Audiologist VS Hearing Instrument Specialist?

[barncatinahumansuit]

Hi guys, just moved to a new area and am looking for a provider.
Do you think it would make a significant difference for a young adult who is HOH from birth (so a pretty uncomplicated patient) to get routine care from a "hearing instrument specialist" vs an audiologist? What kind of experiences have you had with one vs the other? Did your insurance resist covering the HIS? Do you find the audiologists to be more expensive? My internet searching says that HISes make their money from sales commissions; do you find that translates to them constantly trying to sell you stuff and pushing replacing equipment over repairing it?
I'd really like to keep costs down and keep my current aids functional for as long as possible.

 

[Jane B.]

This is something where the individuals involved mean soooo much. Where I live we have a "hearing instrument specialist" that is respected to the point that when the local ENT (in a very small Southern IL town) did have an audiologist join his practice that audiologist left because of lack of patients. That audiologist does have what seems to be a successful practice in another town not a great distance away (I say that because he has stayed for years).

So I think your best bet is to develop some local contacts to get references from. Who you go to could turn out to be either an audiologist or a dealer.

I can't make any suggestions about how an insurance company will treat it because I have never had insurance that covers hearing aids.

 

[seb]

I have had both. The person that did the best job IMO was the hearing instrument specialist. If we are talking about who did a better job with hearing assessments then that would be the two Japanese trained audiologist I have seen; they didn't take any shortcuts in the testing and gave me a truly comprehensive hearing test.