US Hearing Aid Pricing: Part 2 – Inflation-Adjusted Wholesale-Side Trends
Earlier this fall, readers were provided a commentary on wholesale nominal pricing in the US market. In our continuation of pricing in the US hearing aid market, we compare unadjusted and inflation-adjusted, wholesale cost of a single unit device over time. Consumer Price Index (CPI) The Consumer Price Index (CPI) was used to…
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US Hearing Aid Pricing: Part 1 – Nominal Wholesale-Side Trends
Editor’s Note: The last time Hearing Economics discussed hearing aid pricing was 2016, when then Section Editor, Holly Hosford-Dunn, provided readers with a comprehensive assessment of the market in a seven-part series. Starting with today’s blog on wholesale pricing (in a nominal sense), the aim is to build on Holly’s earlier work and share current…
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Pricing in Hearing Healthcare: Which Race are You Running? Part 3 – Implications of Health Insurance on Consumer Demand
by Amyn M Amlani, PhD Today’s blog, Part 3, is the last in the series, “Pricing in Hearing Healthcare: Which Race are You Running?” Thus far, we have covered the: Developing market segmentation occurring in hearing healthcare (Part 1), and the Negative effect (i.e., cannibalization) of reduced retail pricing on total revenue, consumer purchase intent,…
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Pricing in Hearing Healthcare: Which Race are You Running? Part 2 – Consequences of Reduced Retail Pricing
by Amyn M Amlani, PhD In Part 1 of the series on “Pricing in Hearing Healthcare: Which Race are You Running?,” the reader was provided with an overview of the supply-side’s strategy to reduce retail prices to encourage product uptake/adoption. Such a strategy, it was contended, supported the transition of hearing healthcare from a predominately…
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The Metaphor Monologues: Unhealthy Practices
A previous post described Baumol’s “cost disease” as a metaphorical affliction of personal services ranging from hair care to audiology, all requiring face-to-face service delivery. In his book on the topic, Baumol identified the wage market conundrum facing audiology practices that dispense manufactured devices, using an illustrative example of 2% wage increases across the board:…
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