What is the difference between seeking hearing care at Costco vs. seeking hearing care from a local private practice hearing care provider?
When I first took over operation of my hearing care practice in 2010, I envisioned having a hearing care practice where people would come to see me and accept my recommendation for hearing treatment without question. What I learned is that although my recommendations are correct, sometimes the price that is associated with the recommendation was not as well accepted. There is of course competition, just like anything in our economy. That’s where Costco comes in.
There are lots of places that one can buy a hearing aid to treat their hearing loss, but there is often more that goes into it than just the devices themselves. There is the follow-up care that accompanies, which is where the majority of the cost for “hearing aids” comes from.
When a person with hearing loss decides to treat their hearing loss, it is a big decision and is often something that is met with some apprehension. That’s why it’s important to understand the differences in working with a local hearing care provider vs going to Costco for hearing aids.
Here are the key differences:
- Costco sells top quality prescription hearing aids from top hearing aid manufacturers. However, the brands that are sold at Costco are brands that are made and sold exclusively for Costco and often cannot be programmed or serviced outside of Costco warehouses. The programming software is often not easy for independent providers to get as some manufactures will not allow providers outside of Costco to have access to it.
- The cost of the hearing aids at Costco are significantly less than purchasing them from a local provider. This is because Costco negotiates bulk pricing for hearing aids, just like they do for all of their products that they sell in the warehouse locations. These bulk discounts are not given to local, independent hearing care providers.
- Costco can provide follow-up care at no additional cost to the consumer mainly because their membership fees cover the costs such as staffing, overhead and equipment needed to provide these services to various departments, including their hearing aid department.
- There are often long wait times at most Costco stores, which means you could be waiting weeks and months to not only been seen for the first time, but also for any follow-up care that you may need after you are fit with the hearing aids. And you also need to go to a Costco warehouse, find a parking spot and deal with the enormous number of shoppers each time you go there for basic service and care.
- Because of the bulk model mentality, it means that Costco does the best if your hearing loss is fairly routine, mild to moderate, and does not require custom earpieces. People with more complex ear or hearing conditions, more severe hearing losses, ear diseases, or tinnitus are often not helped by the hearing aids found at Costco hearing centers.
Private practice hearing care can provide the following:
- Top quality prescription hearing aids from major manufacturers that can be serviced at any independent hearing care office, no matter where you live. There may be fees associated with services.
- It’s true that independent hearing care practices will never be able to compete with Costco on price for similar technology level devices, due to Costco’s ability to secure bulk pricing. Even if private hearing care providers could get the hearing aids for free, there would still be costs associated with the follow-up care because we have to pay our staff, rent, utilities, equipment, insurance and other expenses from the revenue generated from hearing treatment services.
- Private practice hearing care practices can provide more customized follow-up care that can include: counseling and realistic expectations, loaner services when hearing aids need to be repaired, programming and adjustments and verifying the fitting using real ear measures, electro acoustic analysis of hearing aids for proper functioning, auditory training, hearing rehabilitation strategies and materials, troubleshooting, tinnitus management and treatment, earwax removal, auditory processing evaluations, cochlear implants and vestibular services.
- When you work with a local hearing care provider, you are spending your dollars with someone who is a part of your community and those dollars stay in your local community. You also have the peace of mind knowing that you can see the same provider again and again, which builds continued trust.
At Sonora Hearing Care, we know you have a choice and we want you to know that we care about your hearing care journey. Hearing treatment is a big step and if you are interested in working with a local, independent provider for your hearing care needs, give our office a call at 520-881-8740.