable. These are both premium level aids.

I see from this link67 that the TruHearing “premium” aids start at $1,495, which if it is a per each price, is quite expensive.

I think it would be really hard to beat Costco for quality and price. Their initial fitting and unlimited follow ups are free. They can be returned for up to 6 months for a refund. Costco also do Real Ear Measurement for fitting the aids properly. Many other providers skip this step.

$1495 is expensive, but my new Medicare HMO pays for part,bringing the cost down to $699 or $999 per ear,depending on the model. It looks like they have more features that I could use. I’m scheduled for an evaluation at both places, so I’ll have more information to make a choice.

You may want to listen to this Dr. Cliff video on why he left TruHearing239. He doesn’t really have anything bad to say about TruHearing products, but their method of dealing with fitting and followup fitting sessions may put your provider under pressure to short sell you in service. They could rush you out the door and not do the testing needed to properly make each adjustment.

Are you able to pay for the hearing aids at Costco and then make a claim back to your insurance company? I believe that is what some of the people posting here do.

Edited

I have no experience with Costco but I have used True Hearing. I have mixed reviews for True Hearing. My first vendor was pleasant and accommodating and never charged me for visits no matter how many. The following time I qualified for hearing aids the first vendor was not in the program and the vendor they (true hearing ) sent me to was not qualified , did not program the aids correctly, and charged me for everything. So, I am. inclined to use Costco next time, as I was not happy with the service I received. I still need adjustments made , but I am tired of paying for every visit and then nothing is solved anyway. The price discount is good , and you can get good aids ( I have top of the line resound Quattro 9’s. ). So, I would see how good the hearing aid specialist is and watch the timeline, so you can return if not happy. ( but they may charge you a partial fee for returning even if in the test period ). ( and they charged a $75 office visit on top of hearing aid fee ). Be careful.

True Hearing will have a greater option for products available, but you will pay for service or adjustment after a set period (I think it used to be 90 days). Many hearing professionals refuse to accept True Hearing referrals due to instrument options being only what Tru Hearing offers and their compensation schedule. True Hearing wants the professionals to work for very limited compensation and I have seen where a practice’s normal pricing is actually less than True Hearing’s price. But if a patient is a True Hearing referral, the fitting has to be done through True Hearing. I personally refused to use them when I was still in practice.

for me it was blue cross insurance that sent me to true hearing, Blue Cross paid $2500.00 towards the hearing aids, Costco would have been cheaper, likely free or close to it, to me. I paid 2k in after the health insurance paid their 2500. Now, I have to pay for every office visit, so I am thinking it was not a good deal for either the provider or myself. Blue Cross will pay the 2500 whether or not you use True Hearing. The contract with True Hearing was for only 3 office visits . So, is a $4500.00 price a big discount?

In reply to @brewerpaul

So can we assume your Medicare HMO is Kaiser Permanente, since I believe Kaiser exclusively uses True Hearing. If that’s the case you would be wise to compare costs between Costco and True Hearing (with your HMO credit). Unfortunately both True Hearing and Costco have high turn over in staff/ audiologists, so if your looking to build up a long term relationship with an Audi - they are not the place to go to. Costco hearing service can vary from location to location so hopefully you have a few centers nearby you can compare. True Hearing on the other hand has gotten many negative reviews from users, so noted on Internet. And when you bring up True Hearing’s website you get very little information on what hearing aid brands they offer. Furthermore you get almost no information on who is the designated Audi for any giver branch. Personally I like to do my homework before entering a hearing aid dealers office, but with True Hearing its almost impossible to get any reliable information over the phone, since they want you first to walk into one of their outlets and talk face to face.

If you really dig deep on the Tru Hearing website they carry all he major six providers of ’s and the prices before whatever insurance is going to pay, in my case they will pay $2500, if you pick a mid level or lower level model, like Signia 3X you would have nothing out of pocket, or pick the new Signia 7X or Phonak M90 rechargeables and pay $1800, that’s the most I my case I would have to pay for any of the high end models from any brand. My last HA’s cost me $2600 at Costco and my insurance didn’t cover any portions of it they were Resound Linux 862 a de featured Linx 962. So this time I’m trying True Hearing service that my insurance wants me to use, and get a full featured model from any of the tops brands and will only cost me $1800, will see how the service from the local provider is bit I will pressure them to do a complete programming, before I commit or complain to the Federal Government Employee Insurance Services which manages mine.

The KS8 are essentially the same as the Signia 7Nx, and sold in the US for $1600 a pair. To my knowledge they are no longer available and have been replaced with the KS9, which are basically Phonak Marvel M90 aids, and sell for $1500 a pair. The Rexton Adore Li is rechargeable and basically the same as the KS8 or Signia 7Nx and are still available, for I believe about $1800, although that may not include the charger.

I got the Kirkland hearing aid recently. The hearing instrument specialist could not get the sound fixed well enough to remove the slurring of S sounds, all the S’s sounded like Sh.
When the Consumer Report article about Costco hearing aids came out, the staff at Costco said people have been crawling out of the woodwork for appointments. It is no longer easy to get an appointment. Three weeks to get an appointment to order one, three weeks to wait for an appointment to pick up the hearing aid, and three weeks get an adjustment (which didn’t help anyway). I was so disappointed. Costco hearing aids are “locked” so I couldn’t go somewhere else to have it adjusted. They also don’t have all the features of the name brand ha the company makes. That might not be a problem if you don’t have a severe hearing loss and need all the features.

I got in to see an audiologist the day I called for an appointment, they called as soon and the hearing aid came in and got me in right away. I was able to be seen the same day when I needed an adjustment. I like the Resound LiNX Quattro so much better and not having to wait long when I need to see the audiologist.

In reply to @Judy

I have had KS8 aids for about 10 months now. Just recently I asked to have my prescription changed from the Rexton SmartFit to the v5. I like it better than what I had, but now out of the blue I have the “s” issue that you talk about. It was not there before. I suspect it is just a minor tweak of the gain at a certain frequency, and not an issue with the hearing aids themselves.

I think you are right, the hearing specialist just couldn’t get it adjusted right and with the long wait times it wasn’t worth it to me. My last one from Costco, a Phonak was fine but the technology has dramatically improved in the last five years so I was very happy to get a premium hearing aid. I don’t have enough hearing in my left ear to use a hearing aid so I use just one in my right ear. The biggest change for me is being able to use the phone again! I also love being able to stream music and the app for changing the settings in different environments.

As I mentioned in the other thread you posted in, this may also be a getting used to hearing aids issue. I posted this Starkey article36 about it. I am not sure if this is my issue, but I am not rushing in to get an adjustment yet, just in case I get used to it. I do need a feedback adjustment though, and it may fix the S too.

How long have you been wearing hearing aids? I’ve been wearing them since elementary school. Let us know how long it takes to get Issue fixed.

I have been wearing them for about 10 months. However up until about 2 weeks ago, I don’t think I was getting the full correction for the “s” frequencies - 6 kHz??. If it does not go away, I will get it tweaked down. That said, I am noticing it much less frequently than I did when it was changed 2 weeks ago.

My insurance company which is Humana offers two levels of hearing aids from True Hearing. I just purchased the more expensive of the two for $995/ pair two weeks ago from a well-known audiologist in Richmond area. I replaced my older Phonak aids. So far so good.

Captain Tom. How did it work out with Humana and Tru Hearing? I just found out I have the same plan.

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