Hearing aid costs will be discounted for those under the nation’s largest health insurer, the Pioneer Press reports. UnitedHealth Group announced Monday that hearing aids will now be available to consumers for between $749 and $949 per ear, down from typical industry prices that range from $1,200 to $3,000 an ear.
“We are very excited to be able to offer a much broader hearing program for our membership base as well as direct-to-consumer for the general public,” said Dr. Lisa Tseng, chief executive of the UnitedHealth subsidiary Health Innovations. “There are 36 million hearing impaired individuals and it’s the third most common chronic condition among older Americans.”
If these prices are used in conjunction with some Medicare health plans that offer $500 discounts on hearing aids, some will be able to get the devices for free, UnitedHealth said. And this deal is being offered even to people without UnitedHealth Insurance. According to Pioneer Press, patients can take a hearing test online or through a mobile device, and then receive hearing aids by mail that are programmed according to test results.
By bypassing audiologists, the insurance group is able to offer lower prices, it said.
Tseng pushed more Americans to look into the program as they might not realize the benefits they could get from using the hearing aids.
“A lot of people don’t realize that they have hearing loss and are not benefitting from early treatment,” she said. “We believe we can increase the early recognition and early treatment.”
