Fighting Greedflation: Hearing Aids Division

Should we have to pay $5,000 per pair for hearing aids?

My hearing loss started way back - in fact, I can date it precisely: October 12, 1968.

That’s when I saw the supergroup Cream at Detroit’s Olympia Stadium. I was on my own, couldn’t find my seat and so I just sat down front, yards away from Jack Bruce, and with Eric Clapton in clear sight. I don’t remember seeing Ginger Baker behind his drum kit, but his presence was always evident.

Nearly my view from the edge of the stage in Detroit’s Olympia Stadium. Photo link here.

I’ve got a congenital deformity in one of my ears which required an operation to fix a “melted ear drum.” Sounds like too much loud rock ‘n’ roll to me. Surgery was deemed successful - but unsurprisingly my hearing didn’t improve with age. In fact, it worsened, to the point where the diagnosis was profound hearing loss. I like that “profound.”

Over the years I went for hearing tests and priced out hearing aids, but never had the $2,800 for each ear that I was quoted. So I began a search for a lower-cost solution.

Fighting greedflation can take many forms. In this case, my goal was to rejoin the world of conversation and entertainment without needing to take out a loan.

My wife (an artist herself) spoke with an artist friend about getting sound to me. Troy found a free app call HearingMax, and said that with Bluetooth earphones I should be able to pick up sound from wherever the phone was pointing.

A Bluetooth solution?

Those apps are a little like the audio version of a spy cam. Occasionally I would leave my phone on the table at a bar when I went to use the restroom. I could hear every word they said about me - all good, fortunately!

One small problem was the half-second lag between the time someone said something, and when I heard it. Watching TV was like seeing a badly dubbed version, with the sound not matching up with the lips at all. I was banned from singing along - or even bobbing my head - to music in the household. I was never on the beat.

Also, the only way it worked was to have the phone on and pointed at the source of the sound. I don’t want to be chained to my phone that much. Wandering away too far, however, triggered a constant notice that I was DISCONNECTED, and then, CONNECTED.

Over-the-counter (OTC) hearing assistance devices

Then I tried in-ear hearing aids - available over-the-counter for $175 or so - the TX-5 Mini Plus+. (Yes, that’s a double-plus in the name.) It turned out that my ears are too small for those to stay in properly. They let out some awful feedback, too - sometimes just from chewing.

Just some of the hearing assistance devices I’ve tried, with my final favorite at bottom right.

Still searching, I found a set of OTC hearing aids from Walmart that did work well, however, with good battery life and easy controls. And they were only $26 each! The current price for a similar item is $35 per pair.

My question to top-end hearing aid providers: will your device help me hear 100 times better than something I can get at Walmart?

Those hearing assistance devices are simple in design, with a physical switch to turn on and off and a volume wheel. I enjoy turning them off to return to my days of near-silence, as they’re effectively earplugs. Handy when grinding coffee, for instance.

I have three in rotation on the charging station, so there’s always one or two ready to go.

As Seen On TV

The Walmart devices were pretty good to me, and I was fairly happy with my hearing situation. But then a television ad featuring a former football player caught our attention while having pizza in a pub. I paid about $400 to try their in-ear hearing aids, but once again they didn’t fit my tiny ears. Returned those within the trial period and was asked to pay an extra $100 for their behind-the-ear model. That set didn’t work any better than my $26 Walmart earbuds.

So back they went for a full refund. I was disappointed that a nationally-advertised brand didn’t help me hear any better.

Medicare to the rescue!

A few weeks later my Medicare Advantage program through United Healthcare invited me to visit their online OTC hearing aid store. The GoHearing line looked promising. I decided to try the GoUltra, which allows for Bluetooth connectivity. When connected, the hearing aids let you listen to music or podcasts, answer the phone and also hear the people in the same room. Handy when ordering pizza!

In my experience, the user manual is correct when it says the power will only last 3 hours max when using Bluetooth. However, without being connected you can get up to 20 hours of use, amplifying the sound around you.

So I un-paired the GoUltra from my Bluetooth connection and they seem to last all day. Another solution might be to own two pairs, with one pair always charging.

The recharging case makes it easy to recharge on the go. The left and right hearing aids are intuitive as well: the left one is colored blue, right is colored red.

The GoUltra set stopped working after a hot round of golf. I tried to return them, but called tech support and a helpful fellow walked me through the process of cleaning the thin tubes. After that, the sound was great. I recommend cleaning them every day or two just to keep the sound flowing.

Cost was quite reasonable for me. United Healthcare offered them for $199 (regular price $799 they said). Or you can go directly to the GoHearing.com site and purchase them for $499. That’s still just 10% of the price of audiologist-prescribed hearing aids as of a year or two ago.

Somebody may save $4,000 with this post

Someone reading this may save themselves $4,000+ by trying an alternative to the inflated prices charged by the medical community. The high-end hearing aids may have more bells and whistles, but in most situations (other than noisy restaurants) the GoUltra hearing assistance devices work fine for me.

This is not medical advice, by the way - it’s financial advice. If you’ve been putting off the purchase of hearing aids because of the cost, consider over-the-counter devices. It’s one way to join the conversation again - and to fight greedflation at the same time!