House Ear Clinic - ridiculous pricing for hearing aids

The House Clinic has merged with PIH Health. Before this, their hearing aids still cost a fortune: $3595 per hearing aid (not pair, and only a minor difference in pricing if you choose a mid-tier version of the hearing aid) and it’s from the for-profit branch of their hearing department: House Hearing Centers (which is located within the main Downtown location in Los Angeles and also in different centers across California).

Cochlear implant programming can only be done at the downtown LA location if in Los Angeles - this includes if you are bimodal and want to set up both. I hate travelling downtown because it’s not convenient at all anymore. They changed their offices and so it keeps changing to be more confusing.

If you go to a closer House Hearing Center, say in Santa Monica, if you get an audiogram there, you pay $180. If you want insurance coverage, you have to go downtown. This seems incredibly fractured as a healthcare organization. I know the surgeons are supposed to be great, but there needs to be more options.

Thanks for listening to my vent. I think I may just try out USC or perhaps Cedars, or some other location. Appointments are a nightmare for cochlear implant programming, and it’s annoying. I feel there should be more emphasis on patient care and also coordination between locations so patients can get audiograms with insurance anywhere they go. Also, I feel at least one audiologist should be staffed who knows how to program cochlear implants at the House Hearing Centers.