I can confirm that free trials definitely exist. I was able to trial an Oticon OPN and Phonak Marvel for a couple of weeks each a little over a year ago from Kaiser. Funny. I was all set to buy until I did the trial at which time I decided it wasn’t worth it.
In all my years of buying hearing aids I have never ever paid anything to trial aids. And I trial each aid for 2 or 3 weeks at a time one aid after another. But I also consider myself very fortunate that my audiologist allows me to do that
I had to sign papers today in order to place an order for my new hearing aids to trial, indicating a $175 return fee. It appears that I could try another brand of aid if needed though.
The key thing about fees is to be aware of what to expect ahead of time. Best to have things in writing.
2 Likes
A professional hearing expert tests your hearing and comes up with a prescription to correct your hearing deficit. You decide not to fill the Rx. You owe nothing? I think $250 is unreasonable for the evaluation but if your primary care physician did a physical exam, diagnosed you with pneumonia, and wrote you a prescription would you expect not to pay him if you chose not to pick up the Rx at the pharmacy? As MDB stated above, the fees involved should be delineated clearly up front. Then you can agree or walk. You are entitled to copies of all your test results.
1 Like
The thing that scares me the most is when they set an additional fee for each aid I trial. I have never purchased an aid based on one trial. Not with my loss. But if I’m being charged 150 each aid I could see me ending the trial early and possibly accepting an aid that may not be best for me. I can’t keep shelling out money and then pay the astronomical fee they charge to buy the aids. Then people say that later they’re charged for further adjustment to the same aids. No wonder so many people feel the way they do. Oh and since I’ve trialed phonak aids in the past, they’re clearly marked demo, and have never been charged anything, I question that this is a fee originated by phonak
It seems that people are lumping various services and charges together leading to confusion. The first thing that happens when you see an audiologist should be an assessment that involves them taking a history of your hearing problems including what difficulties you have and in what types of situations. The second thing that happens is they perform a physical exam of your auditory system and hearing tests. Then they recommend a hearing aid for your particular type of hearing loss. I believe it is appropriate for a one time charge for this assessment of your hearing loss regardless of whether you purchase a hearing aid or not. Considering that you could get a thorough evaluation from a Board Certified ENT for less that $250, the amount suggested above seems excessive and meant to coerce you into purchasing the hearing aid there. In reference to fees associated with the fitting of each hearing aid, that should be clearly spelled out by the provider as to whether there is a separate charge or is included in the price of the aids. You should make yourself aware of the provider’s fee structure before your exam and judge accordingly.
There’s just a lot of variability in how different practices handle things. Many include “free” testing, exam and initial hearing aid fit for “free.” It’s basically a marketing expense for them. I assume they hope to make up for it in increased hearing aid sales. Others charge for what they do, which is perfectly reasonable. I associate the charge for what you do model more with high rent districts, but don’t have any data to back up that assumption.
In my experience, nothing is free. If there is no upfront fee, it’s likely priced into the aids. Costco being a membership club with multiple revenue streams has a different model.
1 Like
Don’t pay for cleaning. Don’t pay for new tubing. Don’t pay for new hooks. Don’t pay for extras of either. I walk in and walk out. All after I’ve bought the aids. So he must be passing off the expense to somebody else. And this has been for over 30 years. And his price for aids is comparable to what I see everyone else charging. Have also trialed over the years around 10 aids and never been charged and I know he does it for other clients. But every place is different
That may be your answer. Some people’s business model is to make as many sales as they can get for as much as the trade will allow. I don’t care if they come back. Some people work on a service model that keeps people returning for repeat business rather than constantly churning new patients. It also may depend on overhead such as do they own the building or rent.
Well I’m not going to argue the point. I’m just telling you my personal experience and that I consider myself fortunate. Over the years I’ve watched the number of customer files grow and grow and grow. Maybe there’s a reason for that
What do you guys think an audiologist’s hourly fee for service SHOULD be, out of curiosity? Maybe consider, before you answer, what you pay your dentists, physiotherapists or optometrists?
(Or worse, your naturopaths or your chiropractors?)
1 Like
personally, between the time it takes to administer a hearing test, talk through everything with a new patient, program a set of demo aids (or brand new ones that you’ll take back), etc., I think $250 is more than fair. I wouldn’t do it for less than that if I were an audiologist.
I think there are too many variables that need to be factored in to be able to come up with a price
I had a free trial for Phonak Audeo Paradise earlier this year. I only kept them for about 10 days as I had severe vertigo after a day. The HIS was unqualified to deal with my hearing issues. I returned the HAs and got full refund. It depends on the provider, if there is return fee or not.
I started this thread and I appreciate all the discussion. I ask my audiologist about the $250.00 fee and she said that it should not have been on my contract as I am a returning customer. She crossed out the fee and initialed it. I do understand that a fee may be appropriate in some situations.
I’ve never paid a fee to trial hearing aids. Whatever company I’ve chosen to trial, my AuD has always gotten a loan pair from the company. Which I trialed for 3-4 week. I returned them and trialed another loan pair from a different company. Again no charge, unless the charge is built into the purchase of the aids I bought.
I may be wrong here, but for me, there’s a distinction between a demo and the 30-day trial (which can be extended if your audiologist has a good relationship with brand reps). Demos are generally a set of HAs provided to an audiologist by the manufacturer for obvious purposes, to let patients try them out free of charge, and the HAs are generally marked as demos right on the hardware (I’ve had Paradise and Signia AXs demos).
The 30 day trial is a period of time in which a user can decide if he/she wants to keep the aids after already purchasing (I look at it as just a return/exchange window). I have trialed 2 separate aids as well (Mores and Paradise Lifes), but it involved the actual purchase and payment of the aids in full. When I went from one trial to the other, the difference in price is either owed or refunded. But these aids are new out of the box vs being demo aids that can be passed along.
As long as I ultimately end up keeping a pair of purchased HAs from the audiologist, there is no additional fees/costs outside the quoted price of the aids. However, at the end of all my demoing and trialing process, I choose not to purchase and return any HAs to him, then he does retain $400 out of the costs I’ve already put in, with the rest of the sum refunded back.
Seems rather steep, but when I consider that I’ve thus far put in about 10-12 office visit hours (with more to come), if it’s no HAs after all that and only $400, that’s cheaper than any other specialist visit billing rate in the healthcare industry, so it seems quite fair to me. And all of this information was given to me upfront as well. And I also went in knowing that I would end up purchasing aids from him, it’s just a matter of which ones.
IIRC, when I got my first aids, Widex Senso Diva ITC aids, there was a non-refundable $250 charge if I returned the aids. They were custom aids, and it was a fee to cover taking the impressions and making the shells. With RIC aids I’ve never paid a fee to try demo aids, similar to how @jcw11 describes.