Hearing aids
10-10-22, 05:44 PM
#1
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Hearing aids
Well, I find myself at the point of needing a hearing aid. My Medicare advantage plan through United healthcare offers $500 towards a pair of hearing aids in addition to their own private brand at a markedly reduced price, with a basic model being 699 and the advanced model being 899 per ear. I am also looking at lively, which is dedicated to high quality hearing aids at low prices and gets excellent reviews. The United healthcare brand offers recharging, bluetooth, smartphone app, and other features. I'm curious as to the thoughts of any of you who wear or are considering hearing aids. I am also looking at Costco which is highly rated. United healthcare also provides and pays for a real audiologist, which I am visiting for my tests, as I do not believe that the online tests are very accurate given the differences in quality of ear phones
Last edited by gobicycling; 10-10-22 at 06:25 PM.
10-10-22, 06:13 PM
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I have Costco hearing aids. I'm not terribly unhappy with them, but I don't know how well they were set up. Costco does not usually staff audiologists. Instead they have what they call hearing fit specialists or something along those lines. The initial person that set mine up was not responsive to my concerns and played with the computer until they were what she thought I needed instead of listening to me. I went back in a few weeks and the next person did a test that measured what I was supposed to be hearing and it was a marked improvement. It took a bit to get used to them as I was diagnosed with sever hearing loss when I was about 12 years old and did not get the HAs until I was almost 55. I wish they existed or were available to me when I was a kid because I feel like not hearing well impacted me negatively. I don't usually ride with them in though unless it is an easy spin so I can hear the sound of my 40 year old freewheels because sweat shorts the batteries out..
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Last edited by Chuck M; 10-10-22 at 07:31 PM.
10-10-22, 07:21 PM
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10-14-22, 02:03 PM
#4
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I've been using HAs from Costco since 2010. The first house brand ones were from Siemens. The 2nd were Phonaks. The 3rd are Philips. My W has the house brand which seem to be Phonaks. The fitters I've seen have been great. One was a user of HAs since childhood. The current one is an audiologist.
Costco offers multiple brands ... right now it's house brand (Phonaks under the covers), Philips, Rexton, and one other at my local warehouse. There are only a few manufacturers used by all the brands, but different aids are likely to sound a bit different to you. I chose my Philips HAs 3 years ago because they did music better for me than the other brands did.
They are not perfect. My ability to hear frequencies, for example, hasn't deteriorated much in the last 2.75 years, but my ability to distinguish sounds (f vs s, for example) has. HA tech has improved tremendously, but they still just feed sounds to the brain. They can't fix problems the brain has in prcessing the sounds.
Adjusting the HAs and recommending the right one is key. After purchase service is key. Costco gives 6 months, IIRC, of try-out; you can get your money back if you don't like them within 6 months. Three year warranty is standard. One free, no questions asked, replacement for each ear is included in the price. Adjustments, domes, ceru-stop are all included - just stop by, and they'll help, although appointments are needed for adjustments. If UHC matches or betters Costco's after-sale service, great; if it doesn't, be aware you might need the service.
I use my IP68 (I think) HAs on the bike so I can hear traffic. They do OK with sweat. My older Phonaks and Siemens units did not, so I didn't wear those HAs while riding.
Costco offers multiple brands ... right now it's house brand (Phonaks under the covers), Philips, Rexton, and one other at my local warehouse. There are only a few manufacturers used by all the brands, but different aids are likely to sound a bit different to you. I chose my Philips HAs 3 years ago because they did music better for me than the other brands did.
They are not perfect. My ability to hear frequencies, for example, hasn't deteriorated much in the last 2.75 years, but my ability to distinguish sounds (f vs s, for example) has. HA tech has improved tremendously, but they still just feed sounds to the brain. They can't fix problems the brain has in prcessing the sounds.
Adjusting the HAs and recommending the right one is key. After purchase service is key. Costco gives 6 months, IIRC, of try-out; you can get your money back if you don't like them within 6 months. Three year warranty is standard. One free, no questions asked, replacement for each ear is included in the price. Adjustments, domes, ceru-stop are all included - just stop by, and they'll help, although appointments are needed for adjustments. If UHC matches or betters Costco's after-sale service, great; if it doesn't, be aware you might need the service.
I use my IP68 (I think) HAs on the bike so I can hear traffic. They do OK with sweat. My older Phonaks and Siemens units did not, so I didn't wear those HAs while riding.
11-27-22, 09:39 AM
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I've had very good experiences with Costco, they're audiologists were very good, they have decent prices and very good service.
If my union hearing aid plan re-imbursed me more than $500 a pair I would have gone back, but they switched to a national company called Hear USA. They are also very good and I just got a set of Signia top of the line for $500. They sell at $3500 so a decent price. They obviously do a heavy discount to the union. I think the aids I got recently are by far the best sounding I've ever had and I've needed and used aids for 20 years. I particularly like that they BT connect to my phone and iPad so I can do phone calls and Zoom using the aids, which is a really nice feature. I do not as BTW wear them while cycling, mostly as I can generally hear cars coming as well as I don't want them falling off the ear and I don't want to get them wet from sweat.
If my union hearing aid plan re-imbursed me more than $500 a pair I would have gone back, but they switched to a national company called Hear USA. They are also very good and I just got a set of Signia top of the line for $500. They sell at $3500 so a decent price. They obviously do a heavy discount to the union. I think the aids I got recently are by far the best sounding I've ever had and I've needed and used aids for 20 years. I particularly like that they BT connect to my phone and iPad so I can do phone calls and Zoom using the aids, which is a really nice feature. I do not as BTW wear them while cycling, mostly as I can generally hear cars coming as well as I don't want them falling off the ear and I don't want to get them wet from sweat.
11-28-22, 04:55 PM
#6
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Thread Starter
I've had very good experiences with Costco, they're audiologists were very good, they have decent prices and very good service.
If my union hearing aid plan re-imbursed me more than $500 a pair I would have gone back, but they switched to a national company called Hear USA. They are also very good and I just got a set of Signia top of the line for $500. They sell at $3500 so a decent price. They obviously do a heavy discount to the union. I think the aids I got recently are by far the best sounding I've ever had and I've needed and used aids for 20 years. I particularly like that they BT connect to my phone and iPad so I can do phone calls and Zoom using the aids, which is a really nice feature. I do not as BTW wear them while cycling, mostly as I can generally hear cars coming as well as I don't want them falling off the ear and I don't want to get them wet from sweat.
If my union hearing aid plan re-imbursed me more than $500 a pair I would have gone back, but they switched to a national company called Hear USA. They are also very good and I just got a set of Signia top of the line for $500. They sell at $3500 so a decent price. They obviously do a heavy discount to the union. I think the aids I got recently are by far the best sounding I've ever had and I've needed and used aids for 20 years. I particularly like that they BT connect to my phone and iPad so I can do phone calls and Zoom using the aids, which is a really nice feature. I do not as BTW wear them while cycling, mostly as I can generally hear cars coming as well as I don't want them falling off the ear and I don't want to get them wet from sweat.
