Help with hearing aids

[HearWHAC]

>Dave Writes;
>I believe in high tech but as a small time manufacturer myself I KNOW
>high tech can still be dispensed for $800

Dave, is Real Ear Measurement equipment valid? Should we be using it? What 
about tympanometers, audiometers, hearing aid test boxes? Should we be using 
them? Should everyone be fit with CPC (Ruth Bentler's term, not mine, Crummy 
Peak Clipping) hearing aids? (They certainly are cheaper - should cost no 
more than $90 - $100 wholesale! Do you build a lot of them? Some companies 
still do.)

Should the dispenser have a telephone? What about an office with posted 
hours for service? (These are required in Iowa by a licensing board.)

Should dispensers be licensed by a state? Should there be any educational 
requirements for dispensing hearing aids? (I once had a person come to me 
who had purchased two boxes of new hearing aids in an auction for fifty 
cents and he wanted to know how to sell them. No kidding! His regular job 
was changing oil in cars in a garage.)

Should hearing aid manufacturers be using tiny computer chips that cost 
$100,000 to $1,000,000 or more to design?

Maybe we can figure out a way to come up with an $800 hearing aid. I wonder 
if it would be any good?

Paul Woodard ;-)
Des Moines Iowa USA

(We probably could come up with an excellent hearing aid if only one company 
made all 1,700,000 hearing aids sold in the United States each year. Having 
100 companies each make 17,000 hearing aids is not efficient at all. Making 
that small a number of hearing aids does not allow for any profit to be 
spent on research & development. I wonder if we would be wise to get 
Congress to pass a law that would require hearing aid manufacturers to sell 
at least 100,000 hearing aids each year or else go out of business. That 
would help solve the problem! The main reason hearing aids cost so much is 
there are so few of them sold. I don't think you could make a profit if you 
manufactured less than 1,000,000 television sets a year. I'm certain Sony, 
Panasonic, Zenith and all the rest each make at least that many every year. 
Volume does produce profitability. If a television manufacturer only made as 
many TV sets each year as our hearing aid manufacturers produce hearing 
aids, TV sets would cost a fortune! Stop and think about it in this 
perspective! It makes sense, but most people don't see it this way!)

Now, I suppose somebody is going to say they don't want only one company 
making all the world's hearing aids. I wonder why?