It depends on the audiologist and the follow-up appointments and adjustments needed. To me I don’t want to be handed my aids snd have no ability to come back for adjustments.
Yes i am spoiled, I have unlimited follow-ups if necessary, i get quarterly hearing aid cleanings and diagnostic checks. I also get all needed supplies. And i get annual hearing test. But then again it is my benefit.
2 Likes
It depends on everyone’s financial situation as well. People who can afford it don’t sweat the details. People with whom money matters more will price shop around and be willing to give up on conveniences of some of the services. Others might try to get their insurance companies to partially pay for it.
However, it’s been made known that Oticon will not sell their Intent line up to managed care formularies anymore. Managed care formularies are companies that buy large volumes from hearing aid companies at steep discount pricing to sell hearing aids to insurance companies that offer hearing aids as an insurance benefit to their customers at a more reasonable contract pricing. They used to offer the OPN, More and Real to managed care formularies, but starting with the Intent, they no longer do. They offer Bernafon to managed care formularies, but some of these managed care formularies bark at that offer and seem to not want to deal with Oticon anymore.
Below is a YouTube video from Dr. Cliff that talks about this in more details. Anyway, the point that Dr. Cliff has been making all along is that the contracted HCP who provides local services on behalf of the managed care formularies usually don’t get paid enough, so they might not offer enough quality care for patients who go through this system. He said himself before that he’s dropped all of these contracts in his own practice because he got paid a pittance for the service and it was not enough to provide sufficient quality care for these patients like how he wanted to.
Now I’m not saying that all HCP who subcontract out to provide their local services but don’t sell HAs to those patients don’t provide quality care in that situations. But that seems to be the trend at least, and with Oticon now not wanting to sell their latest Intent line up for a steep discount to managed care providers, they might also start clamping down on online discounters harder going forward. But at least for now, if you (@raylock1 ) have been able to find an online discounter to sell Intent 1s at $4,898 per pair, I think Oticon hasn’t gotten around to want to deal with online discounters yet.
1 Like
@raylock1 , I’ve bought the way you describe from an on-line discount seller. The problem is that you have to take an audiologist from their list. And there may be only one in your area. When I got my Oticon Opn 1’s this way, the audiologist I got did not employ best practices and she never got my hearing aids tuned in a way to maximize their benefit. I only found this out after 3 years and then switching audiologists.
What you’re paying for with the high prices is the ability to choose your own audiologist.
One superb audiologist in my area recently stopped accepting hearing aids through insurance/managed care. She says that there were too many problems which adversely affect quality of service. Her price for a pair of Intent 1’s is $6900 (not $8K). However, she will apply the $1500 discount which the insurance company offers if you have insurance which you can no longer use. This brings the price to $5400, which includes 3 year warranty, 2 years loss & damage, and 3 years of follow up care. She is worth every penny of that $5400 or even of the $6900.
It’s really not a bargain to pay less but to be stuck with a less competent hearing care professional as I was. In many cases the HCPs accepting the deal from Zip Hearing and other similar discounters are doing so because they are not well established and are trying to build their practices. Your chances with these folks are hit or miss.
1 Like
Well you can choose your audiologist with some discounters like Zip. I understand that some areas don’t have a good selection. In my case the audiologist was chosen before I called Zip. You can pay $7,000+ and then find the audiologist is not someone you trust even after doing your due diligence. If you have had a long and good relationship with the audiologist then that is a good thing and you probably want to stay with them. Doctors of audiology and to a lesser extent hearing aid specialists go through a lot of schooling at great cost and deserve to be paid for their services. I am not reluctant to pay up for services that I need. I am reluctant, however, to pay for services I do not or may not need or which may not be available when I do need them. That gets into the discussion of bundling and unbundling. If I end up paying $7,000+ for services that I actually need from a qualified audiologist that I have faith in, so be it. But paying that up front has pitfalls. The audiologist may not turn out to be as good as I thought, they may relocate, they might change jobs, I, at age 85, may not be around to utilize them, or I might move or decide I want the Intent after the return period for the Lumity has expired or…or…or.
2 Likes
cvkemp, I simply could not agree with you more. I thought long and hard about upgrading my 6/7 year old Opn1s which were working well. I wanted to use the phone without holding it my hand and today I found another feature which is really cool, if you tap your ear (not the aids) twice it answers the call with the phone still in your pocket. You can do this by pressing one of the buttons on the aids, but you have to fish for it behind your ear, just tapping your ear is pretty cool if you ask me. I also drove my audiologist quite mad when I was first setting it up but he is super and so keen to get it right. It paid off because new tweaks are tiny adjustments which make little difference to the superb hearing they have restored.
Also I think that making a big jump ie from Opn1’s to intents is worthy of the upgrade as so much has changed in the intervening models, I do not think this would be so noticeable from the Oticon Real’s my friend has to the Intents. I understand they are expensive, but I am certainly worth it!
2 Likes
All good points, @raylock1. 
Perhaps we misunderstood each other. The perception of the real value of hearing devices is purposely skewed by manufactures and dispensers and it’s a sore spot for me.
The reason being is that I program my own HAs and getting bundled services forced down my throat at each step was a time consuming and depressing battle.
Fortunately after a lot of time was wasted, I’ve found a place which isn’t doing that.
I program my own HAs as well so I fully understand where you’re coming from w.r.t that. If I want to get the Intent, my MO would be to wait until it’s available online a year or two from initial release date from a third party with a good discount price before I would buy it and just program it myself. I would never pay $8K for it myself, simply because I don’t need the programming service from the HCP for it. I know I would not be able to have REM done on it, but that’s OK because as a DIY’er, I can still self adjust it to my satisfaction eventually without REM. But not everyone is a DIY’er, so I still totally respect anyone who prefers to pay the appropriate price to have the service of a competent HCP to do it for them.
4 Likes
We’re in agreement actually then, I guess.
The reason why I went into self-programming isn’t the price at all, I would gladly pay someone to fit them perfectly for me. But after decades of improperly fit hearing devices I couldn’t find anyone who would get them to a satisfactory level [even worse, some of them behaved in obstructionistic way, due to their lack of knowledge], and I was tired of searching.
3 Likes