Bob Bare Hearing Aids

The cost of hearing aids has been brought into reach for many Houstonians with the announcement by Hearing Haven, LLC of a new subscription based hearing plan. Those who would benefit by hearing better on the job, and want to improve communications and relationships with family and friends by adding clarity to their hearing, can obtain those benefits with a new program called Hearing for Life.

Similar to getting a cell phone, subscribers pay an activation fee and a monthly subscription fee. They receive major brand hearing aids to fit their lifestyle needs, with monthly fees from $77.

Group coverage is also available for organizations and employers who wish to subscribe to the group benefit plan covering 10 or more persons. Members of a group plan receive a discounted activation fee, and receive all the other benefits, such as new hearing aids every 48 months.

Hearing Haven currently has offices on Bellaire Drive in Houston, as well as in Carrollton and Rockwall, Texas. For more information or for appointments you can call 888-412-3337.

Medicare and most traditional insurance companies do not pay for hearing aids, which can cost up to $7000 a set, putting them out of the reach of many consumers. Hearing Haven, LLC believes that by adding the “Hearing Aid Benefit” plan to a group’s benefit package, members of associations and organizations will receive great benefits in an affordable manner.

The plan can be offered in several ways, or customized as needed. There is no cost to add the Hearing Aid coverage to a benefit plan, and charges are incurred only by those members receiving digital hearing aids.

Individuals can also subscribe to the Hearing For Life Program. In addition to hearing aids, they would receive free hearing aid batteries, free follow-up visits, and free adjustments. Repairs and a one-time loss and damage coverage are also included, with the length of the warranty determined by the manufacturer.

Every 48 months those who renew the Hearing for Life program become eligible to receive new hearing aids. The benefit plan is “portable”, and can be maintained by the individual if they change jobs or move.

The Hearing for Life program is administered for Hearing Haven LLC by New Perceptions in Hearing, of Irving Texas. For additional information, to schedule a speaker for your group, or for an appointment for a free hearing test, contact Hearing Haven LLC at 888-412-3337, or visit http://www.hearinghaven.comfor additional contact information.

Bob Bare

 Employers, Associations, and groups of ten or more are being alerted to the new “Hearing Aid Benefit” plan being offered by Hearing Haven LLC in Texas. This program allows organizations to offer their members hearing aid coverage.  There is no up-front investment to join.
 
Persons who wish to hear more clearly in certain situations and improve communication challenges by the use of digital hearing aids are able to do so by joining the plan, which allows adding hearing instruments to a benefit package within reach of every group.
 
Medicare and most traditional insurance companies do not pay for hearing aids, which can cost up to $7000 a set, putting them out of the reach of many consumers. Hearing Haven, LLC believes that by adding the “Hearing Aid Benefit” plan to a group’s benefit package, members of associations and organizations will receive great benefits in an affordable manner.
 
The plan can be offered in several ways, or customized as needed to fit any need. There is no cost to add the Hearing Aid coverage to a benefit plan, and charges are incurred only by those members receiving digital hearing aids.
 
Plan C, which is no cost to the employer or group, allows members to receive free hearing evaluations and checkups. If Hearing Instruments would be beneficial and are desired by the person with a hearing loss, they receive a discounted activation fee as a group member, to be fit with hearing aid technology appropriate to their hearing.
 
Plan B, which is now offered by the City of Rockwall, Texas to their employees, allows the employer or group to pay half of the activation fee, and one half of each monthly subscription, so that the investment is shared equally by the employees and the employer. 
 
Plan A, is for employers, or assisted living and retirement communities, who wish to offer full coverage for hearing aids to their group. They pay the activation fee and 100% of the monthly subscription fee, but only for those participants that actually are fit with hearing aids.
 
Custom Plans are also available, for groups that want to offer members the benefits of receiving hearing assistance, and have special requirements.
 
After the group benefit discount, the cost is typically $500 to $1000 for the activation fee, and then $77 or $97 per month. These fees are only for those members who choose to acquire hearing assistance.
 
In addition to the hearing aid benefit plan, the member would receive free hearing aid batteries, free follow-up visits, and free adjustments. Repairs and a one-time loss and damage coverage are also included, with the length of the warranty determined by the manufacturer. A variety of major manufacturers are being offered.
 
Every 48 months, under the Hearing Aid Benefit, those who renew their coverage become eligible to receive new hearing aids. The benefit plan is “portable”, and can be maintained by the individual if they change jobs or move. 
 
 
The group hearing aid benefit plan is administered for Hearing Haven LLC by New Perceptions in Hearing, of Irving Texas. For additional information and to answer your questions about receiving the benefits of hearing aid coverage, contact Hearing Haven LLC at 888-412-3337, or visit www.HearingHaven.com for additional contact information.

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2009/12/prweb3342294.htm
http://www.NewsReleaseWire.com/29841

Cheap or Expensive Hearing Aids?

How do you prevent yourself from spending too much money on hearing aids, and getting more technology than you need?  Will I get the most benefit if I buy cheap or expensive hearing aids?

I’ve been in the hearing aid industry over 25 years now, and I am amazed at the wide spread of technologies available, costing anywhere from $14.95 for a cheap amplifier that can harm your hearing, to over $10,000 in some places for a set of sophisticated digital hearing aids.

I won’t even spend the time going into why you shouldn’t risk what’s left of your hearing on the $14.95 amplifier that could damage your hearing. Fortunately those probably won’t work for more than a few weeks, and most people wouldn’t use something so large, ugly, noisy, and poorly made.

I do want to give you some tips on how to save investing more than you need to on hearing aids. Many people can get almost as much benefit from a set of hearing aids that cost half or even less than half of the most expensive brands.

Do These before You Even Get a Hearing Test

Only “buy” as much as you need. How do you determine that? Sit down and write a list of your goals: what do you want hearing aids to do for you? If what you are looking for is more than you can expect, an honest hearing aid dispenser or audiologist should be able to point that out to you.

For example, an unrealistic expectation might be: “I want to hear what my children are whispering about me in the next room, while I sit in front of the television with it turned up loud”. Sorry, although you might be amazed at some things that today’s digital hearing instruments can do, they aren’t miraculous!

Here are some goals that you might write down:

• I want to be able to listen to television at the same volume level my spouse or my children prefer.
• I’d like to carry on a normal conversation at the breakfast table without asking someone to repeat themselves.
• I’d like to be able to understand more of what I am currently missing in Sunday school and church.
• I need to be able to talk to someone while driving the car.
• I’d like to be able to understand most conversations on the telephone.
• I want to be able to understand someone across the table from me at a restaurant.
• I need to hear my professor, even when the only seat left is in the back of the auditorium.
• I’m a taxi driver, and I want to focus on voices coming from the back seat, more than any other direction.
• I golf several times each week, and I want to hear my golfing buddies without being bothered by wind noise.
• I’m a jet aircraft mechanic, and I need to be able to move from quiet to extremely noisy settings without having to change a volume control.
• I’m a child therapist, and I need to hear and understand very soft whispers and statements that my troubled children make during play therapy, because I don’t want to ask them to repeat what they just revealed.
• I’m a high level corporate executive, and I need to focus my hearing on only the person in front of me during business social events, and ignore all other sounds around me.
• I’m into competition skeet shooting, and need to hear when someone says “pull”, and yet not be deafened by my shotgun a fraction of a second later.

As you noticed, I got into some specific requests that we have been presented with, and were able to find solutions to, but it’s unlikely that you or any one person would need to have each and every one of those situations addressed.

Only “buy” the solutions you need. If you almost always stay indoors, and spend most of your time with only one person at a time, you can avoid paying for technology that reduces wind noise. If you are always facing the person you are speaking with, you don’t need technology that focuses directional microphones behind you, like the taxi driver does.

If you already know your hearing goals, you can ask your hearing aid provider, if you drop down a technology level or two, if your goals will still be met. One person may need a $7000 set of multi-memory hearing aids, with a remote control built into a wristwatch, but you may meet your own goals with something with half of that investment!

You might also consider the Hearing for Life Plan, a company that I founded in Texas, now being offered nationwide. After an activation fee, which varies by the technology level, you pay a monthly subscription fee of $77 to $117 per month. Active subscribers receive new hearing aids every 48 months, just by renewing their membership. More details can be found at www.HearingAidsForLife.com.

If you have ways you’ve discovered to save money on hearing aids, or ideas and questions you’d like me to write about, please contact me at suggestions@hearinghaven.com. I appreciate you reading my thoughts, but I also would like to hear yours!

Bob Bare

http://www.HearingHaven.com/
http://www.HearingAidsForLife.com/

     
www.hearingaidsforlife.com 

___________________________________________________

____________________________________________________

Hearing is one of the most important senses that we have.  Someone once asked Helen Keller:

“If you had a choice between having your hearing back, and having your eyesight back, which would you choose”?  Helen Keller didn’t even hesitate.  She said she’d take her hearing.

Our sense of hearing greatly affects our quality of life.  It is part of sharing with the people we love, and a big part of successful relationships.

I remember my father coming home very discouraged from work one day. This occurred forty years ago, and was a defining moment in choosing my career. My dad was upset. He had made several mistakes at work that day that he felt made him look stupid (he was actually quite intelligent). The mistakes he made were because of his hearing loss.

My father’s supervisor had asked him to perform a project in a certain way, and my dad misunderstood him. It wasn’t the first time. My Dad was embarrassed to ask his boss to repeat himself, and would assume he meant the obvious course of action. He often found himself in that conundrum.

Maybe you’ve experienced a similar situation yourself. Have you ever missed the punch line of a joke? Did you pretend you “got” it, and laugh anyway, or did you ask the person to repeat it, and hope you wouldn’t frustrate them? Frustration is a real and frequent reaction from the person who is misunderstood.

I would like to make some up front suggestions. Allow me to be real with you. You have nothing to lose, and much to gain.

• Stop pretending that you hear things that you miss, and be frank about telling people how they can help you hear better. For example, say “I’m sorry, but I have a problem understanding you in a noisy place like this. Can you repeat yourself?” Or, “…can we move to the next room”?
• Other people are not aware of your problem hearing them unless told.  Get out of denial and do everything you can to improve your odds of doing better.
• Do you know exactly what your hearing loss is? Do you have a greater problem with vowels, or with consonants? If you haven’t had a hearing evaluation recently, get one, and ask for a copy of it.

Are you still with me? I don’t want to be offensive to anyone, but I do want to help.  There are many ways to improve your communications, and we’ll be addressing many of them. If you have subjects you would like to see covered, please email: suggestions@hearinghaven.com, and I will add it to the list of concerns to address.

O.K., let’s go over the following additional ideas.

• Sit in a place in the room that has good lighting. It will help you to see the face of the person speaking to you, especially in noise.
• Ask people to get your attention before they start talking to you. For example, they might tap on your shoulder or make sure they’re in front of you so that you notice them.
• Carry a notepad and pen with you, and ask people to write down names, addresses, or financial amounts down for you “so I’m sure I have that correctly.”
• Repeat what you think you heard. “So you want me to bring the dessert on Saturday evening?”
• Don’t even try to have a conversation with someone in another room. Get closer and make sure you both have eye contact.
• If someone shouts because you don’t understand them, calmly tell them that you would understand them better in a loud but normal voice. Shouting distorts speech and makes it more difficult to understand!  Do the same (don’t shout) when someone asks you to repeat.
• When talking with someone else with a hearing loss, use more words and give them a summary of what you are about to tell them. For example, “Let me tell you about what happened to Aunt June at the grocery store last night.”

Thanks for taking the time to let me share with you. At the time of this writing, I’m sitting in my office, on the tenth floor with a view of downtown Dallas, Texas. The skyline has disappeared, due to a smoke blowing in from grass fires in West Texas. I can still see across the street, but my view of downtown Dallas is gone.

When people who have the most common type of hearing loss are in a noisy place, the “distance” they can hear from becomes obscured, just like my view. In noise, remember:

• In a noisy place, the closer you can get to what you want to hear, the better. If possible, sit in a booth, not at a table. If you have a choice, sit with your back to the wall, so there is no noise coming from behind you.

Thanks again for joining me. May the rest of your day be pleasant and positive!

___________________________________________________