Hearing Economics

Two long-rumored events became reality in the last week or so, both of which will likely have long-term effects on the practice of dispensing Audiology.  Both have already elicited large short-term effects in the chatter level and hand wringing departments of our profession. Phonak Rumors and Realities   The Rumor Mill Hearing Economics got an email tip last December to

Polymer materials were the standouts in today’s round of patents.  Audiologists’ training is short on polymers so we may not fully appreciate their importance:  Patent #8628831 praises polymers for their special properties such as “positional selective metallization” which can be applied to hearing aid components where “it may be desirable to combine electrical and mechanical functions in a single component,

Hearing Economics is forever asking Why–usually more than 5 times– especially when it comes to the Why of hearing aid prices.  The Pricing series has asked the Whys of manufacturing costs, retail Price, and wholesale pricing for different dispensing models. The Why of “markup”  shows that net profit–the true markup–is well below $100/hearing aid. That prompts a host of “Why

Today’s post comes from Guest Editor Harvey Abrams, PhD,  back with another compelling read.  He was last heard explaining away the $100 hearing aid myth.  Readers can find his bio at the end of the post. Today’s post picks up the Pricing issue from the service side of the equation:  Not only do products cost more than you’d think, but services

“The success of the final product of services and hearing aid is dependent much more upon our services than it is upon the product. ”  Catherine Palmer PhD  Audiologists and licensed practitioners believe those words, based on years of experience with patients.  That’s why most of us do what we do and charge what we charge.  The next step in

“We don’t treat the product as a commodity other than the fact that the acquisition cost of the product is a line item.”  Catherine Palmer PhD  online pharmacy buy cenforce with best prices today in the USA Last week took issues with unmarked black boxes and the misuse of “markup” with reference to hearing aid sales. Today’s post continues the

Last week’s post concluded that hearing aid markup is “roughly keystone: 2x, not the ‘exorbitant’ 5x or even higher markup claimed on the Internet.”  The conclusion was based on supporting, albeit sparse, data, which is more than can be said for the 5x claim reproduced in Figure 1.  Besides, talking about markup as a multiple is misleading and sloppy when speaking of complex

The last few posts in the Pricing series measured the spans separating wholesale and retail pricing of hearing aids.  The purpose was not to give away trade secrets; rather to reduce trade secrecy in order to pursue rational explanations of hearing aid pricing.   For that, we need real data rather than shrouded speculation, which means “transparent” pricing, or what

Last week’s post raised the curtain on average wholesale and retail hearing aid pricing with the data in Figure 1, but it did not address average retail price of premium instruments.  That’s a crucial part of the Price puzzle because that’s where most of the wholesale increase is occurring.  Two big questions were left unanswered: How much of the higher

Are hearing aid markups as high as internet operators and others claim?  Are Audiologists routinely using a “5x markup?”  So ended the last post in this series and so begins today’s post.   How High Did You Say? Based on the 89,400 results accrued from a simple Google search of “$6000 hearing aids,”  it seems reasonable to use the decade-old anchor price of