It's the question we're asked most frequently at health fairs and public presentations... if such small devices are so critical for improving the quality of life for people with hearing loss, why do they cost so much?! On the Appalachian Audiology website, we post the pricing information along with the services that are provided with each pair of hearing instruments purchased through our practice. There are several reasons hearing instruments are sold at various price points. We will discuss them over the course of the next few blogs.
Hearing aid manufacturers sell their devices at pre-determined prices. One major factor that determines how much they charge is their investment in research and development. Dr. Bettie Borton, a Clinical Audiologist in Alabama, writes the following about the investment each hearing aid manufacturer makes into research and development:
Consider that the “Big Six” (or the top 6 hearing aid manufacturers in the United States today) spend roughly $500,000,000 annually on R & D, which is quite a lot. To be precise, that figure is 14% of their combined budgets. To put this into perspective, let’s do a percentage comparison. All of us would concede that Apple is certainly cranking out state of the art technology, and undoubtedly this costs the company in terms of product research and development – but by comparison, Apple expends only 2% of its total budget for R & D.
As Dr. Barton illustrates, hearing aid manufacturers invest heavily in research and development. This directly impacts the amount they charge for their products. It also helps us understand why the technology in modern hearing aids is second only to the technology behind space travel.
To read Dr. Barton's article on why hearings aids cost so much, click here.
My grandfather just got a hearing aid from atlanta hearing aids and he is very happy with the improvement. I was wondering if anyone knows of a good low cost source for batteries
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