It’s been almost three months now that I’ve been exploring how to deal with age-related hearing loss (presbycusis). In my case this has involved several hearing tests and an extended test with a pair of behind-the-ear receiver-in-canal (BTE RIC) hearing aids.
Coincident with the trial I have come to learn that hearing aids are among the most readily abandoned devices by those who adopt them. I’ve polled several people in my circle who’ve done just that.
At a coffee gathering recently I wanted to find out a little more about hearing loss issues. I explained that I was part way into a trial run with hearing aids. First of all, no one had spotted I was using such aids, certainly an indicator of how far we’ve come with miniaturization.
Secondly, the fellow immediately nearest me said he had hearing aids but that he seldom wore them. He’d come to first try aids already well into his eighties, somewhat later than the typical adoption age range of 60 to 75. Another fellow said he too had hearing aids but almost never wore them. In his case they were paid for through a federal program that deemed hearing loss for RCMP members to be workplace caused. In fact he was already on to a second, mostly unused pair.
I’ve since come to learn that hearing loss among police officers in retirement occurs at an even higher level than that in the general population, and it appears to be more predominant in the left ear (one officer told me he thought this came from years of driving with the window open before air conditioning in cruisers). However another former officer I asked had loss in the right ear only. He was insistent that this came from years of work with a police dog, which he always kept on the right.
In my discussions with people on their use of hearing aids I ran across a retired doctor who was wearing what at first glance appeared to be the same aids I was testing. “Go to Costco,” he said. “There you will find these for around $2,000.” Of course I went right away and immediately learned just how complex this business is. The big box retailer was no longer carrying that brand. Exactly why is a bit murky to me but let’s guess that the selling price was eating a little too much into the higher margins in the hearing aid stores.
My Costco store had a typical hearing clinic setup which, oddly enough, I’d never noticed before. Staffing consisted of audiologists, registered hearing instrument practitioners, and support staff. I made an appointment for a hearing test. Initially the first appointment available was weeks away but I had a note left on file that I would take a cancellation opening. I’ve now done this for all three visits to Costco and generally received a slot a day or two later.
Costco has shown it can compete on numerous fronts: pharmacy services, optical services, gasoline, and now hearing aids and diagnostic services. It has decided to focus on aids priced in the $2,000 range for a pair. That’s a major draw down from $6,500 and more. How can that be? The brands carried by Costco are mostly known elsewhere but conspicuously absent is the Phonak brand. Apparently these were carried until recently. Exactly why the big retailer dropped the brand isn’t clear. Or did Phonak drop Costco?
Before delving into my experience with the big box store, it may be worth considering just how the hearing aid business works. It seems there are very few independent operators. Nearly all the storefront clinics are owned by one of a handful of players. Two of the big names owning many of these clinics are Sonova and GN Group. Sonova of Switzerland has brands such as Phonak, Unitron, and AudioNova. GN Group of Denmark has brands such as Beltone, Jabra, ReSound.
Within the various groups are different levels of hearing aids, differing in sophistication and performance. It’s not clear to me if in essence the aids from a particular brand or company are more or less the same with perhaps some features deactivated on the cheaper units.
Prior to trying the Costco route I had tested a Phonak pair through an independent clinic. These aids were wonderful, as I wrote in a previous column, but the management software I found frustrating. And of course I wasn’t exactly jumping for joy over the price.
I returned my trial hearing aid set, the Lumity Audeo model from Phonak, the Swiss company with a long history in the business. I’ve been impressed with the functionality of these aids, and although using them with Android phones proved problematic, their phone app was key to my use.
Why would I return hearing aids which were doing a wonderful job? Primarily price. At around $6,500 for the pair, and with an expected lifespan in the five- to seven-year range, it’s worth considering how much this is on a weekly or even daily basis. At, say, six years, that’s $90 a month, or around $3 a day. I may still go back to these. The clinic promised a three-month period to reconsider and assign the $300 I paid for the trial to a purchase.
At Costco I went through the hearing test drill. The profile was essentially the same as from the two other tests I’d been through, except the testing person said there was a differential in word recognition between the two ears. Since that wasn’t noticed in the other tests I decided to ignore this finding and proceed with a trial.
A Costco customer wishing to try hearing aids buys them up front and is given the option to fully test them for up to six months and if need be, return them for a full refund. No questions asked. This is quite different from anywhere else as far as I know. The customer is matched up to a set from one of a handful of models carried by the retailer.
Three steps are required at Costco before a customer leaves with a set of aids. The hearing test, which can take up to 45 minutes; matching the customer with a set and then having those ordered and initially programmed; and a fitting session. All in all; a couple of hours.
I was matched with a set of Jabra Enhance Pro from GN, priced at $2,000. Adaptations were made for my particular noise sensitivity, the matching software was installed on my phone, and off I went.
At this stage I’m about to return these Jabra units. I’ve found them so lacking compared to the Phonaks from my first test. They are very poor for speech and are frequently overwhelmed with background noise, for example wind or even the sound of eating. The overall sound quality I would describe as “electronic” rather than natural. Let’s just say I’m disappointed.
As this column goes to press, I’m scheduled for a follow-up at Costco. I will return these units and hopefully be offered another brand or model. I hasten to add that I’ve been most impressed with the professional and courteous approach of the various staff I’ve dealt with at the big box store.
It may well be that I simply haven’t been able to configure these to suit my demands. Perhaps I’m just too picky. And before I forget, any audio streamed to these units only comes through in the right hearing aid. That’s phone calls, streaming music, and the like. Why? Neither the Costco audiologist nor the parent company could say why, other than that Android phones are hit and miss.
Where does it end? Well, there is also the over-the-counter market, which has particularly taken hold in the United States. In the last column in this series, we will take a look at this sector and perhaps see if I’ve finally made a decision for my own situation.
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