What's with the crazy hearing aid pricing differences in Costco versus chain hearing clinics?

Don’t expect hearing aids to be an easy fix for solving the issue of conversations during TV shows. For optimum TV listening, most of us find that using a TV streamer that streams the TV sound directly to your hearing aids. However, that also makes it challenging to understand somebody else speaking to you. Some of had success with having the balance between streaming sound and sound from hearing aid microphone carefully adjusted. I don’t multitask well so what works best for me is for my wife to pause the TV show, ask her question and let me answer it, then restart TV show. I think the Jabras are a good choice for you.

Chirp: Here in The Province of Alberta, The Province has created a system where anyone 65 years of age or older can get up to a $900 contribution from The Province, along with some protections, by following the following process:

• Get a hearing test from a provincially accredited HA seller (All Costcos and as far as I can tell all chain hearing clinics have been suitably accredited by The Province)

• The seller recommends an HA solution, is automatically authorized by The Province to “prescribe it” by virtue of being already accredited, and must by the rules provide a MINIMUM of a 28 day trial period

• At the end of the trial period provided (whch can be as long as the seller chooses it to be), or sooner, you can simply either return the HA, or return it and try a different HA, or accept it as an acceptable solution by signing an official form saying so. The Province warns you not to sign the acceptance unless you are fully satisfied.

• Once ypu sign the acceptance, the seller is authorized to submit a request to the province for a reimbursement of up to $900. (i.e. the buyer has to pay any of the cost for the HA pair plus options and accessories, that carries the total beyond $900).

• The Province will authorize a new HA after 5 years (sooner for individuals with documented more serious hearing losses than I have).

It is unclear to me yet whether with Costco’s normal “pay up front” process, that means that I will have to pay, at the START of the trial period, the full cost OR the full cost minus the $900, or nothing until the end of the trial period. I haven’t pursued getting this question of what payment when addressed, since I found out about this provincial process only this morning, and I will have my appointment in 2 days, and it is not going to change my decision as to where I buy.

Jim G

glucas: You said “I assume by this you believe that the Jabra is equal to the Philips in every other respect, or better?”

After reading many, many user testimonials for both, it APPEARS to me that while the hadrware/software packages as provided are different in some ways, users of both seem happy with them, but the concensus seems to be that the Jabra USER software (i.e. the user app) is substantially better, for someone willing to use it to alter his or her HAs to specific situations. So, the user app was the deciding factor since I like to optimize everyhting I own when it is possible to do so.

Jim G

Yes Torbil, I agree that riding the technology curve is for sure the best thing to do. I’m going to feel a lot better about replacing a $2100 minus $900 Provincial Government contribution = $1200 solution with a brand new better solution 2 or 3 years down the road, than I would feel about obsoleting a $10,250 minus $2000 “sale” discount minus $900 Govt contribution = $7350 solution after just 2 or 3 years.

Having, or wanting, to do such a scrapping prematurely on that $7350 solution, would drive the REAL cost of that scrapped solution from $7350/60 months = $122 per month to $204 or $306 per month of actual use!

So, it would discourage me from going to a newer technology solution, even though that newer tehcnology solution could be a BIG improvement.

Jim G

MDB: Thanks for mentioning the TV streamer. I forgot to mention that I am pretty sure I am going to want the TV streamer as well with the Jabra (or any other HA). A fully electronic conversion and transmission from the TV to your HA is always going to provide a higher quality end sound product than the TV converting from electronic to sound waves, those sound waves being attenuated rapidly even at close distance to the TV, and those sound waves being recieved by your HAs, converted into electronic signals, transmitted form behind the ears to the ear canal, and then broadcast again as sound waves to your ear mechanisms.

I agree the TV streamer use creates the new problem of your HAs needing to balance the output from the TV streamer with the sound waves from your wife, but I assume that is doable with some trial and error.

Jim G

I agree that it’s theoretically possible, but remember besides your wife’s voice, the hearing aid microphones are also going to pick up any ambient sound (refrigerator, traffic noise, etc.) Another plus of using the streamer is that allows for watching (and listening) to the TV without disturbing anybody else by having TV on mute.
If you really want max control over the hearing aids, check out the DIY section of the forum.

Now that I know the difference I realize thats what I should have done. In fact I have 3 costco’s within a half hour of my house so I definitely could have seen a different audi, but without knowing the difference I just assumed what I got was the service that Costco offered. And unfortunately I didn’t find this site until months later. To be honest I am happy with the way it worked out though, because I really don’t think I would have made the switch to RIC without the opportunity to have a trial, and I am so happy I made the switch. Luckily for me I have pretty good insurance, and I don’t regret the money I spent. Next time I will likely try costco again but I will be much better informed.

I asked your same opening question of one of my own medical equipment suppliers and was told the following:

I HAVE BLANKED THE CLINICIAN AND EQUIPMENT since this is just to explain the EXCUSES that are used to try and justify the differences in prices. In my case the difference in price was over $200 for a single basic item. All other support items were significantly higher priced as well.

What you may not know, is that (BLANK) Services and Supplies is a ‘clinic’ for (BLANK) care. Unlike optometry, dental, chiropractic, and massage therapy, our clinical services are also not billable to the (BLANK) Medical Services Plan. The purchases of (BLANK) supplies at (BLANK) Services and Supplies, support the clinical services that (BLANK) provides to our patients from troubleshooting, guaranteed (BLANK) fitting, and adjustments, to annual therapy appointment checks. Purchases at (BLANK) also include the administrative team support for submission of claims to extended Health providers, facilitating tax receipts, and coordination loaner of devices for repairs.

She then proceeded to include the list of Fees that they charge for those so called Services that will be charged anyone who isn’t covered by a Medical Plan. I have never used any of those services but still pay exorbitant pricing for all equipment bought there. I switched to buying online from a registered supplier of my equipment quite awhile ago.

CLINICAL CONSULTATION:
$ 87.50 per 30 mins
$175.00 per 60 mins
$262.00 per 90 mins
CONSULTATION: with post-testing diagnostics
with own device brought
$275.00 for the visit
TRIAL:(Prescription, diagnostics, therapy review, and consultation over 30 days
trial period)
$450.00
CONSULTATION and Set-up with education,
fitting and therapy review.
*This includes follow up for the remaining warranty life of
the machine.
$375.00
COMPLIANCE REPORT - For driver’s license, aviation
license, safety critical employment.
$55.00
ANNUAL CLEANING:
$65.00
MISSED APPOINTMENT/CANCELATION:
under 24hrs in advance
$100.00 per 60 mins

“I have attached the clinical fees as stand-alone and those included with your purchases for reference and to assist with supporting explanations.”

Point is, They charge those ridiculous markups on equipment and supplies, whether you use all those extra services or not.

$7350 for the Oticon’s is simply outrageous and frankly cannot be justified. Have you checked into what other clinics in your area will offer ? An independent clinic with a decent amount of volume should be able to compete or at least be within 20% of Costco’s pricing and offer overall better service (I’ve heard of people waiting weeks to get into Costco for service and follow up adjustments). You will not hear six times better that’s for sure.

Shop around, tell the clinicians what you have seen so far including Costco. If they can’t get competitive with similar devices and technology level then purchase them at Costco.

Follow-up visits, cleaning, minor at-home repair items, returns to mfg. for repair are free at Costco. I’ve used all at no additional cost. I’ll get another hearing test free two years after my first one. There may be other free service’s I’m not aware of.

@JimGnitecki said:

So, the user app was the deciding factor since I like to optimize everyhting I own when it is possible to do so.

@tenkan said:

You shouldn’t be basing your HAs on an App, no matter how good you think it may be, believe me after a few months you’ll hardly bother with it, it’s actually a lot quicker to adjust volume and change programs (plus streaming options) with the buttons, it’s the same with bluetooth,always makes me feel a little uneasy when others are basing their decision on how good this is or not, I’d recommend to just focus on how well they improve your speech understanding, including letting your wife decide! So trial them before making this decision.

@JimGnitecki → I’m with @tenkan 100% on his suggestion above. If you’re technical and like to optimize everything yourself, a better way is to go with the DIY approach for true optimization, instead of rely on the user app.

I truly believe that for hearing aids’ smartphone app, less is more. The importance should be put on how well the aids perform for you, not how better the user app is. You can read and research all you want about the Philips vs the Jabra, but you just can’t know which one works better specifically for you for real until you actually try both on so you can decide for yourself, not so what others say can decide for you. Even if 100 people say they like Jabra better, and only 10 people say they like Philips better, you can’t base on what you read to conclude that Jabra is better for you. You may be with the 10 people for Philips after you actually try both out and then get surprised that you actually favor the Philips. Hearing aids acceptance is very, very subjective, depending on the person and their hearing loss and their preferences and their brain hearing acuity. It doesn’t depend on what other people say or think or like for themselves.

After you have actually tried both and can’t decide which one is better, then perhaps the preference on the app may become the tie breaker. Even then, the app with more control doesn’t necessarily mean that that particular aid/app combination is better than the aid/app combination with less control on the app. Sometimes less is more. Maybe more control is unnecessary to have on the app because the aid is already better at automation, allowing the user to not have to tinker with the app controls all the times to get to the right combination of settings. Maybe having more control on the app is inferior because the burden is put on YOU to always have to tinker around to get things right every time you walk into a different listening environment. How would you like it if the aids do it for you automatically without you having to tinker and change things to get it right yourself every time?

A reasonably good ENT doctor will tell yo that the Philips, Jabar, and the Rexton will handle up to 80 db hearing loss. They have 20 or more channels. It would be wise to trial one of the three for 3 to 5 months to get smarter then have Costco let you trial one of the other two then buy one or the other. The Philips is made by the manufacturer that makes the Oticon. After three years go trial a non Costco and if better spend the money. To get the best go to an audiologist that is highly rated. The quality of the test and the programming plus the tweaks to get the best fit to your loss is the key

@cbhearing said:

$7350 for the Oticon’s is simply outrageous and frankly cannot be justified.

That’s about $5000 USD.

I was quoted a hair under $6,000 USD for a pair of Oticon top-of-line Reals. That’s about 4 times the cost of my Philips.

My Medicare advantage plan would have pickup $3,000 USD of the cost.