Dr Cliff. It takes how long to program hearing aids?

My audiologist is an instructor of audiology at a first tier teaching hospital in NYC. She charges $200 (no insurance) for a one hour consultation based on your audiogram conducted in a medical setting. Their basic business model is interesting and designed to eliminate bias toward one manufacturer or another. All devices are priced based on their tech level. All models with the same tech level are the same price. The audiologist is essentially brand agnostic.

If you buy the aids from her the price is market rate with two years of after care. Fittings are scheduled to take one hour. REM is included.

However when I showed her the price I could get privately for the Phonak Infinio she didn’t try to dissuade me. She suggested that I buy them and let the vendor program them initially based on her audiogram and perhaps some remote tweaking. If that programming worked for me , great.

If not, I could come back to her with the “outside” devices and pay $1000 for a year of in person programming.

I’m waiting for the vendor programmed aids to arrive but if I decide to go back to her I’ve still saved over $1000 with no pressure from her.

I think a key distinction to make here is time spent programming versus time allotted for a fitting appointment. It seems like he accounts for time, as he should, for patient education. As far as objective measurements, thirty minutes is fairly common, but add to that counseling, reviewing cleaning, Bluetooth (including downloading apps, pairing…), and manufacturer warranties just to start, and an hour-long appointment becomes quite necessary.

May I ask which hospital? I’m also in NYC. I may be looking for someone to adjust my hearing aids.

Backstory: I’m lucky that I could get hearing aids through my union at a steep discount. They were fitted by a proper audiologist, including real ear measurements. The upside is saving a whole lot of money; the downside however is not getting a lot of attention or follow up with the audiologist (there’s one serving the hearing needs of 150,000 members). She did the fitting and sent me on my way. Do I get any follow up? Call me if you have a problem. The hearing aids seem to work well enough, but these are my first, so I wonder, is it as good as it could be? I’m thinking I might want a “second opinion” to see if a more thorough fitting would make them any better. I’d be willing to pay out of pocket (but $1000 is pretty steep, though).

I’m just a day in to wearing Phonak non-Sphere Infinios that were programmed by the vendor to my audiogram, probably to some Phonak “first fit” profile. It’s pretty good and I’m debating whether or not I should pay $1000 for what will basically be REM verification. There are a couple of places in NYC that promote REM and I think they might test my programming “a la carte” but it really has to be more like a couple of hundred dollars than $800 to tempt me.

The audiologist I went to for consultation ($200) was at one of Weill Cornell Medicine’s three Manhattan locations. I’ve had three different audiologists for insurance covered hearing tests or consultation and they were all very good. I recommend them highly if you are willing to pay market rates. In your case (and mine) it might be a matter of making perfection the enemy of the good.

@ronross said:

I’m debating whether or not I should pay $1000 for what will basically be REM verification

Seriously your actually “debating” it! Uh man save your dollars and buy the wife some nice earrings!

According to me the best way is: buying hearing aids online cheaply, first remote tuning, then REM and some further programming during the REM session, and finally minor DIY adjustments starting from a good base.

@AudioSonicAU said:

DIY hearing programming seldom turns out well.

Said who? Na it works for most of us because only the person who programs ones HAs could possibly know how one likes to hear, no one else could possibly know this! Plus it’s super easy to do, but of course it’s not for everyone, a little bit of research and reading the user guides can get the results that the clinic’s couldn’t offer.

Tenkan, your posts give me hope, but I have no programming background. Would you think that I (retired math teacher) would be able to program my own hearing aids? My husband and I have been talking about it!
Thanks for your help.

Thanks for the recommendation, Damon!

Thank you, Raudrive! It sounds good!
In May, I will be looking into new hearing aids, most likely from Costco. Self programming seems like it would be very helpful.

Yeah @birdcountry99 you’ll easily conquer Target software, if you are using Phonak aids, it isn’t difficult, and you are the best person to adjust your own hearing, you know instantly what you like, and dislike… Personally, I haven’t touched reprogramming my aids for a couple of years now, I believe if something is set up well, then leave well alone… My Naida Lumity BTE UP’s were set up exceptionally well at first fit, they haven’t been adjusted since day 1, November 2023, so I don’t feel the need to tweak them, no REM was done at that time, so an excellent fit can be obtained, so REM isn’t imperative! Good Luck in your endeavours for a better overall hearing experience Cheers Kev

I second the ‘start from a good base’ approach. Also, make sure the original programming is always available to return to if you need it. You connect the aids, the software reads the fitting information from the aids and you save that session before doing anything else.