A Child Hears More Clearly—While Hearing Care Gets New Choices
Opening Overview
Sometimes the biggest hearing story isn’t about a new chip, artificial intelligence or another product launch.
Sometimes it’s a five-year-old girl smiling at her mother.
This week, audiology students in New Jersey used telehealth to help children more than 1,500 miles away in Dominica receive and learn to use hearing aids—continuing a humanitarian project in a country with no public audiologists.
Closer to home, AARP members have a new hearing-care option through Soundly that could change how some consumers pay for prescription hearing aids and professional services.
Meanwhile, a new article is drawing attention to a frustrating reality for millions of retirees: Original Medicare still doesn’t pay for hearing aids.
And researchers at Creighton University are investigating a part of our hearing system many of us probably didn’t know existed—the communication pathway that sends signals from the brain back to the ear.
This week’s stories share an important theme:
Better hearing access isn’t just about inventing better hearing aids. It’s also about making professional care, pricing, information and support easier to reach.
❤️ A Five-Year-Old’s Smile From 1,500 Miles Away
When five-year-old Gabriella smiled and gave her mother a thumbs-up during a recent hearing-aid fitting, her mother’s reaction was immediate.
She cried.
Before receiving the hearing aids, her mother said that kind of interaction would not have been possible.
The moment occurred during a July 23 telehealth appointment connecting the Caribbean island nation of Dominica with audiology students and faculty at Montclair State University.
It was the continuation of a humanitarian mission that began in May, when nine Doctor of Audiology students traveled to Dominica and helped screen approximately 400 children and adults for hearing problems.
The need is significant.
Dominica currently has no public audiologists, according to the university.
Three children—ages 5, 7 and 10—were ultimately provided hearing aids and follow-up care.
But simply sending hearing aids wasn’t enough.
During the telehealth appointments, Montclair students helped a local physician, nurses and family members learn how to properly fit and maintain the children’s devices. One student who speaks French Creole interpreted for a Haitian family.
That follow-up may be the most important part of the story.
A hearing aid sitting in a box doesn’t improve anyone’s hearing. Someone must know how to fit it, maintain it, troubleshoot it and help the person wearing it adapt.
Telehealth allowed that care to continue even after the students returned to New Jersey.
HArC Insight: Expanding hearing access isn’t simply about distributing devices. Long-term success requires fitting, education and support—and telehealth may help bring those services to places where hearing-care professionals are scarce.
Read the Montclair State University story
🛍️ AARP Members Get a New Hearing-Care Option Through Soundly
AARP members now have another way to shop for hearing aids—and the most interesting part may not be the discount.
Soundly has launched AARP Hearing Care by Soundly, offering members discounts on prescription and OTC hearing aids along with access to a nationwide provider network.
The program went live July 30.
According to the announcement, AARP members can receive discounts of up to 50% on prescription hearing aids, although actual savings will depend on the device and care selected. OTC options are also available.
But the more unusual feature is something called unbundled pricing.
What does “unbundled” mean?
Traditionally, a prescription hearing-aid price may include both the devices and several years of professional services.
That might include:
* Fitting and programming
* Follow-up appointments
* Adjustments
* Counseling
* Troubleshooting
The consumer pays one larger price upfront whether all those services are eventually used or not.
Soundly’s new model separates the cost of the hearing aids from longer-term clinical care.
Prescription purchases through the program include at least a 60-day trial period with setup and adjustment appointments included. Afterward, consumers can pay for professional visits individually, purchase a service package or arrange another care plan with their provider.
That could potentially lower the upfront cost for someone who needs relatively little ongoing support.
But it also makes comparison shopping more important.
A $3,000 unbundled hearing-aid purchase isn’t necessarily less expensive than a $4,000 bundled purchase if the consumer later needs $1,500 worth of professional services.
HArC Insight: Don’t compare hearing-aid prices until you know what each price includes. The lowest device price and the lowest total cost of ownership aren’t always the same thing.
Read about AARP Hearing Care by Soundly
🛡️ Consumer Watch: Medicare Still Doesn’t Pay for Hearing Aids
Here’s one Medicare surprise that continues catching new retirees off guard:
Original Medicare does not cover hearing aids.
It also doesn’t cover exams performed solely for fitting hearing aids.
That policy dates all the way back to Medicare’s creation in 1965.
A new August 3 personal-finance article illustrates the problem with an example of a retiree receiving a $4,600 quote for a pair of mid-range hearing aids and discovering that Original Medicare would pay none of it.
There’s another misunderstanding worth clearing up:
Medigap generally doesn’t solve the problem either.
Medigap policies such as Plan G and Plan N primarily help pay your share of expenses for services that Original Medicare covers.
If Medicare doesn’t cover the hearing aids in the first place, standardized Medigap coverage generally doesn’t create that benefit.
There are exceptions elsewhere in the Medicare system.
Many Medicare Advantage plans offer additional hearing benefits, although those benefits vary considerably. A plan might provide:
* A fixed hearing-aid allowance
* A specified copayment per device
* Discounted prices
* Access to particular hearing-aid brands
* A contracted provider network
Original Medicare Part B can also cover certain diagnostic hearing and balance examinations when Medicare’s requirements are met. That is different from paying for hearing aids or routine hearing-aid fitting exams.
Before buying hearing aids, ask:
What exactly does my insurance pay?
Don’t stop when you’re told, “You have a hearing benefit.”
Ask for the actual out-of-pocket price for the hearing aids you’re considering.
Then compare that price with alternatives outside the benefit network.
HArC Consumer Tip: A “hearing benefit” does not automatically mean you’re getting the lowest hearing-aid price. Compare the final cost, brands available, warranty, trial period and professional services before deciding.
Check Medicare's official hearing-aid coverage information
🧠 Innovation: Scientists Explore a Two-Way Conversation Between Your Brain and Ear
Most of us probably imagine hearing as a one-way process.
Sound enters the ear.
The ear sends information to the brain.
The brain interprets it.
Researchers at Creighton University are investigating something considerably more complicated.
The brain also sends signals back toward the ear through what is known as the auditory efferent system.
Assistant professor Hui Hong, Ph.D., has received a roughly $524,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health to investigate how this system changes following noise-induced hearing loss.
Hong wants to understand whether those changes help the auditory system recover—or potentially contribute to continuing problems.
The research could eventually help scientists understand why people with seemingly similar hearing-test results can experience very different real-world hearing difficulties.
It could also someday contribute to new treatments.
But that word someday is important.
This is early-stage research, not a new therapy currently available to people with hearing loss.
Hong also has a personal connection to the work: she experiences tinnitus herself and has family members with age-related hearing loss.
HArC Insight: The traditional hearing test tells us which tones a person can detect. Future hearing care may reveal much more about how the ear and brain interact after hearing damage.
👂 OTC Watch: Another Small Rechargeable Option Enters the Market
A new company called Certus Hearing announced the Certus One OTC hearing aid on August 1.
The rechargeable in-canal device is marketed to adults with perceived mild-to-moderate hearing loss.
According to the company, the devices offer up to 16 hours of operation per charge, a charging case providing additional power, direct onboard controls that don’t require a smartphone app, a 90-day home trial and a two-year guarantee.
The lack of an app is noteworthy after we’ve recently discussed how heavily some modern hearing aids depend on smartphones and continuing software support.
However, consumers should keep this announcement in perspective.
The available information comes primarily from the manufacturer and its press release. HArC I Hear has not independently evaluated the product, and marketing claims about speech processing and background-noise performance should not be interpreted as independent test results.
HArC Insight: A long return period is especially valuable with OTC hearing aids. Specifications can tell you what a device is designed to do; only real-world use tells you whether it actually helps you hear better.
💡 HArC Tip: Bundled vs. Unbundled Hearing-Aid Pricing
The new Soundly program gives us a good reason to understand two terms consumers may increasingly encounter.
Bundled pricing
One price includes the hearing aids plus a defined period of professional care.
Potential advantage: Predictable costs and easy access to follow-up care.
Potential disadvantage: You may pay upfront for services you never use.
Unbundled pricing
You purchase the devices separately and pay for professional services individually or through a service plan.
Potential advantage: Lower initial cost and greater control over how much professional care you purchase.
Potential disadvantage: Frequent adjustments or appointments can increase the total cost.
Neither model is automatically better.
Before comparing two hearing-aid quotes, ask each provider for the same information:
Device + fitting + follow-up care + warranty + loss/damage coverage + supplies + expected service charges.
Only then are you comparing apples to apples.
💙 What This Means for You
This week’s stories illustrate something that becomes increasingly obvious as hearing technology improves:
The hearing aid itself is only part of hearing care.
Gabriella’s experience in Dominica required a hearing aid—but also audiology students, a local physician, nurses, family members, an interpreter and telehealth follow-up.
Soundly’s new AARP program separates the price of technology from professional services, giving consumers more choices while also making it more important to understand exactly what they’re purchasing.
Medicare’s continuing exclusion of hearing aids means millions of retirees must make those purchasing decisions largely with their own money.
And Creighton’s research reminds us that scientists are still discovering how complicated hearing actually is.
Better technology matters.
But access, fitting, follow-up care, consumer education and realistic expectations matter too.
Closing Thought
We often ask:
“What’s the best hearing aid?”
Perhaps there’s a better question:
“What’s the best hearing solution for me?”
For one person, that might be a professionally fitted prescription hearing aid with years of follow-up care.
For another, it might be an affordable OTC device.
For someone else, it could require specialized medical treatment, telehealth or a combination of technologies.
The goal isn’t simply owning better technology.
It’s hearing—and participating in life—better.
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HArC I Hear™ shares hearing news and consumer information for educational purposes. It is not a substitute for evaluation, diagnosis or advice from a qualified hearing-care or medical professional.