Have you checked with your Vocational Rehabilitation counselor? I got my last bilateral hearing aids from my Vocational Rehabilitation counselor. I have an audiologist at a local university, and together my audiologist and Vocational Rehabilitation counselor got me 2 hearing aids, even though normally only 1 hearing aid is given. I had to get an exemption signed by the Governor! Anyway, they base the cost on your earnings. For me it was free because I earned so little. I’ve never been on SSDI. I’ve always been working. And I need hearing aids to function in the working world. See what your Vocational Counselor can do for you. It’s worth a try…

Also, hearing aids are considered a medical cost, so if you should pay for your hearing aids out of pocket, and add those to your co-pays and other medical costs, and all of your medical expenses add up to over 7.5% of your income, you can deduct them from your taxes. But they have to be over 7.5% of your income. I know I purchased 2 hearing aids out of pocket, and I was THIS close to making it over 7.5% But no go. I slipped through the cracks. Argh. But they’re tax-deductible as part of medical expenses.

Also, if you do work, you can save money pre=tax, if your company offers flexible spending plan, or even Health Savings Account. A good thing about the flexible spending plan or Health Savings Account is that they do cover batteries, hearing aids, ear molds, etc. Sure, insurance doesn’t cover, but the flexible spending account will cover hearing aids, batteries, ear molds. Yes, you’re paying for them out of pocket, but you’ve saved the money and the tax, so you save some money paying for the hearing aids using pre-tax savings account.

The other thing is, if more people bought the aids and complained about the molds, the fittings the sounds etc, instead of landing up in the night stand draw, we’d probably have more of an edge to protest. For me, the best thing has been to go to a local college that has a speech and hearing clinic and do not make a profit. They are interns in the speech and language department who are supervised by clinicians. So this is a good way to get hearing aids more reasonalby priced. The other solution if u don’t have a college near u that has a clinic, is to literally shop around and ask for prices. Dont be afraid to tell the audiologist that u can get a better price elsewhere and quote the price. There is definitely room for negotiating.

Another thing is that most audiologists will only show u the hearing aids of which they have to sell to keep them alive. Most audiologists equipment (the audio booth,etc) is usually covered by a manufacturing company that the audiologist is now tied into and has to sell a certain amount of hearing aids a month for. So know your choices of hearing aids. Don’t allow the audiologist to convince you of a different aid if you know specifally what u want.

Being educated on this matter, makes it more difficult for the audiologist to sell u on a different product. It would be great if we could get an audiologist on here to comment. Someone is making alot of money and its either the audiologist or the manufacturers.
saytheword