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Getting these pesky settings just right!

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@Neville: I’m genuinely curious: what sort of hourly rate does a good audiologist expect to be paid? Not undiluted clinic fees - just the personal stipend component.

In reply to @Neville

@Neville said:

manufacturers are increasing our costs, not lowering them. So to decrease prices we’d need to strip services, strip patient care time.

Something I’ve always wondered that you might be willing to elaborate on - when clients trial multiple aids, what happens to the rejected aids and who foots the bill? And if Costco is buying at so much less than regular clinics, then perhaps Costco eats the cost of returned aids.

In reply to @rogerinshoreham

Your questions helped me a lot.

The answers here have really helped.

My greatest hearing improvements due to adjustments in my hearing aids have occurred because of the questions I asked my audiologist, and the focus I obtained by reading the answers here.

Thanks Rog.

DaveL
Toronto

In reply to @rogerinshoreham

@rogerinshoreham: I quite understand your possessiveness about “your” thread, but it’s hard to see the value in shutting down informative posts like @Neville 's (or @Volusiano 's for that matter) when - although it is off your topic - informs all members who read it in a positive, constructive way.

To me, irritating as you might find it, that trumps any proprietary claim you may lay on this thread. Sorry…

@SpudGunner Sometimes when I see an interesting headline on an article on the web, I try to read the 1st paragraph, and if it is boring and takes time to get to the meat of the subject, I’ll go straight to the comments section, where most of the time you will get priceless information, much better than the article can ever provide.
Meaning, some tangents in a thread, can provide a priceless information, not necessarily to everyone or to the OP.

In reply to @SpudGunner

@SpudGunner said:

I’m genuinely curious: what sort of hourly rate does a good audiologist expect to be paid? Not undiluted clinic fees - just the personal stipend component.

Salary? It varies quite dramatically based on setting, seniority, role, and location. In Canada, off the top of my head, anywhere from $36-$58? Costco audiologists around Ottawa can make quite a lot of money, but new Audiologists in a rural private clinic will make less. Those who make commissions I expect are making a bit more than those of us who don’t. Those in public situations probably have better benefits than those in private. I have no idea at all what non-clinical audiologists are making. America is going to be really different, where Costco clinicians frequently make a lot less than their private counterparts, in my understanding. Plus, American AuDs graduate with many thousand of dollars more debt. From what I know, they are still paid less than their Optometrist or Dentist counterparts. Audiology has historically been a female-dominated field, so take from that what you will in regards to how audiologists are compensated relative to other similar professionals.

@Dusty said:

when clients trial multiple aids, what happens to the rejected aids and who foots the bill? And if Costco is buying at so much less than regular clinics, then perhaps Costco eats the cost of returned aids.

They are not refurbished and sold to new patients. They are either used for R&D or junked. So, consider the cost of those 12 trials done by one of you forum nerds rolled into the cost of the hearing aids for everyone else who doesn’t go through that. :wink: Costco does NOT eat the cost of returned hearing aids, I know that. Though. . . that’s if they are returned in the manufacturer’s trial period, which I do not think is 6 months. So maybe Costco does sometimes. :thinking:

In reply to @Neville

@Neville said:

They are not refurbished and sold to new patients. They are either used for R&D or junked. So, consider the cost of those 12 trials done by one of you forum nerds rolled into the cost of the hearing aids for everyone else who doesn’t go through that

I don’t remember reading any mention of clinics offering a discount on demo aids. Is there a restriction against it? If the companies would offer a lower wholesale price in exchange for the clinic agreeing to restricted return rights, then I could see that resulting in reduced retail prices for some clients. At the very least, it ought to enable the selling of a top-tier demo pair for about the price of a first-use lower tier model. An available discount option for any client willing to risk a few cooties could take some of the pricing heat off the HA companies and clinics. This is already a proven business model with many products. Demo vehicles, refurbed power tools and electronics, etc. I might be missing a chance to make a joke about second marriages here but I’ll pass on it. :slight_smile:

In reply to @SpudGunner

@SpudGunner . . . what did you think audiologists made? Or, maybe you shouldn’t tell me. I try not to think about it too hard because chiropractors make quite a bit more even though much of their work is based on subluxations, which are imaginary.

@Baltazard said:

Those are an hour basis or 1/2 hour?

I can’t tell if you are joking?

@Dusty said:

I don’t remember reading any mention of clinics offering a discount on demo aids.

No, it’s verbotten. Or, if the clinic is demoing with a demo hearing aid marked as such by the manufacturer it is not allowed, and a number of modern demos are actually programmed to quit after 6 weeks of use. If the clinic purchased hearing aids to use as demos then they can sell them to whomever they want afterwards at whatever price (note: with full transparency about their used status). Warranties may not be available at that point (and I don’t think ADP can be applied for we Ontarians). Demos often become loaners if they are still functioning but generationally obscolete. Some clinics do re-sell things, so it wouldn’t hurt to ASK whether the clinic has an odd set laying around that they are interested in selling at a cut cost.

I’ve heard of clinics running hearing aid lease systems, but don’t know anyone who does it personally. Presumably that would allow someone who wants that sort of thing to always be wearing the newest thing and then would leave the clinic with a bunch of “off-lease” hearing aids for resale. But there seem to be some obvious logistical problems.

Minimum, but sounds like it’s the owner making the real estate, not the audiologists that work there.

In reply to @Dusty

@Dusty said:

At the very least, it ought to enable the selling of a top-tier demo pair for about the price of a first-use lower tier model.

You see these come up on eBay a bit, Ex demo, refurbished for very cheap, last year’s models is common.

@Neville said:

, if the clinic is demoing with a demo hearing aid marked as such by the manufacturer it is not allowed

So many are sold on eBay at any given time, I brought a few myself, the 6 week trial is easy enough to reset.

@Neville said:

But there seem to be some obvious logistical problems.

Not on eBay, for whatever reason they will allow just about anything to be sold!

@Baltazard said: (unavailable)

A lawyer charges at least £50 per 1/2 hour
-A fitness instructor at least £30 per hour
-An eye test at Specsavers £25 per test

I assume that the price bracket you’ve given are for a session then?

@Baltazard: FWIW - I agree that the unit of measurement being one hour is not a self-evident truth. Your point is valid.

In reply to #200

No, Spud asked per hour and I gave per hour. I’ve never heard someone reporting salary half-hourly, but fair enough. I guess I’m just a bit surprised that you quite sincerely thought 150k annual was a possible audiology starting salary, which is why I wondered if you were joking.

@tenkan said:

Not on eBay, for whatever reason they will allow just about anything to be sold!

Yeah. . . so, of course things can be sold on ebay and good that you get deals there when you purchase stolen devices. But if an audiologist is selling these devices on ebay then they are doing it against the rules they signed up for and I don’t think I would be comfortable seeing those audiologists clinically because what other rules are they ignoring for the sake of profit? Infection control? Evidence-based practice? Catch-22. (Alternatively, the device is being sold by the patient who stole it. Or maybe, more compassionately, the relative of the deceased patient who doesn’t realize that it wasn’t theirs even though it was stamped with the word “demo”.) But yeah, there are some logistical issues that can definitely be side-stepped with ebay.

@Baltazard said: (unavailable)

I don’t think I’ve commented on that, if you look at my comment, it was about the price bracket, not the salary.

Oh, then there HAS been some confusion. Spud and I were talking about salary, not hourly operating cost if that’s what you mean by “price bracket” which is a term I’m not familiar with. My understanding is that $200 USD was average a few years ago.

Neville you add great value here for me.

Your comments always teach me something. I’m in Mississauga.

DaveL
Toronto

and, the answers to the OP’s post have all helped me.

Edited

In reply to @Neville

@Neville said:

No,Spud asked per hour and I gave per hour. I’ve never heard someone reporting salary half-hourly, but fair enough. I guess I’m just a bit surprised that you quite sincerely thought 150k annual was a possible audiology starting salary

@Neville: Fair enough, Neville - I had forgotten that I specified “hourly”, but I don’t think I ever intimated that I was strictly interested in “starting salary”.

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