We are seeing a long term consolidation between hearing devices and headphones.
On the headphones side, we are getting smaller, truly-wireless headphones with some ambient sound features (such as noise cancellation, and iOS hearing features). New trends like AR would just accelerate the change due to the need to solve all day worn audio devices.
On the hearing aids side, almost every hearing aid today acts as an always connected set of headphones for your mobile phone (and has been like that for years on iOS).
Deregulating this could bring the tech industry innovation to hearing aids through natural progression of headphones technology.
This trend would make hearing aids not just target hearing impaired people, but also individual with normal hearing. For example, features such as protecting your ears against a sudden loud noise, silencing a loud restaurant so you can have a quiet conversation or improving the audio of a soft speaker could be useful for everyone.
======
I got out of the Audiology field in 2015.
At that time all the above was included for every hearing aid we sold (Prices varied from $750 / ear - $3600 / ear.
When I was in that field many companies tried "pay as you go" models, instead of bundles.
You know what happened?
People paid the minimum (test, and fit)
the never returned for repairs or re-tunings.
And then complained to everyone that "hearing aids don't work".
Buy a hearing aid today from any major provider in Canada and you get:
Initial test
Initial fitting
Follow up tests
Follow up re tunes
Counselling
repairs - including full replacement in case of loss
Batteries
In-clinic repairs and cleanings.
100% return, and in some cases $0.00 3 month trial period.
There is far more to fixing your hearing issues that just amplifying sound. Sadly, most people wait too long before trying a hearing aid, and give up because they hear too much noise.
Imagine returning your eye glasses because you still see ugly people.
I truly wish hearing aids were far cheaper, and that was a very hard part of my job and one of the reasons why I changed careers.
I've long thought the problem with hearing aids is the calibration process. People (often old, confused, and less tech-familiar) try them on and spend half an hour answering questions about "does that sound better?"
What if, instead, the calibration process worked constantly? Give the user a button to press when they don't hear something well, and another when they do. Let them have this for a month, let them try it in their kitchen, their bedroom, the local shop or bar, outdoors. Run some reinforcement learning algorithm to optimize for getting more "good" presses and fewer "bad" ones. Optionally, adapt separately to each environment.
Is there a "smart" hearing aid calibrator that works like this? If not, but you think it's plausible, I'm interested in working on it.
Canadian here as well. I have a 35 dB / 70 dB loss in each ear respectively.
It is a pretty sweet deal if you can afford it. They do just ship you already-programmed replacements if you've lost one. No questions asked. Free adjustments. Very comprehensive. It's pleasant and stress-free while you're covered by one of those packages.
But it's if you can afford it. When you can't afford the all-exclusive package there's really not much else. I spent about half of my childhood, teens and 20s without hearing aids due to cost. Held back my education at all levels. Even when I went to university, while I was eligible for provincial funding for hearing aids at a student, I was still expected to pay the cost up-front first. Independent adult students don't usually have $5000 cash lying around. I missed most of my first year.
> There is far more to fixing your hearing issues that just amplifying sound. Sadly, most people wait too long before trying a hearing aid, and give up because they hear too much noise.
Of the people I know who have gotten hearing aids, every single one of them was disappointed. Every single one of them still had trouble hearing. As far as I can tell, the only thing the audiologists appear to be able to be able to correct for (with current hearing aids) is "make it louder". If more than that is needed, it's a vicious cycle of taking it home, realizing it's not really helping, and bringing it back to try a new one.
The above seems to be particularly true when the hearing problem is heavily weighed towards not being able to hear certain/higher frequencies, so can "hear" people talking, but can't understand it; especially if there's any background noise at all.
I sympathize that your job was hard and that the clients made it harder. But the clients following directions and trying multiple different hearing aids ... doesn't really solve the problem in a lot of cases. Hearing aids are very expensive, far too expensive for a result of "I still can't understand people talking to me".
Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t this something people could do on their own at home if the hardware had a decent setup UX / tuning instructions? This doesn’t necessarily seem like something that couldn’t be done pretty automatically.
I guess one question is: do those things have to cost thousands of dollars? What are the primary cost components? Are the people doing these jobs highly paid? Are they highly paid because of high costs of college tuition? Would free college help lower their costs?
For the first four items on your list, I would pay for the hardware cost of the hearing aids plus $200-$300. The last three things should be optional like Apple Care or other service contracts.
Is tuning (and retuning) something that could be automated? Because of tinnitus, my hearing is not the same every day and so static settings feel like the wrong solution.
So your argument in favour of socializing this is that people tend not behave optimally, in your view? This seems like a poor reason. Let the people who fall victim to their biases suffer the consequences, don't impose the cost of holding their hands on those who are capable of managing themselves.
My wife's grandfather should have all of that through his VA, Medicare, and supplimental insurance. His hearing aids are the most annoying low quality overpriced pieces of crap you can imagine. And that stupid headphone amplifier thing they've sold him, garbage, literal garbage. A hobbyist could do better.
The new schema may not be a panacea but I don't expect it to be worse than the status quo.
Same in The Netherlands, and you don't pay out of pocket for those either in most cases. It also makes a lot of sense for an insurer if you think about it: people that are able to sense their surroundings reasonably well might be less likely to get into accidents causing that to then cost a lot of money. From an ethics standpoint it also makes sense to be in a society that aims to give people a good standard of living. Someone slowly loses the ability to listen to music for example might have a harder time enjoying life if music was an important part for them, that might cause various forms of distress which can turn into 'expensive' treatment for that.
Some people argue that ethics have nothing to do with it, but if that were the case, highly expensive insurances would be mandatory, and payouts would be zero since business-wise that makes a lot of money without being ethically encumbered.
> Buy a hearing aid today from any major provider in Canada and you get: [...]
Do you know what the status quo in the US is? (I don't, other than the prescription requirement from the article.) What you describe for Canada sounds pretty good to me, but I wouldn't assume any part of US healthcare is as inexpensive as Canadian healthcare or that the regulations are as well thought out.
There are a number of healthcare areas in the US that have been protected by regulation, but it’s increasingly unclear if this is good for patients, consumers, or public health at large. The increasing sentiment seems to be probably not.
Vision care is another area I’d expect to see more changes and disruption coming down the pipeline. Vision care is very important and advanced cases require special skills, but it’s also unclear why many routine checks couldn’t just be done by a family doctor.
The US requires one to see a “doctor of optometry” to get a basic single vision prescription. That industry used to make its money turning around and selling you glasses from the same office but that whole industry has been turned upside down by online retailers like Warby Parker and such. Why the US can’t follow the models followed most elsewhere in the world is unclear, but it would remove a lot of extra steps and costs in getting a basic care of glasses. Ophthalmology (medical doctors) are still very much a thing but most countries don’t have this model of needed a “prescription” from an optometrist for a basic pair of single vision specs.
If you can afford the $5,000 - great! The current system works for you. 80% of people cannot and so are stuck.
For folks with mild/moderate loss (where a LOT of people don't get help) something as simple as letting Apple tweak noise cancellation to be voice enhancing and providing a tuning and hearing test app in the iphone would be a godsend.
The elderly miss out on a lot of family life because of hearing issues - people stop talking to them even if they are fully sound of mind because of this issue. I've seen this personally.
And for all those who say apple is just a consumer products company and there is no way their $180 - $250 airpods can provide any benefit I think you might be surprised.
This is me. 28, had mild hearing loss for about 3 years now in one ear due to a bad ear infection. I can get by fine, however I'm definitely missing out on a lot of "richness" of sound. I can't hear high pitched noises, or subtle differences between noises in my left ear at all. And everything in general is a little muted. Since I can hear perfectly find out of my right ear I'm not convinced spending thousands of dollars is worth it.
I would spend $10,000+ if my tinnitus could be cured permanently though.
FWIW, there is a nuanced difference between hearing aids and iPods. Hearing aids basically apply a hearing-capability matched EQ to the incoming sound.
Why this matters: Hearing loss is not uniform across frequencies, and we use huge portions of the spectrum for different functions (truck backup beepers vs. car engine noises, both used to identify what's coming your way).
Yeah, the AirPods Pro's are amazing as hearing aids.
The only issue is that they are very visible and only last 4 hours each charge (I suppose you could get two pairs and switch between them every four hours).
Is this really a problem in practice? I've always had a valid prescription when I buy glasses, but at the glasses store I just flash them the prescription on my phone for a few seconds. It's a PDF on official looking letterhead, but I don't think there's any verification. I suppose it's probably not the best idea to fake an eyeglass prescription, but it certainly seems like it would be very easy to do.
For the commenters asking: this applies to contact lenses, not eye glasses.
From the Contact Lens Rule [1]: "a contact lens seller cannot provide contact lenses to its customer unless the seller either obtains a copy of the prescription or verifies the prescription information with the prescriber"
The Eyeglass Rule [2] doesn't contain this stipulation.
I've got an Oticon that has Bluetooth to connect to the phone for the purpose of changing settings, streaming as well as locating it. It charges using magnetic charging in a little (proprietary) charging station.
I have a BlueTooth-enabled hearing aid (ReSound Linq) that connects directly to my iPhone. It's a life-changing feature. It also has some capability to find hearing aids, but since I'm profoundly deaf and not wearing my hearing aid means I'm functionally completely deaf, then it's either in my ear or on my nightstand, so I've never had the problem of "where did my hearing aid go?"
I would add better integration with mobile devices beyond bluetooth. I'm thinking a startup could create hearing aids with self-tuning apps that employ spectral analysis and echolocation capabilities for improving situational awareness of the wearer.
I'm not of the age or occupation where I need hearing aids, but I think that I'd like overnight inductive charging, and I'd take them out and charge them while sleeping.
Almost half the comments relate to eye exams & glasses, not hearing aids. There's almost no one defending the present system, and I suspect if you took a poll of the US population, at least 90% would favor deregulating hearing aids. Probably glasses, too.
So why hasn't it happened? Those people who said "regulatory capture" get a gold star. A small group who will suffer a lot manage to defeat a much bigger group who will benefit by a much smaller amount.
Middlemen and gatekeepers are all over our medical industry. When I travel I am always surprised at how much easier it is to get drugs outside the US. Many prescription drugs here are over the counter elsewhere and much cheaper. I hope we start removing prescription gatekeeping more broadly, so I can stop paying hundreds for performative office visits that offer no value. It’s also a big time sink just to get some mundane antibiotic or skincare cream or whatever, when all that happens is that an FNP runs through the most basic Q&A script that can be self discovered online.
Capitalism (as a life goal, rather than one of many tools in a toolkit) is what makes all that possible. If can insert yourself in the middle of a transaction, and do that long enough, then you can get pretty entrenched to the point where people just expect it to be that way.
I maintain that, if automobiles were invented today, the horse-and-buggy industry would be able to successfully fend them off, based on the path regulatory capture has taken in the last 150 years.
"People with mild or moderate hearing loss" should be free to purchase these sort of generic hearing aids in much the same way that buying non-prescription reading glasses is common. If problems persist, it is time to consult a professional.
Having worn hearing aids a long time (don't turn sh*t up to 11), I should point out that they require setting per-ear and one can have multiple programs (voice, music, ...). My fear of rechargeable aids is that with serious+ loss they'd burn through batteries in a (very) short time and if they're not replaceable it makes the aids disposable. Fitting is helpful as it's also done for mid-high earphones.
This will have to be paid for somehow, and somebody has to do the tests to know what to set. Same as glasses. So we should be able to get the raw aids at a lower cost and then deal with the extras. Costco sells reduced priced aids, so there's a little flexibility in the industry.
For my last set pre-covid, there were behind-ear (big), in ear (small) and in ear canal (very small). If you saw True Lies, their "radios" were probably dummy in-ear-canal aids. As I'm not blessed with a 15+ dex and like other posters I don't mind being see so the behind ears are ok. They can be hidden as dangly earrings with a sheath to make it interesting if you'd like. Otherwise, it's a bloody conservative industry re: colors. I wanted blue and red so it matched stereo wires :-).
And my attempt at bluetooth connectivity for phone calls failed as the things could not stay sync'd during conversations. Better to just use a headset.
I went for an eyetest. A woman with 3 years post-grad training sat down for 45 minutes, ran a battery of tests, detected a bacterial infection in my eye, sent me for a
hospital appointment the next day, and gave me a prescription that I filled out online. My payment to her - 25 quid.
I did get her some chocolates to say thank you.
Now name another (para-)medical area where the medical part is a loss leader for the rest? (I am worried i will hear a lot of Americans ...)
Great news. I've been learning about and implementing real-time DSP algorithms for audio enhancement. (Cortex-M7) I started this hoping to make scifi headphone that enhance hearing for normal people with different presets, but realized what I'm essentially building is more like a hearing aid. Didn't even realize the regularly issue. (Although using the article's terminology, could probably already market this as a PSAP and be fine. (?)).
Does this relate in any way to us getting cheaper hearing aids?
A pair of bluetooth streaming rechargable ones is about $3000. With Transparency mode and the latest software for AirPod pros, you can adjust the frequency distribution, and get what seem to be servicable hearing aids for $250.
What I'd like is proper (medical) assessment and fitting, but of cheaper commodity aids that are much much better made with better apps than most of those on the market now.
It has always seemed broken to me that hearing aids were not covered by healthcare, nor was there some sort of VSP like plan for hearing aids. I've worked with folks who had hearing aids from childhood and it is a big expense to bear while their glasses are subsidized.
Of course, the vision folks turned it into a racket for extracting cash. So ideally we'd want to avoid that and perhaps fix the vision racket while we are at it.
Similar frustration – I need a prescription to buy contact lenses every year. So I have to go get an annual eye checkup, which is still fine because it is preventive care and (mostly) covered by insurance. However, optometrists around me refuse to give a prescription for contact lenses without an additional $70 "contact lens fitting" fee which is not covered by insurance. The whole thing is a scam.
Audiology industry is filled with profit seeking corporations and they a have a HUGE political hand. They lobby. I would not be surprised to see the Audiology industry fight back this. They make huge profits and Audiologists are licensed workers.. Like doctors they're required to go though hoops and loops to get a license. The cochlear implant industry is the same it's all about profit and pushing the CI into babies and taking advantage of the early technology by using them on deaf people where in the future it will be more like cyborg tech way more advanced and they're just testing and pushing this huge industry. It's full of people that think a hearing aid or CI is a solution to the problem where it's really not. I would put neuro link tech into the same pool as CI tech. They're testing it on disabled people and touting the benefits while hiding the negatives.
So do I…oddly, I went and got my hearing tested and my issues are with processing, not hearing. The guy said “I actually can’t prescribe you a hearing aid, even if I wanted to.”
So, there should be some barrier to entry. Just not at $3500 an ear.
A hearing test measures how sensitive your hearing is in each ear at a range of frequencies - they send a beep at a certain frequency and ask you if you can hear it, and lower the volume until you can not hear it, raise it to confirm you can hear it. This is repeated in each ear over the normal range of hearing, nominally 20- Hz to 20,000 Hz, most older people have lost at the low and high end. The detailed frequency/volume curve allows the hearing aid to be programmed to bring hearing to the 'normal' curve. Some people may have lost hearing at certain frequencies, it may be an irrevocable loss?
That said, an iphone with headphones can easily create and administer a tone to each ear that can be varies in frequency and intensity - with the customer pushing a button when he loses the tone, repeat to confirm, then on to the next frequency until the audio range is covered. They the customer is given test results and he sets an on the phone equalizer at the values needed for each frequency and he is good to go. It needs to be made to limit the intensity to a maximum, and some gaps might remain where he has lost hair cells and will have a permanent frequency gap that can not be cured unless we learn how to grow new hair cells in the right place of the right length.
A huge market will open up, there will be a wailing and gnashing of teeth in the old FDA shielded crooks, who must adapt or fold. If they adapt, they will do well.
The headline is deceptive. It's more like "Congress ordered the FDA to let you buy a hearing aid without a prescription, and the FDA refused for half a decade afterwards."
[+] [-] gpt5|4 years ago|reply
On the headphones side, we are getting smaller, truly-wireless headphones with some ambient sound features (such as noise cancellation, and iOS hearing features). New trends like AR would just accelerate the change due to the need to solve all day worn audio devices.
On the hearing aids side, almost every hearing aid today acts as an always connected set of headphones for your mobile phone (and has been like that for years on iOS).
Deregulating this could bring the tech industry innovation to hearing aids through natural progression of headphones technology.
This trend would make hearing aids not just target hearing impaired people, but also individual with normal hearing. For example, features such as protecting your ears against a sudden loud noise, silencing a loud restaurant so you can have a quiet conversation or improving the audio of a soft speaker could be useful for everyone.
[+] [-] jrace|4 years ago|reply
*Hearing test
* Hearing aid fitting
* Usage counselling
* Follow up adjustments
* Annual retest of your hearing
* Replacement of lost hearing aids
* Unlimited repair for 3 years ??
====== I got out of the Audiology field in 2015. At that time all the above was included for every hearing aid we sold (Prices varied from $750 / ear - $3600 / ear.
When I was in that field many companies tried "pay as you go" models, instead of bundles.
You know what happened? People paid the minimum (test, and fit) the never returned for repairs or re-tunings.
And then complained to everyone that "hearing aids don't work".
Buy a hearing aid today from any major provider in Canada and you get:
Initial test
Initial fitting
Follow up tests
Follow up re tunes
Counselling
repairs - including full replacement in case of loss
Batteries
In-clinic repairs and cleanings.
100% return, and in some cases $0.00 3 month trial period.
There is far more to fixing your hearing issues that just amplifying sound. Sadly, most people wait too long before trying a hearing aid, and give up because they hear too much noise.
Imagine returning your eye glasses because you still see ugly people.
I truly wish hearing aids were far cheaper, and that was a very hard part of my job and one of the reasons why I changed careers.
[+] [-] dmurray|4 years ago|reply
What if, instead, the calibration process worked constantly? Give the user a button to press when they don't hear something well, and another when they do. Let them have this for a month, let them try it in their kitchen, their bedroom, the local shop or bar, outdoors. Run some reinforcement learning algorithm to optimize for getting more "good" presses and fewer "bad" ones. Optionally, adapt separately to each environment.
Is there a "smart" hearing aid calibrator that works like this? If not, but you think it's plausible, I'm interested in working on it.
[+] [-] retrac|4 years ago|reply
It is a pretty sweet deal if you can afford it. They do just ship you already-programmed replacements if you've lost one. No questions asked. Free adjustments. Very comprehensive. It's pleasant and stress-free while you're covered by one of those packages.
But it's if you can afford it. When you can't afford the all-exclusive package there's really not much else. I spent about half of my childhood, teens and 20s without hearing aids due to cost. Held back my education at all levels. Even when I went to university, while I was eligible for provincial funding for hearing aids at a student, I was still expected to pay the cost up-front first. Independent adult students don't usually have $5000 cash lying around. I missed most of my first year.
[+] [-] RHSeeger|4 years ago|reply
Of the people I know who have gotten hearing aids, every single one of them was disappointed. Every single one of them still had trouble hearing. As far as I can tell, the only thing the audiologists appear to be able to be able to correct for (with current hearing aids) is "make it louder". If more than that is needed, it's a vicious cycle of taking it home, realizing it's not really helping, and bringing it back to try a new one.
The above seems to be particularly true when the hearing problem is heavily weighed towards not being able to hear certain/higher frequencies, so can "hear" people talking, but can't understand it; especially if there's any background noise at all.
I sympathize that your job was hard and that the clients made it harder. But the clients following directions and trying multiple different hearing aids ... doesn't really solve the problem in a lot of cases. Hearing aids are very expensive, far too expensive for a result of "I still can't understand people talking to me".
[+] [-] chairmanwow1|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] TaylorAlexander|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] criddell|4 years ago|reply
Is tuning (and retuning) something that could be automated? Because of tinnitus, my hearing is not the same every day and so static settings feel like the wrong solution.
[+] [-] thegrimmest|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] fnordfnordfnord|4 years ago|reply
The new schema may not be a panacea but I don't expect it to be worse than the status quo.
[+] [-] oneplane|4 years ago|reply
Some people argue that ethics have nothing to do with it, but if that were the case, highly expensive insurances would be mandatory, and payouts would be zero since business-wise that makes a lot of money without being ethically encumbered.
[+] [-] mherdeg|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] scottlamb|4 years ago|reply
Do you know what the status quo in the US is? (I don't, other than the prescription requirement from the article.) What you describe for Canada sounds pretty good to me, but I wouldn't assume any part of US healthcare is as inexpensive as Canadian healthcare or that the regulations are as well thought out.
[+] [-] brutus1213|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jl2718|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] germinalphrase|4 years ago|reply
Are you suggesting that getting hearing aids preserves your hearing or simply that people with advanced hearing loss benefit less from them?
[+] [-] mgerdts|4 years ago|reply
The return period is 6 months, I think. You also get one free replacement in the first 3 years if it is lost or chewed up by your dog.
[+] [-] JCM9|4 years ago|reply
Vision care is another area I’d expect to see more changes and disruption coming down the pipeline. Vision care is very important and advanced cases require special skills, but it’s also unclear why many routine checks couldn’t just be done by a family doctor.
The US requires one to see a “doctor of optometry” to get a basic single vision prescription. That industry used to make its money turning around and selling you glasses from the same office but that whole industry has been turned upside down by online retailers like Warby Parker and such. Why the US can’t follow the models followed most elsewhere in the world is unclear, but it would remove a lot of extra steps and costs in getting a basic care of glasses. Ophthalmology (medical doctors) are still very much a thing but most countries don’t have this model of needed a “prescription” from an optometrist for a basic pair of single vision specs.
[+] [-] slownews45|4 years ago|reply
If you can afford the $5,000 - great! The current system works for you. 80% of people cannot and so are stuck.
For folks with mild/moderate loss (where a LOT of people don't get help) something as simple as letting Apple tweak noise cancellation to be voice enhancing and providing a tuning and hearing test app in the iphone would be a godsend.
The elderly miss out on a lot of family life because of hearing issues - people stop talking to them even if they are fully sound of mind because of this issue. I've seen this personally.
And for all those who say apple is just a consumer products company and there is no way their $180 - $250 airpods can provide any benefit I think you might be surprised.
[+] [-] ddlutz|4 years ago|reply
I would spend $10,000+ if my tinnitus could be cured permanently though.
[+] [-] falcolas|4 years ago|reply
Why this matters: Hearing loss is not uniform across frequencies, and we use huge portions of the spectrum for different functions (truck backup beepers vs. car engine noises, both used to identify what's coming your way).
[+] [-] dominotw|4 years ago|reply
Most ppl don't know that this even exists in their airpods because the settings are hidden deep inside hearing accessiblity .
[+] [-] kristofferR|4 years ago|reply
The only issue is that they are very visible and only last 4 hours each charge (I suppose you could get two pairs and switch between them every four hours).
[+] [-] kristofferR|4 years ago|reply
It's amazingly stupid that I, as a tourist, who knows exactly what types of contacts I need, may need to get a US prescription for contacts.
[+] [-] tshaddox|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bckygldstn|4 years ago|reply
From the Contact Lens Rule [1]: "a contact lens seller cannot provide contact lenses to its customer unless the seller either obtains a copy of the prescription or verifies the prescription information with the prescriber"
The Eyeglass Rule [2] doesn't contain this stipulation.
https://www.ftc.gov/enforcement/rules/rulemaking-regulatory-...
https://www.ftc.gov/enforcement/rules/rulemaking-regulatory-...
[+] [-] kiba|4 years ago|reply
Can we get hearing aids that are bigger? These small hearing aids make it easier to lose, and I do not mind looking "disabled" to people.
Also would like to use bluetooth to both locate the hearing aids, and to connect to devices as needed.
Would be cool if the battery can be recharged as needed, maybe through usb-c if possible, but magnetic charging would be acceptable.
[+] [-] barbazoo|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jrace|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Jemaclus|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] elliekelly|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] cf100clunk|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] fullstop|4 years ago|reply
I'm not of the age or occupation where I need hearing aids, but I think that I'd like overnight inductive charging, and I'd take them out and charge them while sleeping.
[+] [-] noja|4 years ago|reply
Do you charge one ear at a time so you are never without some level of hearing?
Can you comment on the Live Listen feature of AirPods?
[+] [-] 14|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] AlbertCory|4 years ago|reply
So why hasn't it happened? Those people who said "regulatory capture" get a gold star. A small group who will suffer a lot manage to defeat a much bigger group who will benefit by a much smaller amount.
[+] [-] throwawaysea|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] LocalH|4 years ago|reply
I maintain that, if automobiles were invented today, the horse-and-buggy industry would be able to successfully fend them off, based on the path regulatory capture has taken in the last 150 years.
[+] [-] cf100clunk|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jleyank|4 years ago|reply
This will have to be paid for somehow, and somebody has to do the tests to know what to set. Same as glasses. So we should be able to get the raw aids at a lower cost and then deal with the extras. Costco sells reduced priced aids, so there's a little flexibility in the industry.
For my last set pre-covid, there were behind-ear (big), in ear (small) and in ear canal (very small). If you saw True Lies, their "radios" were probably dummy in-ear-canal aids. As I'm not blessed with a 15+ dex and like other posters I don't mind being see so the behind ears are ok. They can be hidden as dangly earrings with a sheath to make it interesting if you'd like. Otherwise, it's a bloody conservative industry re: colors. I wanted blue and red so it matched stereo wires :-).
And my attempt at bluetooth connectivity for phone calls failed as the things could not stay sync'd during conversations. Better to just use a headset.
[+] [-] lifeisstillgood|4 years ago|reply
I went for an eyetest. A woman with 3 years post-grad training sat down for 45 minutes, ran a battery of tests, detected a bacterial infection in my eye, sent me for a hospital appointment the next day, and gave me a prescription that I filled out online. My payment to her - 25 quid.
I did get her some chocolates to say thank you.
Now name another (para-)medical area where the medical part is a loss leader for the rest? (I am worried i will hear a lot of Americans ...)
[+] [-] cf100clunk|4 years ago|reply
https://hackaday.com/2013/12/15/diy-hearing-aid/
No mention of DIY hearing aids from the FDA.
[+] [-] the__alchemist|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] frabcus|4 years ago|reply
A pair of bluetooth streaming rechargable ones is about $3000. With Transparency mode and the latest software for AirPod pros, you can adjust the frequency distribution, and get what seem to be servicable hearing aids for $250.
What I'd like is proper (medical) assessment and fitting, but of cheaper commodity aids that are much much better made with better apps than most of those on the market now.
[+] [-] ChuckMcM|4 years ago|reply
Of course, the vision folks turned it into a racket for extracting cash. So ideally we'd want to avoid that and perhaps fix the vision racket while we are at it.
[+] [-] paxys|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] OOvsuOO|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Damogran6|4 years ago|reply
So, there should be some barrier to entry. Just not at $3500 an ear.
[+] [-] aurizon|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pessimizer|4 years ago|reply