BCBS and hearing aids/GEHA plans in open season

There is a previous thread where some folks discussed their experience with Tru-Hearing. I had a good experience with Tru-Hearing: https://forum.hearingtracker.com/t/my-experience-with-truhearing/49181/8?u=jim_lewis (member archive) and, as with anything in life, some other folks did not.

You basically get regular HA’s such as you might buy at a full-service package price at a discount for opting for more limited service. Officially, in the Tru-Hearing contract when I got mine about two years ago, it was only 3 additional follow-up visits beyond the initial fitting covered in the discounted purchase price. After that, you’d theoretically be paying a la carte but my audiologist has not charged me for any warranty-related visits and I’ve had at least half a dozen in the last two years (counting dropping off old device for audi to test, returning to be fit with new replacement, etc.).

So if you’ve worn HA’s before and you know that you need a lot of return visits to get things right, it might not be such a good idea. If you know after the first few tweaks that you’re probably going to be pretty happy with your fit and the audiologist says warranty issues, no problema!, you’re probably going to be satisfied with Tru-Hearing. Depending what’s the latest and the greatest when I decide to get new HA’s and what’s being offered at Costco, because I like my current audiologist and she says she can fit me with any HA that I want, I might very well use Tru-Hearing again. But as an old retiree, I’m probably not as exacting as a lot of folks who wear HA’s and lead busier lives with a lot of demanding business activities, phone calls, meetings and so on.

I got my current Oticon Opn1’s thru BCBS Federal and TruHearing in 2016. It might take a few weeks after a brand-new model is released before it becomes available through TruHearing, but it is not like Costco which is almost always a generation behind.

When I talked to my audi this year about getting replacements he told me if I went through TruHearing again that he would have to charge full price for every visit after the three visits provided through TruHearing. Apparently the audi doesn’t make much profit working through TruHearing.

I am leaning toward going through TruHearing again anyway and just paying for the extra adjustment visits. It’s frustrating because sometimes an adjustment visit results in only a very small tweak that only takes a couple of minutes. But it’ll probably be less expensive over the life of the HAs.

I am dismayed to hear that BCBS Basic will now only pay that $2500 benefit every five years. I downgraded from Standard to Basic when I became eligible for Medicare. I guess we all end up paying more for fewer benefits every year.

Tru Hearing has the latest hearing aids. They got Phonak Paradise maybe a month after they were released. I will be buying mine thru them at a significant savings using my BCBS insurance. Saving about $1800. . They do have a TruHearing brand of hearing aids. These are less expensive that the branded HAs. For example the Signia Xperience has a feature that is Assistant, but the Tru Hearing rebranded Signia Xperience does not. I know this from speaking w/ a HIS. Another thing that is nice is that TruHearing does all the paperwork for your insurance and there are also Affordable Payment option plans, no interest for 12 months.

Thanks so much for this thread! It’s super helpful to read more about TruHearing and their options, or lack thereof. I have BCBS Standard and have been looking to finally upgrade from what was Siemens Pure into a wireless HA that supports better connectivity to my mobile. Given that I’m now teleworking 100% of the time, it’s been a nightmare taking calls on Teams and WebEx where folks are using their computer audio. I’ve had to go into my audiologist for a couple of adjustments and moved into a tulip/closed dome. I definitely need to upgrade which is why I’m back on the forum. I guess that’s what a HSA is for?

@Rae said:

Given that I’m now teleworking 100% of the time, it’s been a nightmare taking calls on Teams and WebEx where folks are using their computer audio.

Whatever brand HA you decide to get, you might also want to get a streamer device for your PC. Just based on my TV streaming experience, I hear the dialog in streamed movies so much better when streamed directly to my HA’s than when picked up from the room speakers used with the TV because secondary reverberations, etc., from around the room are virtually eliminated.

The other thing that I’ve found out from listening to streamed podcasts walking around the neighborhood, mainly Ira Flatow’s Science Friday radio program, is that when a “tellecaller” into his program has a poor connection that’s awash in low-frequency “slurpy” voice noises that it helps to use the treble enhancement (“speech clarity”) features of my ReSound HA’s in the Smart 3D app - you can probably do the same in whatever brand you get. Specifically in the ReSound app, invoking that feature usually reduces bass by about -2 dB, enhances midtones by about +4 dB, and treble tones by +6 dB (if these changes make the overall sound volume of your HA’s too loud, you can just crank down overall volume on your HA’s a bit and you’ll still maintain the relative HA frequency volume changes). And in the Smart 3D app under the Sound Enhancement button you can increase or decrease each of these adjustments as much as you want. Making the adjustments usually makes the speaker you’re listening to sound much “tinnier” but for me at least reduces interfering low-frequency sounds in the caller’s poor connection and makes their speech much more intelligible.

@eliotb Open season is 09 Nov - 14 Dec. Hasn’t started yet.

@Sequoia_Woman shouldn’t be a surprise the increased premium expectation has been around for a few months.

Thanks. I am aware of the open season dates and have a GEHA brochure on the way to hold up side-by-side with the BCBS Basic coverage before making the final decision. I’m now used to refreshing my technology every three years rather than five. The last time I wanted five years I found that I had been living in a horrible auditory hole.

That said, I did note the prices on this TruHearing or whatever is called are, in the main, pretty reasonable. But I haven’t looked at what their prices are for top tier brands.

@Sequoia_Woman – I am aware of the price increase. In my case, the GEHA product will be about $400 a year more expensive for self-plus-one, over and above whatever the Medicare B premium increase is. But the 3-year HA coverage, out-of-network coverage and side benefits like money for a gym membership appears to be worth it.

I was aware of increase in premiums. I just not looked at the 2021 brochure, as Open Season is November. 5yr HA change I was not aware of, I appreciated the heads up. This is the reason I normally update whe my 3 yrs were up, because things change w/ a strike of a pen. I don’t recall FedSmith website mentioning the change.

Most interesting. Here in the DC area the BCBS reimbursement was $1500 per ear every three years, dropped down to $1250 per side every three years, and now the replacement period starting this year has been pushed out to every five years. At least on price, there are clearly regional differences.