Hearing Economics

Q from an independent hearing aid specialist:{{1}}[[1]]I found this question in a Letter to the Editor, entitled “Profiting From Hearing Aid Sales.”  It was published, but unanswered, in an industry journal[[1]] “I have minimum overhead… so perhaps my prices are lower than average.  However, if Costco is purchasing their aids for the same price that the VA pays (the price of

Last week’s post gave a rambling answer to a Reader’s Question from Worried Mom asking about survival of private practice.  The Answer went down the old bricks-and-mortar path, consolidated into a set of reflections that I (jokingly) referred to as my  Unified Location Theory– 17 years in the making and no better now than it was back in 1995.  I clarified

Q:  What were the last words of the Nobel Laureate economist, John Maynard Keynes? A:  “I should have drunk more Champagne.” Right! The next best thing to Champagne is writing these posts and getting readers’ comments.  Here’s a great one from a 1st generation private practice owner and worried mother. Q: Do you think private practice can survive in this

This occasional series has taken intrepid readers through economic concepts such as Utility, Decreasing Marginal Benefit and Willingness to Pay — all assumptions underlying the downward-sloping Price/Quantity Demanded curve that we call a Demand Curve.  As those posts illustrated with Jack and Jill’s different Utilities,  analyzing the logic of consumer choices given their limited resources is one way to understand

This short series has described a tiny company that stayed small and became profitable by specializing in developing and making tiny things for a tiny group of giant customers.  It did this by becoming a “manufacturing OEM”{{1}}[[1]]Original Equipment Manufacturer, as defined in post 2 in this series.[[1]] to several industries, including hearing/audio industries. At this point, we know who IntriCon

 WHAT is ItriCon?    IntriCon Corp describes itself as a “manufacturing OEM.” For the uninitiated (like me) OME stands for “Original Equipment Manufacturer.”  An OEM manufactures parts and finished products which it sells to other companies, which in turn use the parts and sell the purchased products under their own brand names.  IntriCon further describes itself as an OEM “dependent

A year ago, odds are low that the name “IntriCon” was tripping off the tongues of most Audiologists.  That may not have changed much in the past year, but it is worth knowing about Intricon Corp., the “tiny” company that is the little engine that could and did:  it is the manufacturing force driving big UHC’s subsidiary,  Hi HealthInnovations.  I’ll

Editor’s note:  This series follows predictions by Lars Kolind[1] in the 1990s.    Today’s post– the grand finale in this series–considers Dr. Kolind’s final prediction of a Brave New World that looks a good deal like a high volume version of the Old World.  We have arrived at this point after posts on Predictions I through VII, which covered  Audiologists as Retailers,Vanishing

Editor’s Note:  Brian Taylor, AuD, returns as a Guest Editor this week to, introduce another innovative concept.  Last time, he wrote about Concierge Audiology.  Today he writes on Mass Personalization of Services.  I think regular readers of this section will agree that Dr. Taylor’s posts fit perfectly with our “Back to the Future” series.  Welcome, Brian! Austrian born economist Joseph

Editor’s note:  This series follows predictions by Lars Kolind[1] in the 1990s.   Predictions to date have addressed Audiologists as Retailers,Vanishing Practitioner Autonomy, Internet Dispensing, Consumer Expectations, Vertical Distribution, Technological Dominance, Dispensers and Audiologists as Bedfellows, Ruthless Demand Curves, and Verification and Validation by regulation. Today’s post considers factors affecting market expansion. Lars Kolind’s Prediction #VII. There will be huge market growth. Hearing aid market penetration has been