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The Real Cost of Hearing Aids?

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In reply to @Zebras

To follow your reasoning, why do I have to pay the audiologist to come to her office for her opinion about which hearing aids I’m going to purchase from her. Why am I charged $75 to get information and advice if she’s charging me for the hearing aids and the advice both. The cost should be in the hearing aid purchase.

@kcsummerkc said:

Why am I charged $75 to get information and advice if she’s charging me for the hearing aids and the advice both

75 dollars applied to the purchase price if you buy…if not…75 dollars for advice that you ignored…

There are bundled and unbundled models for hearing aid and services pricing. Want lots of free stuff? The initial price will be very high. Want low prices when you don’t use services much? Decoupling service charges from purchase will help. That might be a good thing to figure out first, is a practice decoupled or not?

WH

The aids themselves don’t cost much if you buy in volume.

I put links to the costs of the and the State of Maine in another post.

Small shops will pay a lot more per aid. I don’t know how much though. Maybe someone else can point to numbers for the shop that deals in dozens per month instead of thousands.

WH

@WhiteHat said:

Maybe someone else can point to numbers for the shop that deals in dozens per month instead of thousands

It will vary place to place, but on premium devices from certain manufacturers with zero discounts, I’ve seen it at ~3k CND for one, which is a dramatic shock next to the pricing that the or Costco get.

There appears to be a very large discrepancy between, who pays what for wholesale aids WH… It would seem the gets around a 70% discount, from certain manufacturers, Costco will be somewhere north of 80%, and the NHS, close to 90% discount… I cannot nowadays vouch for the NHS prices, but a few years back, I managed to get a copy of their catalog price, and on average they where paying around a tenth of the retail UK High Street price… Which begs the question; Presumably, the hearing aid manufacturers are still making a reasonable profit with the discounts they offer to the likes of Costco, VA & The NHS, they surely would not be selling to their main bulk buyers at a loss, that wouldn’t be sustainable… So they have to be, IMO, artificially inflating the wholesale price to the “Independent A.uD’s & Dispensaries”, and ripping off Joe Public in the process… Or to be more precise, Ripping off folks, whom have a recognized disability… Their lack of morality is cynically clear…

Yeah Agreed @janofh… My point is, is it morally except-able behavior to “ Target” folks with a disability to make obscene profiteering… As William Shakespeare said, “There’s the rub”…

In reply to @kevels55

Or there are business aspects of managing smaller accounts which have higher costs we don’t know about?

Do the big accounts have to eat expense of rejected trials? Or warranty expenses etc? I have to wonder. Are there commissions when selling to smaller accounts? Or expenses related to getting practices to sell your aids? (Wine/dine etc).

If the wholesale price in Canada is $3k, what is the retail? Doesn’t seem like there can be much margin to sustain a business unless you’re selling for like $10k a pair. Rent, equipment, payroll, insurance, taxes, etc. How can you afford to provide ongoing service for 3 years or whatever unless you jack prices way higher?

WH

There is no doubt in my mind WH… The Vast Majority of the Independent, A.uD’s & Dispensers will struggle to eek out a profit, especially with the overheads & returns you mention, it’s not a level playing field, the Independents have to cow-tow to the manufacturers, like the pied piper, they dance to their tune… Only the manufacturers IMO, are guaranteed a profit, and a fairly significant profit at that…

In reply to @WhiteHat

I’ve seen pricing up at 10k, but that’s the top end. Practically, there are buying groups and other ways independents try to get their prices down, but likely not down to even come close to those other bodies that get big bulk pricing.

Thank you @danka… I guess, that report will paint an alternative picture… It would take a little studying… Although 75% isn’t IMO, overly excessive, Much obliged…

From what I’ve heard, Costco sales targets are about 4x higher than you might expect in a smaller shop, so there’s certainly a volume component. And yet, it is not my experience that patients particularly feel like they are being churned through. The services they offer are certainly a bit more streamlined or limited. They are very different in our two countries, but where I am they are struggling to keep their clinicians despite very healthy reimbursement and unmatchable benefits.

Personally I found Costco to be near the top end of my (poor) local choices. That meant the cost savings and flexibility of locations played a role in my choice. I hope I now have a better choice but further away.

Failing that I may return to Costco for my next aids.

In reply to @kevels55

@kevels55 said:

and the NHS, close to 90% discount… I cannot nowadays vouch for the NHS prices, but a few years back, I managed to get a copy of their catalog price, and on average they where paying around a tenth of the retail UK High Street price… Which begs the question; Presumably, the hearing aid manufacturers are still making a reasonable profit with the discounts they offer to the likes of Costco, VA & The NHS

Actually no: it was pretty much agreed that the NHS pricing/volume model wasn’t designed to generate profit, but allowed the manufacturer to develop to build larger supply lines and derive internal economies of scale or make a bigger plants in China. There’s also the issue of critical mass for production. If you’re fabricating silicon wafers, having a volume market on tap makes a huge difference to the production run economics.

The Costco pricing is basically the best ‘normal’ wholesale price you’re going to get due their huge purchasing power, there’ll be a wedge in there for the shareholders.

If I buy them in pairs, they’re going to cost me the best part of £2k, even with some discount. How much discount depends on the deal we have with each supplier.

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