Hearing Aid Cost
 

We have United Health HMO for our health insurance.
Regarding hearing aids, they will pay $175-$1225 per device.
I would like to hear of real experiences.
What do you have, where did you get them, what was cost, what did insurance pay and what was your out of pocket.
Many thanks for any replies!

Just paid $ 3200 last week, would have been 1000 higher but Humana chipped in a grand.

It totally depends on your degree of hearing loss. The key is to finding a good audiologist to determine what range of sounds you are missing and recommend appropriate aids. If your loss is severe (like mine) OTC or cheap aids will just frustrate you.

I also have United Health, and United Health have their own brand of
hearing aids.

I haven't received mind yet, so we'll see.

The Villages health has a very good audiologist (I need to find her card), a specialist that accepts Medicare and supplemental. In any case, she can clean your ears of wax (very important) and then test your hearing. I have mild loss and was told I may be able to use the OTC hearing aids, but you need a qualified individual to do the testing. I agree with above hearing aids need to be fitted to the individual, and what works for me may not work for you. Make sure whatever brand you decide to go with has a test period so you can make sure these are suitable.

Have UHC Hearing benefits through The Villages UHC Focus advantage plan-
Got a pair of their (UHC's) proprietary product-Relate Gold brand last year-Decent and effective-Paid $800 for the pair-Unitron makes them for UHC and the same Unitron ones would be over $3,000-
This year I am stepping up to a 'Widex Moment' product that's a lot smaller with some features that might make me use them more-and I am paying $1600 for the pair based on my UHC copay. Normally a $5,000 plus product. UHC works with a lot of providers and have those listings on the uhchearing.com web site.
Bottom line-GREAT UHC pricing and a GREAT selection. Lot to wade through though, and it's an important decision. Good luck!

Thank you. Out of five replies, yours was the kind of info I was looking for. Hope to hear more from others.

Cost of aids vary. My plan gives 1500.00 every 3 years. Call UH

Federal Employee Blue Cross apparently pays up to $2500 every five years, which is a good amount. I will be getting hearing aids in a month or so, so I checked it out.

Went to The Villages Health at Creekside and saw Dr. Sarah Montero. She is fabulous. She does through examination and talks to you about your lifestyle, needs and budget. I got a great set of Starkey hearing aides for $3800. My insurance did nothing to help but they have free financing available to help if you need it..

She who must be obeyed just got new Oticons from the Villages Health audiologist. TVH specialists accept outside insurance. Supposedly our Blue Cross will pay $2500 and we forked out $1300.

I think Oticon is a division of Cadillac or Rolls Royce.

This may not apply in your particular situation, but military veterans can go to the VA Clinic and see the audiologist at no cost (in locations where the clinic has an audiologist).

Who Is Eligible For Hearing Aids From The VA? | Military.com


Hearing Aids - Rehabilitation and Prosthetic Services).

https://youtu.be/_Jkx-3PDWdw?si=p4mH_4yaKeJuczpP

Be sure to check out Costco for hearing aids. I've been wearing aids for over 10 years now, and Costco is the only place I'll go. They sell top rated brands, and most can be had for less than $2,000 for a pair. My current aids are the Kirkland KS10 model, which are basically re-badged Phonak Paradise aids, made by Sonova (parent company of Phonak). Our secondary insurance is Blue Cross Federal (FEP Blue), which covers up to $2,500 for hearing aids every 5 years. My out of pocket cost was zero.

Check these out.... got them for wife...she loves them. Hearing aid sales people are like car salesmen.

Enhance Select 200 - Jabra Enhance

Neosonic Hearing Aids
 

Several months ago I bought a pair of cheap OTC rechargeable hearing aids for $254. They work great. If they last a year, I’ll be happy. Are they as good as $3000 hearing aids I used to have? No, but they work pretty well. The brand is Neosonic. They are available over the internet.

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.