Need to know information from Chattanooga Health & Beauty professionals.Every Wednesday

Noteworthy:Customers can research products,

compare prices, and find options for their specific needs. However, not all options are exactly what they seem – especially when it comes to your hearing health care.

MORE INFORMATIONFor more information, contact the team at Johnson Audiology to schedule a consultation or appointment at 423-710-1432 or visit johnsonaudiology.com.

T I M E S F R E E P R E S S . C O M• • •PAID ADVERTISINGA8 › Wednesday, November 7, 2018

As consumers have shifted the way they shop, businesses have also shift-ed the way they market. Today’s consumers are reached through the tradi-tional methods of market-ing—print, radio and TV—as well as through a host of digital interfacing. Shop-ping, browsing, and infor-mation searches online have become part of daily life. As we do these searches online on our phones, computers and even our televisions, we reveal our habits and pref-erences and thus we are targeted with information and advertising on items, services and topics we have shown an interest in.

Customers can research products, compare prices, and find options for their specific needs. However, not all options are exactly what they seem – especially when it comes to your hearing health care. So how can you navigate the wide variety of marketing present in today’s world? Who can you trust?

In order to navigate today’s ads, there are a few simple things to remember:

1. Not everyone who wears a white coat is a doctor. An audiologist is a professional extensively trained in the science of hearing, balance and hearing technology. As of 2012 audi-ologists are required to have completed an undergraduate level degree and a doctoral level degree in audiology with a focus on learning to diagnose, treat, and monitor hearing and balance disor-ders. The degree earned by an audiologist is an Au.D. degree, which is a Clinical Doctorate in Audiology. The Au.D. degree requires completion of a supervised externship prior to issu-ance of state licensure and national certification. It is important to know whose ad you are reading, as many hearing aid dispensers and technicians advertise prod-ucts while wearing a white coat. A hearing aid dis-penser is an individual who applies for a license after meeting basic requirements, such as graduating from high school and passing an exam. These individuals are not licensed to perform comprehensive audiologi-cal evaluations. Some states require two years of basic college coursework that may be unrelated to the field of audiology.

2. Price driven tactics rarely result in the guar-anteed product or dis-count advertised. Watch out for ads that have any of the following wording: “Buy

One Get One Free,” “Seek-ing Participants for a New Study,” “Large Discounts,” “Trade-in Available,” or an asterisk (*) at the end of the price. These call-to-ac-tion terms attempt to instill urgency into the reader to “act now.” These items are found in many marketing materials and are most like-ly a bait-and-switch tactic, which promises you some-thing for free or an extreme-ly discounted price—if you qualify.

3. A “Free Hearing Test” may seem like a good deal, but it is not always the best option. Audiologists are Medicare providers and therefore can-not legally perform a hear-ing test for free since ser-vices cannot be provided at no charge to one individual and then the same services be billed to Medicare for another. Hearing instrument specialists and dispensers are not licensed to per-form complete audiological exams, which means that the testing they complete could miss an important diagnosis. Most individual insurance plans cover many hearing services, and some even offer coverage for hearing aids. By being lured in for a “free” hearing test, an indi-vidual may end up paying more for their hearing aids.

4. Shopping by price alone won’t result in the best benefit. An individ-ual’s hearing loss is some-thing to be taken seriously as it affects a person’s general health and well-being, qual-ity of life, and relationships with family and friends. Choosing hearing aids, which are complex medical devices fit to the individual, is one part of a person’s jour-ney to better hearing. Hear-

ing aids are the product, but they require a strong part-nership with an audiologist in order to provide prov-en benefit to the patient. Successful patients are the ones who work closely with their audiologist for ongo-ing fine-tuning and routine device maintenance of the hearing aids so that spe-cific lifestyle demands are met, and they continue to work with an audi-ologist to mon-itor hearing l o ss w i t h fo l low-up h e a r i n g evaluations. Oftentimes people who purchase a hearing aid based solely on a cheap price tag find themselves replacing the devices within a year or two because they “don’t work.” Satisfaction from your pur-chase results in obtaining the best value for your investment, not from paying the lowest price. Individuals who invest in more appro-priate or effective devices, which includes a partner-ship with their audiologist, typically invest in new devices every 4 to 5 years.

5. Not every hearing aid clinic checks your insurance benefits. Any hearing aid clinic will offer various levels of technolo-

gy, and the prices for these technology levels typically fall within a similar price range whether or not there is a doctorate-level audiol-ogist overseeing your care or a hearing aid dispenser. Therefore, recognizing the true differentiation in out-of-pocket costs is often a matter of finding the clinic that works to veri-fy your insurance benefits

and makes sure you receive those ben-

e f i t s . If you have a realistic

budget in mind, hear-ing aids with-

in your price point can be

found. Even if you don’t have insurance,

hearing aids are still within your reach since Johnson Audiology offers financing options as well as financial assistance programs.

As you sift through the advertisements, it is import-ant to remember two very important adages – “you get what you pay for” and “if something seems too good to be true, it probably is.” It is always best to approach your hearing health care as you would other areas of your health, as a close partnership between you and your healthcare profes-sional.

Navigating Hearing Aid MarketingWhat Should I Believe When It Comes

To My Hearing Healthcare?By Brandi dixon

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