Archive for March, 2010

Lost hearing aids

Saturday, March 27th, 2010

I was traveling last night and I left my kindle on the plane. Frustratingly, it was not found and no one has returned it. This made me realize that there must be many people who have lost a hearing aid and are equally frustrated. What are the best ideas and options to pursue once a hearing aid is lost? This is a very interesting dilemma to be in. All of a sudden, once you realize the hearing aid is lost you feel both angry and frustrated.

Ideally your hearing aid is insured and you can call your company and get a full reimbursement. But we all know that even with insurance it is just not that easy to get back your lost hearing aid.

Certainly you should return immediately to the location where you thought the hearing was last. This often leads to the finding of the lost hearing aid. Also, if you know the serial number of the hearing aid you should alert audiologists in your area. If they identify your lost hearing aid they may be able to reclaim it for you.

What other good ideas exist for finding lost hearing aids?

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Hearing aids and health care

Sunday, March 21st, 2010

It is a momentous day in the united states and Obama is pushing hard today for his health care plan. There is no doubt that if this passes the people who need hearing aids but have not been able to afford them may be helped.

The challenge is that while the Obama plan stands to insure over 30 million people who currently do no have health insurance, the plan does not go into the details of making insurance companies give assistance to people who need hearing aids.

I have to think that this massive influx of insurance carriers will add a big push to the insurance industry to allow hearing aids to be covered. If we assume that ten percent of the newly insured people will need hearing aids then this is over 3 million new users! Three million newly insured people who need hearing aids. What a wonderful day for those people and a wonderful day for the United States. Now lets all keep pushing the insurance industry to insure hearing aids. The time has come, hearing aids need to be insured, lets ride the wave of Obama health care to get there.

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Hearing aids in the summer

Saturday, March 13th, 2010

Daylight savings time is almost upon us here in the states and this gets me thinking about summer and the challenges that this can bring for the users of hearing aids. The primary challenge that summer brings for hearing aid users is the fact that hot days often are bundled with water activities and we all know that water and hearing aids are not the best of friends.

I would love to hear from our readers about the ways they deal with hearing aids in summer. Is it safe to remove your hearing aid at the beach, leave it on your towel and take a swim. I would say not. Hearing aids are too expensive for that type of treatment. How about leaving the hearing aids in the car. This exposes them to the next most dangerous element of summer - the heat.

On first glance, the solution seems to be to leave the hearing aid at home when you are going out for a hot day at the beach. This, however, is no solution at all.

Please share with us the tricks and tools you have developed for using hearing aids in the summer.

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repair hearing aids

Saturday, March 6th, 2010

The million dollar question - or should we say - the $700 question, is what to do with a broken hearing aid. When is it time to throw away your hearing aid and when it is a better idea to get it fixed. This is a tough question that actually applies to most electronics, not just hearing aids.

The challenge with the idea around repairing or throwing away a hearing aid is that they are so expensive to begin with. It is a no brainer to throw away a $30 toaster if it is no longer working. The same can not be said for a $800 pair of hearing aids.

There are many companies offering to repair hearing aids for as low as $30. If you can find a person to repair your hearing aid at this rate we would recommend doing it so long as you can get two things with the repair. One, you need to see some reviews of the persons work. Find someone who has had their hearing aid repaired their and make sure they are happy. Two, get a warranty. Anyone offering to repair your hearing aid should be willing to give you at least a three-month warranty.

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