Insurance?

D

DJYumene

Member
Joined
Nov 15, 2008
Messages
241
Reaction score
0
I wrote a while ago about trying to get new HA's ... I got thrown back and forth a few times ... my insurance says that they pay up to $400 each ear and I pay the rest. but my audiologist (who is on the provider list) says it wont go through ... Meh .. I've pretty much decided to get my old ones fixed and new ear molds for now ... My work requires me to hear a lot ... espically with customers ... So I need to try something :shock:

Mmm, anyone else have problems with insurance like this? Also, the audiologist is asking about payment (sending me forms to get my permission to check my credit for payment plans) before she gives me prices ... is that normal?
 
shygirl1999 said:
I wrote a while ago about trying to get new HA's ... I got thrown back and forth a few times ... my insurance says that they pay up to $400 each ear and I pay the rest. but my audiologist (who is on the provider list) says it wont go through ... Meh .. I've pretty much decided to get my old ones fixed and new ear molds for now ... My work requires me to hear a lot ... espically with customers ... So I need to try something :shock:

Mmm, anyone else have problems with insurance like this? Also, the audiologist is asking about payment (sending me forms to get my permission to check my credit for payment plans) before she gives me prices ... is that normal?
Click to expand...

It is probably normal for her to check your credit if you are young and don't have a long history.

I pay for my own hearing aids. Lots of people don't have insurance coverage for that.
 
Bottesini said:
It is probably normal for her to check your credit if you are young and don't have a long history.

I pay for my own hearing aids. Lots of people don't have insurance coverage for that.
Click to expand...

Ahh, thank you :) Probably explains that ^_^
I guess it makes sense; they want you to make sure that you can even afford or do payment plans it before they go further, right?

I've never done this before on my own ... XD lol
 
shygirl1999 said:
Ahh, thank you :) Probably explains that ^_^
I guess it makes sense; they want you to make sure that you can even afford or do payment plans it before they go further, right?
Click to expand...

Afraid that is so. Just like a car or a big tv.
 
My insurance wouldn't cover anything, it is odd they said they would cover that for each ear and not do it. My old audi offered payment plans but the new one didn't. I had to pay for everything up front to get my aids. He explained to me that they have been burned a ton of times by people promising to pay with payment plans and such and just not doing it so they are left with thousands of dollars missing because people take advantage of them.
I hope it all works out for you =)
 
candybrowneyes said:
My insurance wouldn't cover anything, it is odd they said they would cover that for each ear and not do it. My old audi offered payment plans but the new one didn't. I had to pay for everything up front to get my aids. He explained to me that they have been burned a ton of times by people promising to pay with payment plans and such and just not doing it so they are left with thousands of dollars missing because people take advantage of them.
I hope it all works out for you =)
Click to expand...


Well, now I understand why they are asking me for my credit history; (HA's are expensive, and they want to make sure you can pay and not going to rip them off)

I guess it just surprised me because they never called me back in with options I had and give me prices (like they said they were) .. instead they said they said that my insurance was declined and sent me paperwork ...

As far as the insurance (this is insurance given by my work through the union): I have it on paper that also states they pay up to $400 each ear and I called to confirm as well. But it wont go through on their end. *shrugs* I don't know ... I want to call again, but I'm afraid of getting looped around back and forth again. Or how about I call when I'm at the office? :hmm:
 
shygirl1999 said:
I wrote a while ago about trying to get new HA's ... I got thrown back and forth a few times ... my insurance says that they pay up to $400 each ear and I pay the rest. but my audiologist (who is on the provider list) says it wont go through ... Meh .. I've pretty much decided to get my old ones fixed and new ear molds for now ... My work requires me to hear a lot ... espically with customers ... So I need to try something :shock:

Mmm, anyone else have problems with insurance like this? Also, the audiologist is asking about payment (sending me forms to get my permission to check my credit for payment plans) before she gives me prices ... is that normal?
Click to expand...

If the old one's work, as far as being able to hear goes, why not use them? You could get them cleaned, turned up, and new molds and tubing made.
 
I personally have never understood why hearing aids cost so much. They have less electronics and less sophisticated electronics then a personal computer but cost 3-4 times as much.
 
jasin said:
I personally have never understood why hearing aids cost so much. They have less electronics and less sophisticated electronics then a personal computer but cost 3-4 times as much.
Click to expand...

Simple. R&D.
 
Try contacting the insurance and stating that they're supposed to accept the claim under your agreement. Randomly sending out denials is a great way to cut costs and make profits.
 
jasin said:
If the old one's work, as far as being able to hear goes, why not use them? You could get them cleaned, turned up, and new molds and tubing made.
Click to expand...

They are over 10 years old (just about) ... I don't want them to keep breaking down ... I think it will be cheaper in the long run to get new ones than to have to keep paying for repairs ...
 
Mockingbird said:
Try contacting the insurance and stating that they're supposed to accept the claim under your agreement. Randomly sending out denials is a great way to cut costs and make profits.
Click to expand...

I did contact them, but they said to ask the office to try it again; they didn't know why it would have been denied. But it still is ... XD
 
Hear Again said:
Simple. R&D.
Click to expand...

If you were to buy the parts inside a hearing aid independently it'd cost no more then 100-200 dollars at most. Plus, most of the electronics in these devices was not created or invented by the hearing aid manufactures themselves. Its actually very simple electronics .. nothing really to complex. So i'm not buying that the high costs of hearing aids comes from R & D.

Oh, and there has been far more R & D put into computing then hearing aids. Billions upon Billions more. Yet, computers are not costing what most hearing aids do.
 
jasin said:
If you were to buy the parts inside a hearing aid independently it'd cost no more then 100-200 dollars at most. Most of the parts inside a hearing aid is technology derived from other sectors of the electronics industry anyways. So i'm not buying that the high costs of hearing aids comes from R & D.
Click to expand...

I don't care if you buy it or not. It's the truth. Hearing aids cost money to be manufactured and advertised. It isn't as simple as reducing the cost of a hearing aid due to its' internal components. That's simplistic thinking and only proves that you do not understand the bigger picture when it comes to manufacturing, distributing and advertising hearing aids.
 
Hear Again said:
I don't care if you buy it or not. It's the truth. Hearing aids cost money to be manufactured and advertised. It isn't as simple as reducing the cost of a hearing aid due to its' internal components. That's simplistic thinking and only proves that you do not understand the bigger picture when it comes to manufacturing, distributing and advertising hearing aids.
Click to expand...

The analogy I made is still valid though. You did not shoot it down with the manufacturing or advertising argument. The reason being is because computers cost far more to manufacture and advertise then any hearing aid. Yet, computers do not cost what most hearing aids do.
 
jasin said:
The analogy I made is still valid though. You did not shoot it down with the manufacturing or advertising argument. The reason being is because computers cost far more to manufacture and advertise then any hearing aid. Yet, computers do not cost what most hearing aids do.
Click to expand...

The problem with your analogy is that the computer market is much bigger than the hearing aid market.

Also, the population of those who use computers is far, far greater than the population who use hearing aids.

Thus, my argument is valid.
 
OK, we are getting a bit off topic but I can see why argument of the cost of HA's is coming in.

This is really simple. Anyone who dabbles or has taken general business econ should know about the law of supply and demand.

The PC and electronics market serves everyone in the world.
The hearing aid market serves only deaf people in the world.

Compare the ratio of everyone:deaf and you'll probably have a really uneven ratio, I would not be surprised.

I just took simple data from Gallaudet on deaf people in the USA.
How many deaf people are there in the United States

Gallaudet Hypothesis/Theory said:
About 2 to 4 of every 1,000 people in the United States are "functionally deaf," though more than half became deaf relatively late in life; fewer than 1 out of every 1,000 people in the United States became deaf before 18 years of age.
Click to expand...

So, averaging let's just say it means 0.3% of people.
According to US Census, 07/2008 est. population: 303,824,640. Applying the math, this means hypothetically 911,473 people in the USA are deaf. A little short of a million.

Back that up to the original population, that's a 300:1 ratio. When your demand is this low, and you don't have much market competition due to the bottleneck of the income relies on people being deaf; there's not much legroom to expand, which allows for "stabilization" of the prices of the products. In this example, 300 people can be buying iPod shuffles while only 1 is buying the hearing aid. Room for business expansion? no way.

Perhaps someone who is an econ major can explain my rhetoric better than I can.
 
naisho said:
This is really simple. Anyone who dabbles or has taken general business econ should know about the law of supply and demand.

The PC and electronics market serves everyone in the world.
The hearing aid market serves only deaf people in the world.
Click to expand...

Exactly!
 
I agree with Hear Again, The reason why they are so expensive is because demand is low as compared to computers ... Hear Again and Naisho pretty much said it all already :) *nods*
 
Back
Top