I just got my annual school-bus physical. I passed but the doc told me that I will need a hearing aid to pass next year. At my age I suppose it is to be expected.
I know hearing aids in the US have undergone a regulatory change. Nowadays there are devices that link to your telephone. It sort of administers a hearing test itself and lets you select … something, something, something.
Audiology clinics still exist, but they seem dedicated to selling very expensive devices. (Is this the case?)
First step I suppose is to see what my health insurance covers, then what?
So, what is the best way for a retired person on a fixed income to proceed?
Consider going to Costco for the hearing aids. My mother just went through this though she ended up getting them somewhere else. Costco sells, I believe, four different brands and the out of pocket cost is roughly $1600.
Talk to your hearing specialists. I’m a retired guy on Medicare/Medicaid in semi-rural Indiana, and my hearing aid people were able to get me a pair of $3,000 Starkey hearing aids for only $300. And that’s my replacement pair for the set they got me 7 years ago for nothing.
Prior to a few years ago, hearing aids in the U.S. were pretty much only available by prescription (more or less), and you needed to see a hearing specialist / audiologist in order to buy. A 2022 law now allows hearing aid manufactures to sell over-the-counter, so it is possible to just buy hearing aids directly.
However, hearing loss is not a simple thing, and AIUI, hearing aids aren’t really a “one size fits all” thing. Especially as you haven’t previously used them, it would likely be of benefit to you to actually see a specialist, have the particular nature of your hearing loss diagnosed, and get recommendations as to which sorts of hearing aids will best meet your particular needs. If you just buy a pair OTC, they might well be well-suited for what you need…but they might not be, either.
You can try the Airpods route if you already have an iPhone. It’s a cheap test and you can return them if they don’t work well enough. The test just takes about 5 minutes in an app, and it tunes the Airpods to your specific hearing loss. But to others, it’ll just look like you’re wearing Airpods instead of hearing aids, which may or may not be a good thing. You may have to let people know you can hear them.
If that’s not good enough, Costco will have free hearing tests that give you a detailed printout. They also sell hearing aids.
My husband got a hearing test and his hearing aids at Costco over a year ago. It’s the only reason we joined, he’s been very pleased with them. He had originally gone to an ENT specialist, and the price difference between what they wanted for the hearing aids and what Costco wanted was dramatically different.
One thing I like about Costco for this is that they sell (I think) four brands. Most places (Miracle Ear, Beltone, etc) sell only their own. Also, for the most part, you can just stop by for a cleaning or adjustment rather than needing an appointment.
As a general rule, Medicare and the various retiree health insurance supplements do NOT cover hearing aids. Nor eyeglasses. Some Medicare replacement plans do.
IMO the best way to think about hearing aids is they’re like eyeglasses. They need to be customized to your particular frequency shape and quantity of loss. And whether you have tinnitus or not. The big difference is the darn things are computers, not carefully ground & polished plastic. So they can be customized by fiddling with software, not by grinding and polishing. Which makes it at least theoretically possible that you can DIY it because there’s an app for that.
And like glasses, there are endless variations in capabilities. The metaphorical equivalent of bifocal, trifocal, progressive, astigmatism, photosensitive, various coatings, different materials, different frames, etc., etc. Lotta options and more options costs more money.
Compared to the results available from good eyeglasses, the benefits from hearing aids are pretty crude. Just due to the nature of how hearing fails, versus how eyesight does. But that doesn’t mean the darn things aren’t real valuable to your daily quality of life.
With all that background knowledge, Costco is a very reasonable choice for midmarket products at non-ripoff pricing. Unlike the traditional one-brand audiologist shop that’s as much a sales outfit as it is a medical device fitting service.
Good point. If the OP has “original Medicare” (Parts A and B) or a Medicare supplement/Medigap plan from a third-party insurer, it won’t cover hearing aids. If he has a Medicare Advantage plan, it might. He should read the details of his policy to be sure.
I concur with everyone else, off to Costco. In 2017 I got hearing tested and then fitted with hearing aids at my state university graduate college of audiology. A pair cost $5,500, all out of pocket (traditional Medicare BC/BS). They connected to my phone via Bluetooth. A few months ago I got retested (free) at Costco and ordered replacement aids, 33% smaller and lighter and they do even more amazing things than the 2017 version, also connecting to my iPhone, these are rechargeable versus the tiny batteries in the previous ones. $1599 at Costco. Made by the same company in Denmark.
Your nearest Costco might want you to call in and make an appt for the free hearing test, mine did. The membership costs $65 yearly-if you’re unhappy at any point, Costco will pleasantly refund that fee.
Agreeing with what most are saying. Costco is likely good for mild hearing loss. That seems likely to be the OP’s situation, and so is probably a good choice.
My father has pretty bad, but correctable, hearing loss. When my mother was alive and making the decisions, she took him to Costco. His hearing improved, but the gaps were still pretty noticeable.
Shortly after she died, Dad lost one of the hearing aids. We tried the air pod solution as a stop gap, but he definitely was not the right customer for them. They were larger than he wanted, and they don’t correct well enough.
I took him to my ENT/audiologist. My Dad says it was a much more complete hearing test. He got custom fitted hearing aids and he says he can’t believe how much better they are than the Costco ones. They were also about twice the price, though.
Note that that famous company makes several lines of products of widely varying capability. Like with so many things at Costco, you’re getting the manufacturer’s cheapest least capable loss leader. As @Digital_is_the_new_Analog says, that may well be enough, especially for one’s first set before their hearing loss gets real serious. Funds permitting, there may be more or better results available upmarket. Perhaps not relevant for this OP, but relevant for somebody else reading the thread.
One of my rules of thumb in this life:
You don’t always get what you pay for. But you almost never get what you don’t pay for.
It never occurred to me that the hearing aids at Costco were only good for mild loss and that there may be reasons to go to one of the specialty brands. I assumed that hearing aids were all the same.