News: ACCC report into the hearing aid industry: Clarity responds

ACCC report into the hearing aid industry: Clarity responds

03/03/2017 - Audiologists, Ethics, Hearing Aids

Clarity Hearing Solutions welcomes the report and the highlight it brings to being vigilant and wary

On March 3, 2017 the Australian Consumer watchdog, the ACCC, released a report into the Australian hearing aid industry.

As owner and Principal Audiologist, I welcome the report from the ACCC. Clarity has long been an advocate for more transparency in the industry as well as critics of the use of commissions when it comes to selling hearing aids.

I’d like to assure you that Clarity was established to provide ethical hearing health solutions to all Queenslanders.

Our ethical practice principles

Our practice follows our principles for ethical treatment of hearing loss, which are:

• Accurate diagnosis: We only employ the best University Masters qualified and registered Audiologists and we take the time to ensure we accurately diagnose your hearing loss.
• Evidence-based recommendations and treatment: We only prescribe treatment, hearing aids and features where there’s medical evidence it will actually help you and, importantly, suit your lifestyle.
• Ethical and transparent pricing: Our margins are the same across our entire range of hearing aids. This is to ensure there is no incentive to prescribe technology other than what is best for you. We earn our income from our clinical time, our expertise, not from selling hearing aids. This also means our hearing aid pricing is some of the cheapest available at close to wholesale prices.
• No sales commissions: We don’t compensate our team for selling hearing aids or have targets or sales quotas. We employ them and pay them to treat your hearing loss.
• Independent since 2008: Being independent we can provide hearing aids and implants from all manufacturers to ensure you get the one right for your hearing needs. We don’t have any financial arrangements in place that favour certain brands or types of hearing aids. We will offer you a choice of options at different price points that will treat your hearing loss and we will take the time to explain the benefits and features of each option.

We also encourage you to follow the advice given on the ACCC’s own website on choosing the right hearing aid provider.

Long history of advocating for change

As the owner and Principal Audiologist of Clarity, I have long been vocal in my calls for change and calls for regulations of the industry. I am also the Vice President of Independent Audiologists Australia, an industry body that has championed the same philosophies.

Now let’s see if the rest of the industry will play catch up.

If you want to read more about my views you can view the following articles on our blog.

Sincerely

Grant Collins
Owner/Principal Audiologist

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