Saving Money Buying Hearing Aids

jim83

This site has plenty of advice regarding optics and dentistry and whatnot, but not hearing.

I work in private audiology (generally the dispensing of custom made hearing aids) and to be perfectly honest, people are getting utterly ripped off to the tune of thousands of pounds.

Professionals in my industry can essentially charge what they like as people are not inclined to shop around. Sadly, it is not uncommon to hear of people charged 2-3 times what they should have been. Just yesterday I saw someone who was being quoted close to £4000 for something we provide at less than £2000. We saved that person a lot of money today, but for every person that shops around and gets a better deal there are a handfull that lose thousands of pounds by not doing so.

I don't want to reveal who I work for for fear of jeopardising my job (they don't know I'm posting this!) But if anyone has any questions regarding purchases of specific products they or relatives/friends have made, quotes that have been given, or general questions about hearing and hearing aids themselves, I will happily answer them in a fair, objective and moneysaving-orientated manner.

(obviously, I can't/wont answer any specific medical related questions online - consult a qualified professional in person if you are concerned)

Savvy_Sue

My advice to those who think they need hearing aids is to try the NHS first! And do NOT shell out on expensive private aids before you have got used to using an NHS aid. Because you will have some of the same 'issues' whichever you go for:

1) you will have to get used to something in your ear
2) everything will sound very loud
3) it won't bring your 'lost' hearing back, it can only enhance what's still there

This is not to say that for some people the benefits of a private aid are not worth it - I have two siblings who've gone down that route - BUT it is worth seeing what the NHS can do for free first.

Paparika

I got mine free on the NHS, I can see why it's free.

It screeches every time a phone rings (working in a busy office wouldn't work)
I had to wait 6 weeks of sores on my ear before they changed it's length

but seeing as it is completely useless in the office i do work in it's collecting dust on my bedside cabinet.

Savvy_Sue

Paparika wrote: »

I got mine free on the NHS, I can see why it's free.

It screeches every time a phone rings (working in a busy office wouldn't work)
I had to wait 6 weeks of sores on my ear before they changed it's length

but seeing as it is completely useless in the office i do work in it's collecting dust on my bedside cabinet.

:rotfl: It really SHOULDN'T be like that: you can go back and ask for adjustment, and keep asking until they get it (roughly) right.

Mind spends most of its time in my pocket, but I do get it out for meetings and whenever there's a loop. Plus I've just declared my hearing loss to the airline we're flying with, I think that gets us boarded first! I didn't when we first booked because as I clicked through it assumed that declaring a hearing loss meant you were blind.

Savvy_Sue

Thanks jim, now I know you encourage people to get on the NHS list I feel a lot happier about your posts!

I was astonished to discover that I went onto the 'Young People's Waiting List', simply by virtue of still being in paid employment. It doesn't seem fair however that people who might be very isolated but not working would have to remain isolated. Especially as some of them might be able to work if they could hear again! Anyway, that's another rant!

And we do in this area have an excellent system for aftercare: turn up any day and pick a number. Yes, sometimes there's a long wait, but I've never had a problem and I've usually been able to combine my visits with other trips to the hospital. If they can't sort it there and then they make an appointment, which has never been unacceptably delayed for me.

I wonder if the thinking behind dispensing one hearing aid is to see if people will use it: if they won't use one, why would they use two? I haven't been down that route because I've only got one deaf ear. Now I've got an open fit mould I could wear it all day, but my ear's between sizes (for the length of wire) so it's still not 100%.

I'm also awkward because it's a low frequency not a high frequency loss! I used to be able to hear my hearing aid 'whistle' when I'd accidentally left it switched on - the new mould means I don't any more - but DH can't hear it at all! :rotfl:

Oh, and I have friends and family who've got private aids as well - those who've gone straight to private are, on the whole, less satisfied than those who've tried the NHS and found it wanting. I guess they at least have some idea what they NEED and WANT that they're not getting.

My second bit of advice for anyone in need of a hearing aid, btw, is to find a local lipreading class! Invaluable source of information and support - that's how I found out about open fit moulds, a class member passing his new aid around! :rotfl:

Paparika

I think i was fortunate then because i waited about 9 months start to finish.

But..... i had nose reconstruction and they used cartilage from my ear, and once i recovered from that op i noticed a considerable sound loss.

They said it had nothing to do with the op, but i had gradually lost my hearing and the op had bought it to my attention.

jim83

Savvy_Sue, You are very lucky to be in a PCT that dispenses open fitting instruments! There's certainly talk of it, but I've never worked in an area that does. In my opinion fitting a low frequency loss with one is in the "don't touch with a bargepole" territory, but something you learn very quickly in this business is that everyone hears differently and what may not work for one person may be perfect for another.

One third of all NHS provided hearing aids end up being stuck in a drawer and never used (this thread has already shown that). I firmly believe that this is due in a large part to being issued a single instrument for a binaural hearing loss. If the NHS only provide one in such a case, it is a cost driven decision to do so.

Many of my clients are shocked when I recommend two - I'm sure many think I'm just upselling - but really I would rather have someone buy two lower spec instruments than one fancier instrument for a single ear. I make less money, but they hear better... Invariably some will insist on only one and these are those that struggle most.

There is a stigma with wearing two hearing aids. Many people think it means you are "REALLY deaf", whereas one means "only a bit deaf". Many also think "deaf=stupid" so two aids means they are doubly stupid. I battle against such misconceptions every day.

Another big issue I enounter that you have touched on is that of managing people's expectations. No hearing aid can restore people's hearing to normal - some think they should do better than that! It is absolutely not like putting on a pair of glasses and everything is suddenly clear, it can easily take months to reacclimatise to hearing certain sounds in speech again.

I equate hearing loss and first using hearing aids to living in a darkened room. When you're in there, you know it's dark but you've adjusted and can just about make things out. Then one day you step outside into brilliant sunshine and the light is so brilliant that you cannot bear it - you can't make anything out because it is so bright. But over time you adjust and once you have completely it's appreciably better. If you then go back into the dark room you started in, you will realise what you were missing out on.

A Hearing Aid Audiologist's job is 50% audiology, 50% psychology.


Every privately dispensed hearing aid will come with a 30 day money back guarantee after fitting. This is not a special offer, this is enforcable by law. I encorage my clients to take advantage of this and insist I see them again at least twice in that period to assess how they are getting on and make any changes needed, which generally entails turning the aids up gradually to ease them into it. It's rare that it's perfect first time, but it's rarer that someone doesn't want to keep them after the 30 days is up.

jim83

Incidentally, to get a bit back onto the subject of saving money... I have lots of information that can help. BUT it starts dealing with mentioning specific companies, prices and possibly even leaked product information from a major supplier. What should/shouldn't I post?

Savvy_Sue

I suggest you email [Removed by Forum Team] and ask them what you should and shouldn't post. You shouldn't tout for business - and you haven't - and I'm not sure about the leaked product information!

As for the open fit moulds, it's relatively new. And I was told that it's the severity of the loss rather than the frequency - not saying you're wrong, just what I was told. As I have a mild loss, they thought I'd be fine, and I am much happier with it, can wear it all day even if I don't. I also thought that they worked out cheaper, because they're not personally fitted? Which, you would think, would make them the first choice where they are suitable. And since I was on my third ear mould in a year, and about to go back and say "It's still not comfortable", I reckon I'm definitely saving them some money! :rotfl:

One of my friends from lipreading will only wear one aid because he doesn't like the look of two (and he's got no hair to hide them with!) Others have only been given one because there's no useful hearing left in one ear - and one of them had that confirmed by a private chap! My mum only wears one for the same reason, and says some people seem to think it's a competition: "Oh I've got TWO hearing aids" (therefore I must be deafer than you). No, without either of their aids they can probably hear something. Mum takes her aid out and can't hear a dickybird. Or speech, or the phone, or the TV, or the doorbell. Actually even with her hearing aid in she only hears any of them if she's in the same room!

I am dreading the day when I get to the same stage, but at the same time I know life goes on! I've lived with deafness around me for so long that it seems normal to me ...

jem16

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

As for the open fit moulds, it's relatively new. And I was told that it's the severity of the loss rather than the frequency - not saying you're wrong, just what I was told. As I have a mild loss, they thought I'd be fine, and I am much happier with it, can wear it all day even if I don't.

I also have a problem mainly with the low frequency sounds - down to around 45db. I have made an appointment to go back and see the NHS clinic after last being there 3 and a half years ago. I'm a teacher and the aid I was given just does not handle the classroom situation at all - background noise drowns out the speech that I'm trying to make out.

I'd like to see if the NHS have something better to offer now and am interested in the open fit aids. What severity of loss do you have?

Savvy_Sue

jem, my loss is mild, and only in one ear. Whether there is anything now available on the NHS now that wasn't then, I'm not sure, BUT I think the secret is to keep going back until you are happy. In theory there is a setting which amplifies only what's in front of you. However I don't find it cuts out background, just increases what's immediately in front. Slightly. I haven't got the patience to keep going back, especially since as far as I can see they have no functional way of testing there and then how the aids operate when there is background noise!

I saw my brother yesterday: he has a couple of private aids which are on their last legs. The case is breaking, and he glued it back together, but thinks he has glued shut an access hatch!

In true MSE style he decided a while back to try NHS aids, and said he eventually got them adjusted to be 'acceptable'. I'm not sure how many trips back it took: on one he said the technician said "I suppose we could turn up the volume." At that point they started to become useable for him.

His loss is severe, ie little point talking before he's got his aids in and switched on.

It is worth going back at regular intervals to get your ears re-tested anyway. Guess I must be due for a re-test soon ...