This week I was able to replace lost hearing aids for 3 of my St. Petersburg patients who had bought Starkey aids with insurance. Starkey, America’s largest hearing aid manufacturer of hearing aids, provides loss and damage coverage with the purchase of most all their products. These three patients were thankful for that.
Hearing aids are typically lost not because they fall out of the ear but because they are misplaced. I have heard all kinds of stories about lost hearing aids over the past 30 years. For instance, when hospital patients wrap their aids in a tissue the house cleaning staff accidentally throws them away. Dogs and cats steal them. In one case my patient’s dog actually buried his aids in the back yard after chewing them to an unrecognizable glob of plastic and wires. He brought me those aids and I kept them on display for many years.
Damaged hearing aids are also cover by Starkey insurance. I have seen hearing aids that have been run over by vehicles, mutilated by lawnmowers and corroded by saltwater immersion. I even had one damage claim arise when a small hearing aid was accidentally dropped into a martini and chewed by a client who thought it was an olive. Hearing aids in pockets are damaged by the washing machine however the dryer does more damage than the washer.
Loss and damage insurance has come to the rescue of many Gardner Audiology patients.
