Opinions on Beltone hear aids?

In My Humble Opinion
1

My grandmother previously had a hearing aid, a nice and tiny one which she apparently lost in the wash. She then experienced six months straight of horrible dry coughing, which her physician found mysterious but her ear doctor immediately linked to her high blood pressure medicine, Zestril. Her ear doctor ordered her off the medicine, the coughing stopped, but her hearing (especially in the right ear) had dropped precipitiously.

Unfortunately, hearing aids are expensive and insurance did not cover any of the expense . . . except in the case of Beltone, for which Anthem picks up a quarter of the cost. So, I took her to Beltone today. The Beltone technician there disagreed with the conclusion of the ear doctor’s technician that my grandmother’s right ear was not worth attempting to salvage. She ran some tests, my grandmother was very impressed (perhaps because this technician’s demeanor was softer than the previous one’s), and before we knew it Beltone was trying to sell us two 12-channel hearing aids for $5,700, after the Anthem discount.

This might be a GQ, but since I’m looking for experiential and factual information, I’ll try it here:

  1. What’s the general reputation of Beltone? The office struck me overwhelmingly as businessish ; nice soft lighting, colorful pamphlets, repeated reminders of lots of technology (“If you’re impressed now, you should see the programming room.”). It’s my suspicion that appeals to ambiance like this might be an attempt to mask a deficiency in competency?

  2. How well-trained are Beltone technicians compared to technicians associated with practicing ear doctors? My grandmother, in a good stroke, asked the technician where she went to school. The technician said she had her four-year degree and went through a year training course at Miracle Ear, where she worked previously (and apparently didn’t like). Is that level of experience typical?

  3. Does Beltone have a reputation for recommending more hearing aids and/or power in each hearing aid than necessary? Like I said, the Beltone technician strongly recommended hearing aids for both ears (she put my grandmother’s right ear performance generally in the lower-middle of the “moderately damaged” area, not quite “severely damaged” but nowhere near “normal performance.” I found this somewhat odd and pressed her a bit on this. She relented somewhat, saying, “Yeah, one would work fine in its own way, because the important thing is to keep that left ear vibrant.”

  4. How does Beltone compare in terms of price? If it’s pricier, is it worth it? In what way(s)? After I questioned the technician for a minute or so, she downshifted from the luxury 12-channel hearing aids and recommended the 4-channel option, which seemed (in my untrained opinion) a good choice. After the insurance discount, they are $2465 apiece. IIRC, her ear doctor’s technician’s rate was lower, even without an insurance discount. Is there something that Beltone offers that a smaller operation wouldn’t?

Anyway, my grandmother wisely told the technician that she’d think about it, and one of my first thoughts was to try these questions out on the SDMB (in addition to contacting the previous technician, and some other things). So here we are. Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.

2

I don’t know much about Beltone, but I know Costco had hearing aids for sale for $500 to $1500 (programmable aids), which is what I think they should be sold for. Local Lions clubs might have them for free & asking senior organizations for info is another idea.

As you noticed they don’t cost much to make the rest is just profit.

Get the longest warrentee you can.

3

Before we go any further, I’ll say that my wife is a professional and licensed audiologist. She works for another hearing aid manufacturer (which one, I won’t mention, in the interests of objectivity), and while she’s not beside me right now, I’ll try to add some comments which she would undoubtedly say. She is due back from a business trip tomorrow; if this thread is still active then, I’ll bring it to her attention.

Remember, however, I am not an audiologist, and am posting my comments based on what I have heard from her.

Who is the Beltone technician? Is she an audiologist? Is she a dispenser? There is a difference between the two, so I understand. My wife is licensed both to test and dispense, but a simple dispenser cannot prescribe like an audiologist can.

Find out exactly what kind of hearing aids they are. Apparently, nowadays, digital hearing aids are the norm. If they are digital, that figure may be respectable; if they are not, look for something else. You can shop around and it may pay to do so.

According to my wife, not that great. Adequate, if you really had to put a word to it. She’s not swayed by her allegiance to her company, by the way; she had ten years of clinical practice before she joined them and in her clinical days, she still avoided prescribing a Beltone.

My wife has her MA in audiology (at least six years of study). She is also licensed to practice by the local college (College of Audiologists and Speech Language Pathologists of Ontario, or CASLPO, I believe). She has to be, in order to practice, and she does pay the necessary malpractice insurance premiums. Similar governing bodies exist in all Canadian provinces and American states. Perhaps a call to your local audiology college would give you more information on the Beltone technician.

Not so unusual, from what I’m given to understand. We hear binaurally, just as we see binocularly, so if each ear does work somehow, the normal practice is to fit each ear with a hearing aid, just as we fit each eye with eyeglasses. Still, my wife has encountered patients who only want one hearing aid, even though they perhaps should have two, so that’s what they get.

No idea, but I understand that there are better out there for about the same or lower price. Big names in the hearing aid industry include Starkey, Widex, Unitron, Oticon, and GNReSound. I believe Siemens also has something. Perhaps you should also look into some of those–as I said, shop around.

Not that I am aware of. In fact, you may find that some of the companies I mentioned above can do you better on price and performance.

As I said, I am not an audiologist, nor an otolaryngologist, nor a hearing aid dispenser, so you can take this information however you please. And if this thread is still active when my wife returns, I’ll certainly bring it to her attention. But if you want my opinion right now, it might be worth it to consult with an objective professional audiologist and/or an otolaryngologist (that is, an ear-nose-throat doctor) before you agree to anything. Good luck!

4

Handy, Spoons, thanks for your replies.

Spoons, I’m going to look into exactly what the woman at Beltone was. I’m sure the Miracle Ear Training Program is quite prestigious, though. :slight_smile:

5

Beltone (and several others as well) are moreso “retail” hearing aid outlets, rather than medical offices. They are a business. They hold “free hearing test” clinics frequently and will attempt to make sales to people with very low amounts of hearing loss. They do not always have licensed audiologists working in their offices at all, although some do. My hearing aid dispenser (which is what a technician is, in terms of what-license-do-you-have) is a high school graduate who applied for a license to dispense hearing aids - that’s it for formal education. He works in an office with medical doctors and licensed audiologists; he is simply the fitter. ( I see just him most of the time because I buy a lot of earmoulds) He also spent several years as a tech at Beltone before joining the offices where I go, and has told me the reason he left is that he didn’t care for the guilt of trying to push unnecessary products on people who really couldn’t afford it well.

Two Beltone-experience anecdotes:

  1. I am profoundly deaf, and wear one BTE hearing aid and have a cochlear implant. I have a large, visible scar and a lump behind my ear from the implant sitting just below my skin. If you’ve never seen a CI, it is not something you could miss, even with the external components off. One side effect of CI surgery is that any hearing you have before is completely destroyed in the process of the implant, and a standard hearing aid can do nothing for it. I stopped wearing the external portion of the CI for several years, and at one point went to Beltone with a friend for a free clinic, simply to test what they would recommend. The technician not only didn’t realize (or even ask) I had the implant, but recommended my purchasing an aid for that ear. (Which, again, amplification doesn’t help at all.)

  2. My grandmother has a 5dB hearing loss in one ear. This is actually pretty much perfect hearing. They recommended bilateral hearing aids for her.

I would personally never recommend using a company like Beltone. (or Miracle Aid, or really any of them, including Costco’s services) Cost aside, it is much more worth it to have a ENT physician diagnose the actual cause of the hearing loss, and a MA/CCC Audiologist prescribe appropriate devices if the loss is untreatable. There really isn’t that much of a difference in cost, but the value is much different.

6

I’ve worn various makes and models of hearing aids for more than 30 years now, since I was four. In my experience, the brand of hearing aid has not been nearly as important as the knowledge and integrity of the person recommending and fitting it. Early on, my parents had some unpleasant experiences with not so reputable dealers before we found the Beltone dealership I’ve stuck with ever since. I’ve bought hearing aids from three generations of the same family now, and I’ve never been pressured into buying a more expensive model than I needed, or replacing my hearing aids before I was ready. In fact, once they recommended that I wait another year to upgrade, because the digital aids were just entering the market, and would be less expensive and more proven by then. Another time, they sold me a different brand, because that particular model was a better product for the money than the Beltone. Once, when making an adjustment on my hearing aids, they tested my father, identified a narrow band of hearing loss, and told him hearing aids probably wouldn’t help him enough to be worth the bother.

Beltone’s not a bad company; they make good products, and provide support to their dealers. However, there’s only so much they can do to guarantee the ability and integrity of those dealerships. The most expensive hearing aid on the market, no matter who makes it, won’t do you any good if it’s not the right one for your needs. And even if it is the perfect model for your needs, it still won’t work well for you if it’s not properly fitted and tuned. A less expensive, less powerful hearing aid that is properly fitted will almost always work better than a more powerful, sloppily selected and fitted hearing aid.

There are a lot of exceptional audiologists out there, many of whom are conscientious hearing aid dealers. There are also unethical or incompetent hearing aid salespeople, who prey on the hopes and fears of parents of deaf children, or late-deafened adults, solely to make a sale. Hearing aid dealers are like car salesmen; find the right dealer, and they’ll make sure you get what you need.

Have you contacted your local Self Help for the Hard of Hearing, or perhaps the Association of Late Deafened Adults? They might be able to help you find a reputable professional in your area.