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Hearing aid prices in Canada

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Canada</ST1:p has a good health care system, or at least what’s left of it. However when it comes to hearing aids we have some of the highest prices in the world. I was recently given a quote for a pair of Phonak smart 1X aids of $7000/pr. (CDN $). Yet I have seen these aids advertised in the UK</ST1:p for: $4600/pr. (CDN $), and on this site, Americans claiming to have paid: $4450/pr. (CDN $), these are with fitting. So what gives? Phonak is not the only one, the other major manufacturers are similarly overpriced. I have read some spirited defenses of pricing on this website, but when I see this kind of price disparity between regions it smacks of price collusion and gouging.<O:p</O:p
Another bug bear is how hush, hush price quotes are. They aren’t advertised, people have to go to the different vendors and ask for a price quote, and they can vary. People just want a fair price, I think most are willing to pay a fair price for the audis service but they don’t want to be placed in a position where they have to haggle over the price of a necessary piece of medical equipment, and at the end of the day wonder if they were taken. It seems to me that the audis and fitters are placed in a precarious conflict of interest. On the one hand they have an obligation to prescribe what’s best for their client and on the other they have pressure from the company they work for to flog their product, or if they are independents, flog the product that yields the highest markup. I’m not suggesting that all fitters do this, but certainly the dilemma is there. The industry in Canada</ST1:p needs shaking up, it doesn’t work well for the audis or consumers.<O:p</O:p

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I think often it takes one person to make that first step. A good half of UK hearing aid vendors now advertise their full price list, yet that was very unusual about 7 years ago before one big company came along and put prices in the window. Say what you will about the company concerned (and many will do, for various reasons!) but they did do everyone a favour by making the industry more transparent.

Some of the price difference between countries is the price of regulation and training. If audiologists in Canada have to train for longer, pay more for their training or pay larger professional fees then that will be reflected in the prices. Similarly many products cost more (per head of population income and buying power rather than in direct comparison) in the US than the UK because licensing costs a lot of money. When they enter any new market they need to rewrite all marketing with the local legislation in mind, which takes a lot of effort and legal checking.

Sometimes a discount can be offered for people paying full in cash but if an insurance company is involved the discounts are pulled because they have to deal with the time lag and paperwork of getting money back from insurers, spend money on getting products approved by different insurers, etc. I know a few people internationally who have found that their out of pocket per hearing aid is the same through insurance than by purchasing outright, even with 50% reimbursement! Sometimes an audiology office has to register with insurers or a health department in order to dispense via insurance and they have to pay extra money for extra training and licenses to do this.

I’m sure it doesn’t account for all of the difference, there is almost always an extent to which you charge what the market will stand.

There are a few halfway houses that people can sell you a hearing aid mail order to be sent to a dispensing office and you pay the dispensing and fitting fee locally, which gets around some of the manufacturers’ restrictions that they will not sell mail order hearing devices. It might enable you to get a good price, but watch out for the fitting fees adding up if you don’t purchase it locally.

In reply to @RoseRodent

Very thoughtful reply,thankyou RoseRodent. Unfortunately, as you state, I think there are companies who are just charging what the market will bear and engaging in real profiteering. If it was just a matter of having increased costs in Canada then at the very least you would expect that as the exchange rate for the Canadian dollar changed, the fixed cost ie. the cost of the hearing aids would fluctuate as the exchange rate changes (assuming the aids are not made in Canada). In the last year the Canadian dollar has soared in comparison to the USD and the British pound, but yet no change in the price of aids. One suspects some price collusion here. I’m not against companies making a profit, especially if it means more R & D, but again I reiterate something is going on here in <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:pCanada</ST1:p</st1:country-region> that doesn’t ring true.
As for transparancy of prices, I note the point you make about the British experience. I wonder if it would be a worthy topic for this site to just have a thread devoted to people posting what they paid for their hearing aids, when and where they bought it? It would certainly be a good reference point for those who are looking for an aid, and who knows, maybe even push companies to offer more transparent pricing.<O:p</O:p
I’d like to know if there is any interest among others out there for starting a thread giving simple details about hearing aid purchases?<O:p

In reply to @xbulder

@xbulder said:

canada has a law right, where it pays partially for the cost of the hearing aid right?
I was told this. Is this the case?

It depends on where you live in the country, because it is a provincial jurisdiction. Some provinces provide aids for children < 18 yrs. and for seniors, and some provinces provide a partial subsidy to everyone. Unfortunately for me, I live in the most regressive province when it comes to healthcare legislation; in British Columbia</ST1:p, unless you are on social assistance, this government doesn’t provide a nickle to anyone for HIs.<O:p</O:p<O:p</O:p

@vilchur said:

Canada</ST1:p has a good health care system, or at least what’s left of it. However when it comes to hearing aids we have some of the highest prices in the world. I was recently given a quote for a pair of Phonak smart 1X aids of $7000/pr. (CDN $). Yet I have seen these aids advertised in the UK</ST1:p for: $4600/pr. (CDN $), and on this site, Americans claiming to have paid: $4450/pr. (CDN $), these are with fitting. So what gives? Phonak is not the only one, the other major manufacturers are similarly overpriced. I have read some spirited defenses of pricing on this website, but when I see this kind of price disparity between regions it smacks of price collusion and gouging.<O:p</O:p
Another bug bear is how hush, hush price quotes are. They aren’t advertised, people have to go to the different vendors and ask for a price quote, and they can vary. People just want a fair price, I think most are willing to pay a fair price for the audis service but they don’t want to be placed in a position where they have to haggle over the price of a necessary piece of medical equipment, and at the end of the day wonder if they were taken. It seems to me that the audis and fitters are placed in a precarious conflict of interest. On the one hand they have an obligation to prescribe what’s best for their client and on the other they have pressure from the company they work for to flog their product, or if they are independents, flog the product that yields the highest markup. I’m not suggesting that all fitters do this, but certainly the dilemma is there. The industry in Canada</ST1:p needs shaking up, it doesn’t work well for the audis or consumers.<O:p</O:p

I do not agree . My Oticons were purchased at a price well below what others have stated here on this site. Obviously as stated i am from Canada.

In reply to @vilchur

@vilchur said:

Canada</ST1:p has a good health care system, or at least what’s left of it. However when it comes to hearing aids we have some of the highest prices in the world. I was recently given a quote for a pair of Phonak smart 1X aids of $7000/pr. (CDN $). Yet I have seen these aids advertised in the UK</ST1:p for: $4600/pr. (CDN $), and on this site, Americans claiming to have paid: $4450/pr. (CDN $), these are with fitting. So what gives? Phonak is not the only one, the other major manufacturers are similarly overpriced. I have read some spirited defenses of pricing on this website, but when I see this kind of price disparity between regions it smacks of price collusion and gouging.<O:p</O:p
Another bug bear is how hush, hush price quotes are. They aren’t advertised, people have to go to the different vendors and ask for a price quote, and they can vary. People just want a fair price, I think most are willing to pay a fair price for the audis service but they don’t want to be placed in a position where they have to haggle over the price of a necessary piece of medical equipment, and at the end of the day wonder if they were taken. It seems to me that the audis and fitters are placed in a precarious conflict of interest. On the one hand they have an obligation to prescribe what’s best for their client and on the other they have pressure from the company they work for to flog their product, or if they are independents, flog the product that yields the highest markup. I’m not suggesting that all fitters do this, but certainly the dilemma is there. The industry in Canada</ST1:p needs shaking up, it doesn’t work well for the audis or consumers.<O:p</O:p

@vilchur said:

It depends on where you live in the country, because it is a provincial jurisdiction. Some provinces provide aids for children < 18 yrs. and for seniors, and some provinces provide a partial subsidy to everyone. Unfortunately for me, I live in the most regressive province when it comes to healthcare legislation; in British Columbia</ST1:p, unless you are on social assistance, this government doesn’t provide a nickle to anyone for HIs.<O:p</O:p<O:p</O:p

I believe Xbulder was refering to a tax deduction. A medical tax deduction on what you paid for your aids.I believe you could also claim batteries and supplies for your aids as a medical cost.

There is also a form called a T2201 Disability Tax Credit Certificate

Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) - Canada.ca

The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) administers tax laws for the government, providing contacts, services, and information related to payments, taxes, and benefits for individuals and businesses.

http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/E/pub/tg/rc4064/README.html2

In reply to @vilchur

@vilchur said:

If it was just a matter of having increased costs in Canada then at the very least you would expect that as the exchange rate for the Canadian dollar changed, the fixed cost ie. the cost of the hearing aids would fluctuate as the exchange rate changes (assuming the aids are not made in Canada). In the last year the Canadian dollar has soared in comparison to the USD and the British pound, but yet no change in the price of aids. One suspects some price collusion here.

It’s not quite that simple. The price is usually worked out by someone with financial markets experience who projects how they think exchange rates are going to turn out across the coming financial period. Prices are set according to this model. Sometimes they win, sometimes they lose. If they didn’t do this then the price of all consumer goods from hearing aids to a pint of milk would constantly go up and down every time you go to the store. The other part of that is that onward contracts are often agreed for years at a time, if you sign up to dispense only Phonak then this is your wholesale price, if you manage to purchase over 1,000 Siemens aids then your per unit price goes down to this much, etc. It’s not always as simple as the dispenser wanting to order one unit of whatever and finding out how much it is then buying one.

@vilchur said:

I wonder if it would be a worthy topic for this site to just have a thread devoted to people posting what they paid for their hearing aids, when and where they bought it? <o></o>

We’ve got one. Not sure where it is located but it’s called “How much did you pay for your hearing aid?” You really need a brave national (or at least province-wide) retailer to stick their head above the parapet and make the first open statement, our prices are this much.

In reply to @vilchur

@vilchur said:

The obvious question then is: where did you buy them, and how much, so the rest of us can benefit from your information. Thankyou in advance!

I am from the Halifax area. As you know this is not the financial center of Canada. We are not known to have Low prices compared to the National Level. Prices are usually blamed on supply and demand. Our population is small in Nova Scotia so prices should be up attitude compared to Ontario and Quebec.

I did not price Phonak but comparitively speaking i made off like a bandit for prices given for Widex and Oticon on this site. Everything is cheaper in the States from Towels to Car Tires to electronics (consumables) but i am not so sure on the medical end of things . Could it be that we are willing to keep better care of ourselves here because of our MSI . Americans and Canadians do believe we have lower prescription prices ? Are we more willing to spend on a set of Hearing Aids instead of going without ?

Would 5600 CDN sound good to you one year ago when our dollar was set lower than it is now ? Anyway what i am saying is that it is not all cut and dry to just come out and say " In Canada hearing aids cost more " I disagree based on my experience .

By the way if you live in Vancouver and you truely believe prices are lower in Washington then why not make some phone calls to that area ? After all our dollar is pretty well at parr. Perhaps even an office in outside of Vancouver where overhead of maintaining an office may not be as high ?

I would recommend shopping from the Top Down Only . Price only the most pricey aid you have in mind. Then if you change your mind and trial another aid with your chosen Audi the price should never exceed your first quote. You will have a marker to judge all others.

In reply to @vilchur

@vilchur said:

The obvious question then is: where did you buy them, and how much, so the rest of us can benefit from your information. Thankyou in advance!

Vilchur,

I live in Vancouver as well and have found exactly the same thing as you. In fact, once I questioned an audi’s prices, they told me they price-match … it’s like shopping at Best Buy.

I talked to a few different audiologists and here are the prices, approximately, that I was quoted:
Audi 1) Oticon XWs - 7400/pair
Audi 2) Oticon XWs - 6400 / pair
Audi 3) Oticon XWs - 5900 / pair

I won’t mention the first 2 audis, but I will tell you the last one is the Vancouver Hearing Center on Broadway. So far my experience has been excellent with them as they don’t push the highest priced product at you right away and provide a very good tryout plan. I was given 60 days to try out my first set of and I’m just about to try another set out for 60 days with only a $150 down payment.

Good luck.

@idontlikemondays said:

Vilchur,

I live in Vancouver as well and have found exactly the same thing as you. In fact, once I questioned an audi’s prices, they told me they price-match … it’s like shopping at Best Buy.

I talked to a few different audiologists and here are the prices, approximately, that I was quoted:
Audi 1) Oticon XWs - 7400/pair
Audi 2) Oticon XWs - 6400 / pair
Audi 3) Oticon XWs - 5900 / pair

I won’t mention the first 2 audis, but I will tell you the last one is the Vancouver Hearing Center on Broadway. So far my experience has been excellent with them as they don’t push the highest priced product at you right away and provide a very good tryout plan. I was given 60 days to try out my first set of HAs and I’m just about to try another set out for 60 days with only a $150 down payment.

Good luck.

I guess that just helps to prove my point that prices are not higher here in Canada as stated in the title of this thread. However you need to do some research and shopping around or you may very well Overpay and get taken to the cleaners !

Wow. 8 years later. But to not lead any readers astray…SOME governments in Canada provide assistance for ’s. Not all. Check before expecting anything.

If you have work related hearing loss validated as WSIB in Ontario will pay full cost. If not the government will pay $500 towards cost. Looking at $5,000 to $7,000 aids here it’s not nearly enough.
You need secondary insurance by yourself and spouse to help. I think the even then the suppliers
bump it up to make profit after that.

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