Lower hearing aid cost doesn't up purchase

DETROIT, May 16 (UPI) -- Lowering the cost of hearing aids -- as much as 40 percent -- does not seem to motivate those with mild hearing loss to get one, U.S. researchers say.

Lead author Virginia Ramachandran, an audiologist at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, says the researchers' study found only patients with full insurance coverage for hearing aids get them at a younger age and with significantly less hearing loss than patients with partial or no coverage.

However, those with full insurance coverage for hearing aids were less likely to upgrade to more advanced devices, or purchase hearing aids for both ears if it meant going beyond what's covered by insurance and having to pay for additional costs out-of-pocket.

"Many in healthcare assume that patients would more readily acquire hearing aids at a younger age or before their hearing loss becomes more severe if the devices were less expensive," Ramachandran said in a statement.

The researchers looked at 1,200 patients who got hearing aids from 2007 to 2010, who had full insurance coverage, partial insurance coverage or had to cover the entire cost themselves.

The study is published in The Hearing Journal.