I am on my 2nd pair of VA provided hearing aids and getting them through the VA was simple. They are Starkey. They also provided me with a blue tooth device that hooks to my TV to broadcast voices into my head (you have to separately request it). And as I recall, they will provide you a new pair every 5 years.

And I do not have a service related disability nor did I have to jump through any hoops to get them. Maybe my loss was just bad enough.

FWIW

I have Phonak hearing aides which they said were the best on the market, wish I could tell you honestly what the retail price was but they were several thousands of dollars, I want to say $7,000. my out of pocket price was $300. for both. You got the charger with them, also I got no pressure into buying them. If my memory serves me right I think they have approximately 10 things you can get them to do, I selected to program them to my phone & my internet which was a big asset for me, but I think the next time I won’t get such expensive Hearing Aides only because some of the cheaper ones can do the same exact thing. But they are very nice hearing aides. But for me buying cheaper won’t let me hear less. My Ins. will let me have some models for Free but to me they gave me hearing that sounds like I was in a drum. The one that went deep into the ear canal that you couldn’t see gave me a plugged up sound, hated them! Hope this helped!

Audioligist
 

I have had hearing aids for several years and think a great audiologist is as important as a good hearing aid.

For mild hearing lost can get away with cheap ones but for those of us with severe loss you need an audiologist and more expensive aids

This is good to know as we have UHC Focus. Just wondering, though, did you use the $500 that UHC gives you to offset out-of-pocket costs, too?

Costco - $1400 for the pair and I love them. I connect to my phone, my TV, etc. I chose batteries, but you can get them with a charger for a few hundred more. All exams, checkups, maintenance is free. 3 year warranty.