SERVICE
When you buy hearing aids, you are not just buying an item—you are paying for service for the life of the hearing aids. The actual “purchase” of hearing aids is secondary to the evaluation, diagnosis, prognosis, and counseling. This is not a “item” which you can fit yourself. It takes skill, knowledge, and caring on the part of the hearing care professional to assist you. Further, this service is ongoing. This includes retesting your hearing annually, in house repairs to the hearing aids, clean and checks and reprogramming as frequently as you need it. Read more...
RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
Hearing aid prices have actually risen at less than the annual rate of inflation. For example, the first digital hearing aid manufactured in 1988 weighed about a pound and had to be worn on the body. The battery lasted one day, and the programming hardware was very expensive. Compare that to the first commercially available digital hearing aids, which came out in 1996. They are available in the smallest completely-in–the canal style, and the battery lasts up to 2 weeks. Dynamic Hearing supports manufacturers who have shown leadership in research and development, and who have policies which are consistent with our mission statement of providing the highest quality hearing healthcare.
FEW HEARING IMPAIRED PEOPLE SEEK HELP
Whereas computers and VCRs are household items in the majority of American homes, hearing aids are not. Research has demonstrated that only 22% of those people who need hearing aids actually seek help for their hearing loss. Thus, the demand is not nearly as high.
HIGH QUALITY
A basic hearing aid and a television set cost about the same. Hearing aids, however, are worn 17 hours a day on average. A TV set is in use about 5.5 hours a day, according to census figures. No one would expect a TV set to withstand the environment in which a hearing aid is used (e.g., heat, perspiration, rough handling). Hearing aids are indeed high quality devices, in light of their cost.
AN INVESTMENT
The value of better hearing is hard to appraise. Most of the benefits are intangible. These include being able to work productively, to maintain relationships, to socialize comfortably, and to communicate easily with the outside world. One way to measure cost effectiveness is with a cost-benefit ratio. That is, the cost compared to the benefit one receives. Consider the economics of a set of hearing aids which cost $2000 that enables a person to hold a job with a salary of $40,000. The cost-benefit ratio would be $40,000/2,000 or 20:1 in the first year alone. If one assumes five years of use, the hearing aids would carry a benefit cost ratio of 100:1, or $100 returned for every $1 spent.