Hearing Economics

Editor’s Caveat:  Hearing Economics strives for a broad economic view, rarely getting down to nuts and bolts of running a practice–you’ll find those in our Hearing Health section.  However.  today’s post is the first in a series that reveals my dirty, or nutty, little secrets for cost cutting.  They’re not clever and they’re not real secrets, but they are little — most only work (if they

A few weeks ago, Hearing Economics ventured into Ethical territory — not a place Economists like to visit though it’s part of the job.  Nevertheless, we’re back in that quagmire of bad decisions, their effects on practices, and whether they are Moral Temptations or true Ethical Dilemmas.  The latter surface when there is a clash between two or more moral

“The secret of success is to get up early, work late and strike oil.” John D Rockefeller Recent posts at Hearing Economics have put forth the position that independent hearing healthcare providers — Audiologists and dispensers — are like wheat farmers, in the sense that they are toiling away in fields, under the hot sun, hoping their harvest is not

Several posts ago, Hearing Economics looked at the Supply Curve in a free market and likened independent Audiologists to wheat farmers, in the sense that they exercise little if any influence on Pricing.  That post evoked comment from a regular reader: C:  Holly, you using the analogy of how hearing aid professionals are like wheat farmers is bitterly ironic, as

Last time Hearing Economics described thefts and deceptions in professional settings. Transgressions were bizarre, some absurd, but all actually happened. Most were illegal; all received some form of punishment.  The point was that owners and managers are responsible for imposing and enforcing checks and balances in hearing healthcare environments in order to protect patients, staff, and assets from theft and manipulation.

We interrupt this series of Econ 101 posts to bring you something a bit closer to home with no graphs or subscripts.  I cannot speak for my readers, but I for one am tired of thinking about Classical Economics, Supply and Demand Curves, and Price in general.  So… let’s do a Scarlett O’Hara and think about that tomorrow. Today, let’s think

Last post looked at why different firms are Willing to Sell at different Price points — another way of saying that some firms can compete more and longer in a free market because their costs are lower and their margins are higher.  This was bad news for RR, who’d written a letter to the editor of a journal asking why

 “We go out and we buy a lot of products made in China. That’s how we celebrate Labor Day.”   David Letterman, 2010 Last time at Econ 101, the Supply Curve was developed and described:  firms will Supply a certain Quantity (Qs) at a given Price.  As you’d expect, they are Willing to Supply more (Qs increases) as Price increases.

Q:  “Does it really cost $600 or more for the manufacturer to ship a hearing aid to me versus to Costco or the VA?” Sincerely, RR Last post considered RR’s plaint that big competitors’ product Costs are lower than his, so his profit margins are necessarily smaller than theirs, no matter how careful he is with his operating costs.  RR wanted

Q from an independent hearing aid specialist:{{1}}[[1]]I found this question in a Letter to the Editor, entitled “Profiting From Hearing Aid Sales.”  It was published, but unanswered, in an industry journal[[1]] “I have minimum overhead… so perhaps my prices are lower than average.  However, if Costco is purchasing their aids for the same price that the VA pays (the price of