Interview with Sally Balch Hurme J.D., Office of Consumer Protection, AARP
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Office of Consumer Protection, AARP
Author of: The AARP Consumer Guide to Hearing Aids
AO/Beck: Hi Ms. Hurme. Thanks for your time this evening. Please tell me about the evolution of the new booklet titled 'Consumer Guide to Hearing
Aids' from AARP?
Hurme: Sure Doug. About ten years ago we published a similar booklet, but of course by 2000, it was terrifically outdated. There have been so many changes in the hearing aid industry and in hearing health care, that it was basically time to rewrite the booklet. At AARP we try to focus on two broad topics for these booklets. The first area is the 'Wise Consumer' area, and the second is 'Consumer Fraud'. The hearing aid booklet fell into the 'Wise Consumer' area, and it's a topic that many of our members are interested in.
AO/Beck: I'm glad you didn't say it was addressed by you because you handle 'Consumer Fraud'! The booklet is 20 pages and I have a copy of it in front of me as I speak to you. Frankly, the guide appears to be comprehensive and well written. Did you research and write the whole booklet yourself or did you have co-authors?
Hurme: I wrote the entire document. However, I was happy to have some audiologists and hearing care advocates review the document before it went to press to be sure I was on track.
AO/Beck: I can imagine this has been a very popular booklet. Any idea how many have shipped?
Hurme: No, not really. However, I have heard that AARP is considering a second publication run, so I think it must be very popular.
AO/Beck: As a non-audiologist, and as the author of this booklet, how did you go about preparing for this assignment?
Hurme: I went into this knowing very little about hearing aids and I quickly immersed myself in information. I had the good fortune to attend the ADA meeting two years ago and that was very useful. I interviewed lots of people and I got to see the products and speak with the manufacturers, their reps and the audiologists. I attended many of the instructional sessions, and I read a few of the books available on the subject. All of these opportunities came together to help support the final written booklet.
AO/Beck: Was there one particular thing you learned while organizing all of this information, that might have been a little bit of a surprise to you?
Hurme: Yes there was. In essence, I think it is very important for the patient to realize they are purchasing more of a service, rather than a product.
AO/Beck: Very true. Hearing aids are amazingly service intensive, I believe many of the failures we deal with as a profession and as an industry have more to do with unrealistic expectations than product failures. I'm glad you brought that up. Patients tend to get frustrated very quickly when they read about the hype, promises, beeps and whistles and then expect 'miracles' to occur. As an industry and as a profession, I think we need to emphasize personal service issues, rather than the latest engineering and software accomplishments. When we focus on personal partnership issues between the
audiologist and the patient, such as ongoing fine-tuning of the hearing aids, and scheduled follow-up visits for cleaning and re-adjustment, and realistic prefitting counseling and aural rehab to better understand and address the synergies of amplification and the patient, we are far more successful. I think you hit the nail on the head, it is the service component which has the greatest impact, not the hardware. And as you can imagine, it is the service component that probably causes the majority of the failures.
Hurme: Additionally, I found many examples of patients who think they can just go to a store and buy a hearing aid and that's that. Of course the reality is that approach will fail. Without the personal service component, disappointment is almost assured.
AO/Beck: I agree. I think you can easily make the argument that knowledge, education and clinical training, as well as counseling and aural rehab (AR) skills and training are all critically important elements in successful hearing aid dispensing. I totally agree -service is the key component. What other observations did you make while researching and writing this document?
Hurme: One other observation I made was that the products are much better than I expected. The products can be finely tuned to meet the specific patient's needs and they are actually very advanced with regards to technology.
AO/Beck: Very good. Did you find any glaring holes in the industry or the profession? Did you find any issue where you said to yourself - No wonder this industry only captures one fifth of their potential market. If only they did '__' (fill in the blank), consumers would be much more accepting.
Hurme: The only really astonishing issue was the price. Frankly, sticker shock is the issue as best I can tell. Hearing aids, particularly really good ones, are just too expensive for the majority of the hearing impaired consumers. I understand that these complicated, highly engineered, delicate, computers which are custom made to fit in the ear canal are very expensive to make, but the retail price is just too high for the general public.
AO/Beck: I think you're right. In the national and regional surveys which I've read over the past decade or two, price is rarely blamed as the market penetration roadblock, but I think it is the primary issue and I think it is key in preventing us from penetrating more of the market. Typically the
surveys reflect cosmetic issues, noisy backgrounds, feedback and occlusion, but I think all of those would be relatively minor, or at least well-managed if the price of a one hundred percent digital hearing was $699.00 When the cost is one to two thousand dollars each, or more, expectations are very
high and service issues are perceived as an annoyance and a bother, rather than an improvement and benefit. However, in your booklet, on page 15, you referenced the 1999 MarkeTrak survey and noted the average price of a hearing aid was $877.00 each. However, I agree, the perceived average price is much higher than reality and of course, the best hearing aids are two to three times that cost. What about the issue of one versus two hearing aids? Any surprises there?
Hurme: Not really, I walked away with the impression that the vast majority of patients will need to wear two hearing aids if they are truly trying to overcome their hearing. One hearing aid is not going to be an adequate solution for binaural hearing loss.
AO/Beck: As a final question, what would you tell YOUR parents if either of them were going to investigate hearing aids?
Hurme: I would advise them to be certain they are comfortable with the professional they are dealing with. Don't focus so much on the specific product as on the specific professional. Again, service, knowledge and education are very important in successfully pursuing hearing aid amplification.
AO/Beck: If I wanted to offer the booklet to my patients, or if an audiologist wants to get a copy, how do we obtain the booklet?
Hurme: Single copies are available for free at fulfillment@aarp.org. Bulk orders are available too. Simply send a fax to 202-434-4607, tell them how many you need, your name, address and phone number and they will bulk ship them to you with an invoice. The total cost is 30 cents per booklet, including all costs.
AO: Ms. Hurme, thank you very much for taking on this project. I think you did an excellent job writing and researching this booklet topic and I appreciate your time this evening.
Hurme: Thank you Doug.
