[kingofbeer]

Originally Posted by OrangeBlossomBaby

I got my Unitrons through The Villages Health. The MSRP was something like $3600 but my FloridaBlue 360 website showed a special on HearUSA for the same model for $2500. My audiologist honored the lower price. Here's what came with it:

The devices, a charger and charging cord, a TV streaming box, firmware updates and device cleaning (they replace the wax guard, the outer bulb, and the tail that keeps the thing from falling off the back of my ear) every 3 months as needed, software updates for the remote app on my phone, customized program settings on my phone for different situations (driving my loud golf cart, listening to music through my phone music app, talking to friends while at a noisy restaurant, just sitting around the house not doing anything important, dancing in the squares, and one "automatic" which somehow knows what I'm listening to and self-adjusts for it). I also get another hearing test halfway through the 3-year warranty period at no extra charge (my insurance usually requires a co-pay with every visit to specialists - the cost of the devices covered ALL the co-pays).

It came with one battery change and, the best part - at the end of the three year warranty, I can tell them that I need that battery change and they will completely refurbish the devices in addition to just the battery. That will give me another 2-3 more years of use out of them before I need to replace them (assuming my hearing doesn't change drastically enough to need new ones earlier than that).

It also gives me all of this in the privacy of the audiologist's office. I don't have to go through a crowded store filled with music, announcements, people talking loudly to each other, the sound of a thousand shopping carts, kids whining at their parents, and all the other sounds that good hearing aids pick up for you when you walk through a warehouse store like that.

I purchased my hearing aids with United Healthcare. The Villages Health audiologist was in network at that time. The Villages Health is no longer in the network. This really aggravated me. The Villages Health system is in the United network, but the audiology department is not. United provides 1 year of service after that you are on your own. The other local providers that are in United's network probably provide service for 1 year too. I called one local hearing aid company who said that they will sell you a lifetime service contract for $1500 or something like that. I expect these Phonak hearing aids to last 3 to 4 years. My United insurance plan at the time covered the entire cost of the hearing aids with no copay. The typical co-payment for these hearing aids under United is about $1299 per hearing aid.