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[Lifetime Cost of Hearing Aids in Germany]
Christin Thum1, Ronja Langenfeld1, Steffen Flessa1
1Lehrstuhl für Allgemeine Betriebswirtschaftslehre und Gesundheitsmanagement, Universität Greifswald, Rechts- und Staatswissenschaftliche Fakultät, Greifswald, Germany.
Objective:
Hearing aids are the standard treatment of hearing loss, which is covered by the statutory health insurance (SHI) in Germany. In chronic cases, hearing aid therapy causes periodic costs until the patient's death. This analysis examines the average lifetime cost of adult patients with regard to the age at initial treatment and presents them both from the perspective of the SHI and the insured.
Methods:
In the base case, we consider the supply of hearing aids free of charge. A treatment pathway is developed and used to identify the cost components incurred over the lifetime. Subsequently, the present value lifetime cost of monaural and binaural hearing aid supply are calculated.
Results:
The binaural (monaural) hearing aid supply for an adult (first hearing aids received between 18 and 88 years) causes average present value lifetime cost of € 4518 (€ 2536) from the perspective of the statutory health insurance. The patient bears an average of € 4610 (€ 3672) total cost. There are specific lifetime costs for each individual age of initial treatment. Generally, lifetime cost decreases with the patient's increasing age at initial treatment.
Conclusions:
Patients finance a substantial part of the hearing aid treatment. If the patient decides for high-end hearing aids instead of hearing aids free of charge, the total patient cost increases to an average of € 7953 for binaural supply. Due to continuous technical progress and development of hearing systems, rising expenses for hearing aid supply can be assumed.
