Retail Hearing Aids: A New Paradigm for Reaching Consumers with Hearing Loss
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| Zounds, a hearing aid retailer based in Mesa, Ariz., owns and operates over a dozen hearing aid stores, mainly in Arizona, Florida and Pennsylvania, with plans to open more stores nationwide. |
“Honey, don’t forget to pick up a hearing aid on your way home from work!” Could buying hearing aids be as easy as swinging by the supermarket to pick up a loaf of bread and a gallon of milk? Retail hearing aid stores are already in many Walmarts and shopping malls across the country, with plans for even more.
Retail hearing aid stores offer convenient hours and a chance to get fi tted for a hearing aid without a long wait in a doctor’s offi ce. But some audiologists are concerned that customers may end up with a product they don’t need. While many retail stores have audiologists on staff, they also rely on hearing aid dispensers who, while trained and licensed, do not have as much formal education as audiologists. Other stores may offer only a limited selection of hearing aids, which may not address an individual’s hearing loss issues.
Still, buying hearing aids from a retail store is part of a larger trend that has seen an array of healthcare services – including those that address simple medical issues like sore throats and allergies – appearing in clinics in malls, megastores or even supermarkets. Retail locations enable audiologists to connect more easily with patients and explain hearing aid choices.
Procedure, Product and Price
Walmart currently rents space to approximately 120 Amplifon Hearing Aid Centers, which are mainly located on the East Coast, says Amplifon spokesman Brian Hugo. Amplifon also owns Miracle Ear, which has nearly 800 outlets in Sears and K-Mart, as well as freestanding locations called Sonus, of which there are about 300 locations. Zounds, a hearing aid retailer based in Mesa, Ariz., owns and operates over a dozen hearing aid stores, mainly in Arizona, Florida and Pennsylvania, with plans to open more stores nationwide.
Retail hearing aid centers often have one or two testing rooms, including several settings to simulate listening environments, such as restaurants. A customer does not necessarily see an audiologist, but may instead see a hearing aid dispenser, who administers a hearing test and consults with the customer about hearing aids available at the outlet. Amplifon Hearing Aid Centers offer hearing aids under their own label, manufactured by Unitron. Miracle Ear also has its own label, while Sonus offers hearing aids from manufacturers such as Siemens and Phonak.
Dispensers must pass a series of exams administered by a state board, says Hugo. Usually a dispenser completes a training or apprenticeship as well. But some audiologists say that is not enough.
“Just because someone has a license doesn’t mean they know what they’re doing. It guarantees a lowest common denominator of knowledge,” says Portland, Ore., audiologist Billy Martin.
“I don’t think hearing aids belong in Walmart,” says Larry Waters, an Arizona-based audiologist. While he admits that “there are good and bad hearing aid dispensers,” he also stresses that audiologists are more focused on underlying hearing problems.
Hugo counters that licensed hearing aid dispensers are professionals: “As far as dispensing a hearing aid and being able to test and evaluate a customer’s needs, they’re as good as any audiologist.”
Ultimately, many audiologists agree that people with hearing problems need to thoroughly educate themselves about their hearing aid provider and the products they are selling. Kelly Halligan, a Denver audiologist, says people with hearing loss should look for more than one brand of hearing aid for sale, as well as educate themselves on the variety of features available. She said the Internet, along with resources such as Hearing Health, is full of information on hearing aids. Halligan
also says a person shopping for a hearing aid should look carefully at the physical environment in a retail store, pointing out that she has seen some setups that do not seem to provide enough privacy for effective hearing tests: “It’s sort of like going to a pharmacy – they’re just out in the open.”
When all the information is in, cost remains a top concern for many who need hearing aids. Here, too, customers should do their research: Hearing aids can cost up to several thousand dollars, yet some people, even those with severe hearing loss, may actually do better with a cheaper model. Higher price may be a factor of more features, such as Bluetooth connectivity for cellular phone reception, that are not essential to all hearing aid users. It is incumbent on the consumer to research hearing aids and determine how much power and how many features they need.
“Price is determined by technology and need,” says Hugo when asked about Amplifon’s hearing aids. “It can be as low as maybe $800 for an individual hearing aid, or as much as $4,000 or $5,000,
depending on the range of technology and the demands of the customer’s environment.” This is roughly the same price range as one would fi nd with an audiologist. “The most expensive hearing aid I sell is $3,100 and the cheapest is $1,000,” says Halligan.
Most hearing aids are not covered by insurance, and Medicare and Medicaid’s coverage of hearing aids is limited. Hugo says Amplifon’s hearing aid stores offer customers the option of selecting payment plans through companies that specialize in healthcare fi nancing. Such fi nancing plans are also available through many audiologists.
Hugo says Amplifon provides follow-up visits as part of the price of the hearing aid, including contacting the customer’s primary care physician if the customer requests it. Similarly, Halligan emphasizes that much of what someone is buying with a hearing aid is time to properly fit and adjust the hearing aid. She will normally see a patient for a total of three hours over a three-month period to conduct a lengthy case history, a variety of hearing tests, and follow-up after fitting to evaluate a hearing aid’s effectiveness. She points out that a patient’s case history could reveal that a hearing aid might not even be the most appropriate solution to deal with hearing loss.
Are retail hearing aid stores here to stay, and if so, what will they mean for traditional audiologists? Audiologists have faced similar paradigm shifts before, with hearing aid mail-order sales and Internet sales. Each new development in bringing hearing aids to the consumerforces audiologists to evaluate the value of their services.
“Just because someone can [operate] better than me doesn’t mean I have a right to deny them [the opportunity],” says Martin. “If I can’t compete, then maybe I need to go work for Walmart!”
Michael Ream is a freelance journalist.
