Virus update

Ears to You remains committed to providing quality hearing care during these trying days.
We plan to continue seeing patients, but our schedule has been structured so that only one patient is in the office at any one time.
Walk-ins are allowed if no other patients are present. Patients may be accompanied by a family member or friend as desired.
Patients are asked to use hand sanitizer or wash their hands upon arrival. Patients with symptoms such as cough, fever, shortness of breath,
or muscle aches are asked to reschedule. Surfaces are cleaned following each appointment.

One patient emailed us, “You are essential personnel.” 🙂

David A. Taylor, MA
Audiologist & Hearing Aid Specialist
Ears to You

Ears to You

Come Home to better hearing

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Consumer Reports, March 2017 (Part 1)

In this article on hearing loss and hearing aids, Consumer Reports cites papers from the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) and the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) on the reasons why hearing aids are not used by many people who self-report hearing loss. I’ll begin by addressing cost. According to NAS and PCAST, hearing aids cost an average of $4,700 a pair, and can be almost twice that price.

I’d like to state for the record, that it is possible to keep an audiology practice in business without charging $7,000 or $8,000 for two hearing aids at the high end. I do it every day, by offering the best hearing technology available and the best fitting processes in Hampton Roads, and every pair is under $4,300.

The article offers one comparison that does not seem fair, but that may stem from a lack of understanding. Consumer Reports quotes the PCAST report as saying that, while the retail cost of hearing aids ranges from $3,300 – $8,000 a pair, the cost of the components that go into a hearing aid is $100.00. This is probably true for the basic hearing aid that I buy for about $200.00 and sell for a small markup plus fees for professional services. But I seriously doubt that it is true for the latest, top-of-the line technology. The top hearing aid manufacturers spend millions of dollars on research and development and need to amortize that cost over the life span of of the models they’ve developed from that research. They also need to make enough profit to stay in business and do further research.

I’ll go further into the cost factor in the next post.

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PCAST and the $7,000 question

I sympathize with several of the points made in the PCAST report (see my last couple of blog entries for other PCAST discussion), one of which is the limited accessibility of hearing care in the US due to high cost. So, what is “high”? Like beauty, “high” is in the eye of the beholder. A few folks can toss out $7,000 without blinking, but there aren’t many of those in our area. I saw one person recently who was referred to me by a local charity. This should give you a clue about their finances. They had been to a local firm and had signed up for a pair of hearing aids that were priced in the neighborhood of $7,000. The charity representative was adamant that these folks could not afford these aids. The situation is yet to be resolved, but I suspect they will get a refund and petition the Lions Charity Foundation for the hearing aids they need. [Read more…]