Grundfast and Liu1 recently provided otolaryngologists with an overview of the hearing aid market. While their viewpoint addressed valid points, some points did not accurately reflect the hearing aid market. In this Viewpoint, we hope to provide otolaryngologists with a more accurate representation of hearing aids as part of audiologic service delivery.
Grundfast and Liu1 correctly state that the hearing aid adoption rate is approximately 33%. The authors attribute this “poor” adoption rate primarily to cost, which can exceed $2000 per unit. We believe that cost is not the primary barrier to adoption and provide the reader with data to support this belief.