My father got his hearing aids about two months ago. It cost $4,000 plus the audiologist’s fees, plus the time to go there to be fitted and have some adjustment

My father got his hearing aids about two months ago. It cost $4,000 plus the audiologist’s fees, plus the time to go there to be fitted and have some adjustments. He’s still adjusting but he can hear my daughter when she talks to him and they’ve improved his quality of life in meaningful ways. I think there’s a lot to be said for lowering the barrier of entry for hearing aids, as the cost and effort to find the right audiologist and complete the purchase was daunting. But for my dad, an 85-year old man who’s barely getting by with his iPhone 8, the traditional audiologist path has worked out very well for him. I doubt that shopping for OTC hearing aids and going through the setup experience by himself (or, more likely, being dragged along by me) would have been better. Almost more importantly, his audiologist has been a gentle, calming, reassuring resource to help him through the challenging process of adapting to them. But the experience was initially stressful and only happened because I found his audiologist and essentially blackmailed him into doing it. The cost was upsetting to him, our family forced him to accept our help as a birthday gift. I think we lucked out with our audiologist and I’ve read plenty of reviews from people like my father who wind up working with the wrong professionals, getting the wrong equipment, and feeling like they threw away thousands of dollars. In fact, my father was one of them: he secretly embarked on this journey once about two years ago and spent $4000 on a bad device sold by a cold professional. So, that is all to say: none of this is easy. It seems my own father has experienced the best and worst of the traditional hearing aid industry. But I think the OTC approach could have its own set of pitfalls, especially for an older population that might not be comfortable with technology. Ultimately, the competition within the market will be good for consumers. I’m interested to see how the service side of the industry evolves.