- In this video, I'm sharing three reasons why I love that Costco sells hearing aids and a few reasons I don't, coming up. (upbeat music) Recently I posted a video where I spoke about the three reasons why I love that Costco sells hearing aids but ultimately I decided
to take that video down because I had several individuals
reach out to me explaining that there were some factual
inaccuracies in that video and that that video was overly
biased in favor of Costco. Now, if you've been a viewer
of my channel for a while now then you know that I try to make my videos as factual as possible and as unbiased as possible considering that I am an actual hearing care provider myself. That being said, I would like to apologize for that first video. It was not my first mistake and it probably won't be my last, but I'd like to make it up to you by making this video
as factual as possible with the proper level of impartiality. So without further ado, here we go. Costco is one of the largest retailers of hearing aids in the world and in the United States alone they account for about 12%
of overall hearing aid sales the last time I checked. And while Costco does have a lot of fans, they sometimes get a bad reputation in consumer and professional circles where it is constantly debated whether or not it is a good idea to entrust your overall hearing
health to a warehouse club. That being said, I think that Costco
serves an important role in the treatment of hearing
loss for three main reasons and reason number one is that they actually
sell good hearing aids. And while some people bash Costco for selling defeatured versions
of name-brand hearing aids, it doesn't change the fact
that Costco Hearing Centers do sell name-brand hearing devices that are more than capable of
treating most standard cases of bilateral sensorineural hearing loss. Even their Kirkland
Signature brand hearing aid is made by a manufacturer that also manufactures hearing aids that I sell inside of my clinic. While the name-brand hearing aids that you will find at
a Costco Hearing Center will not have all of the features that you would find inside
of a name-brand hearing aid sold at a local hearing aid clinic, they may still have a number of features that are important to you. Reason number two is that Costco mandates that real-ear measurement
is at least performed inside of their Hearing Centers. In case you have not
been following my channel for the past several years, real-ear measurement is
one of the most important of the many best practices that should be followed when
programming your hearing aids. Real-ear measurement is
the way that we verify that your hearing aids
are programmed correctly to your hearing loss prescription by ensuring that you're receiving the right amount of amplification at each frequency of your hearing loss. Since programming hearing aids without the use of real-ear measurement is a complete guessing game, there should never be a situation where you're fit with hearing aids without performing these
critical verification measures. That is, unless you're okay with receiving subpar results from your hearing aids. Now, if you'd like to learn
more about real-ear measurement, I highly recommend that you watch my video that I will link in the description. And the third reason that I love that Costco sells hearing aids is the affordable pricing. The Costco Kirkland
Signature 9.0 hearing aid seems to be one of the
more popular hearing aids sold at Costco and these retail for less
than $1,500 for the pair. The manufacturer of the
Kirkland Signature brand tends to change from year to year just based on who wins the contract but, by and large, these hearing aids tend
to come down in price each time there's a new
manufacturer who produces them. Now, of course there are other brands that are sold at Costco outside of the Kirkland Signature line but these devices tend to be
a little bit more expensive but they still are pretty reasonable. Now, I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, Cliff, how the heck are you okay with
Costco selling hearing aids for cheaper than what
you can dispense them inside of your clinic? And the answer is simple, not everyone can afford the level of care that we provide inside of my clinic so there has to be some other
affordable options out there for individuals with hearing loss. Yes, there are affordable
hearing aid options in places other than Costco, but Costco has done a good job of getting solid devices
at a low price point that are actually fit by a
hearing care professional. So until that day comes where
cost is no longer a concern for individuals with hearing loss, Costco will continue to
serve an important role for thousands, if not millions, of individuals with hearing loss. Okay, now that you know the three reasons why I love that Costco sells hearing aids, now I need to share a few reasons why I don't like that
Costco sells hearing aids and the first reason is the hit or miss quality of care that Costco provides. Now, I know that I just got done saying how much I love
that Costco mandates the use of real-ear measurement, but just because you
require real-ear measurement does not mean that the clinician
is going to be performing these critical verification
measures correctly. Real-ear measurement is
a highly technical skill that requires a lot of time to master and a lot of precision to ensure that you're
doing things exactly right. You can actually do a bad job of performing real-ear measurement, so you need to ensure that you're programming
the hearing aids correctly to the prescription for an
average level speech input, a loud level input,
and a soft level input, as well as doing a maximum power output
measurement, as well. If your provider does
not do these things well, you're going to be leaving benefit of those hearing aids on the table. And while Costco accounts for nearly 12% of overall hearing aid sales, they also account for nearly
50% of the individuals who come into my clinic with hearing aids that I would consider to have
egregious programming errors. If you'd like to see what I mean by this, you can check out my other video that I will have linked in the description called "The GOOD, The BAD, & The UGLY." And the second thing that I don't like about Costco selling hearing aids is that some of the brands that they sell can only be programmed at a Costco. About a year ago, Demant, the parent company of a well-known hearing
aid brand named Oticon, announced the introduction of
their new Phillips hearing aid that was going to be sold
in Costco Hearing Centers. The problem is Phillips hearing aids are only sold at Costco, meaning that if you end up getting those devices from a Costco, you can only ever go to a Costco to get those hearing aids
adjusted and reprogrammed. So if you happen to have a
great provider at your Costco, no big deal. But if you happen to move to an area that doesn't have a Costco or you do not like the provider that is working at that Costco, you have no recourse to go anywhere else to get those hearing aids reprogrammed. Costco also happens to
sell ReSound hearing aids which I also work with
inside of my clinic. The problem is if you buy a
ReSound hearing aid from Costco, you could not take that
hearing aid to my clinic to get that hearing aid
reprogrammed either. We call that a locked hearing aid. Now, if you don't know what
a locked hearing aid is, of course I also have
a video on that as well that I will link in the description, but, basically, it is a hearing aid that can only be programmed and adjusted at the clinic that you got it at. So if you get a ReSound
hearing aid from Costco, you don't have any other
clinics that you can go to other than Costco to have those devices worked on. The main reason that I cannot
stand locked hearing aids, and it's not just Costco, is because it limits your access to care and the practice of locking hearing aids I find to be immoral at best. All right, guys, there you go. Those are the three reasons why I love that Costco sells hearing aids and a few reasons that I don't. I hope you found that video to
be more factual and impartial than my first video that
I posted on this topic and I promise you that in the future I will do my absolute best to make sure that my videos are as factual and as
unbiased as possible. That's it for this video. If you have any questions, leave them in the comment section below. If you liked the video, please share it, and if you wanna see other
videos just like this one, go ahead and hit that Subscribe button. Also, feel free to check out
my website, drcliffaud.com. (upbeat electronic music)
