> But, crucially, they can't be called "hearing aids". It's a protected term.
If a doctor prescribed you hearing aids, could you get the Bluetooth kind instead, and still have them covered by your insurance? Or is this like the Epi-pen/Adrenaclick thing?
The key problem with this question is that most insurance plans do not cover hearing aids, regardless of whether your doctor/audiologist says you need them.
I can understand why you might have trouble groking this as it might be a slightly foreign concept, but not everyone even here on this forum is lucky enough to be able to throw money at all their problems.
I think you've misread the parent comment here. Grogenaut is saying, if insurance won't cover even expensive official hearing aids, then there's no reason not to go for a cheap alternative unofficial one if it's just as good or better.
However, Grogenaut has also misread Mgerdts's comment to some extent, as when Mgerdts mentioned a "problem" they meant that Derefr's question wasn't that relevant to reality, not that there's a problem selecting hearing aids.
My insurance would cover a hearing aid for the ear that needs a hearing aid. Whether the hearing aid supports bluetooth doesn't come into the equation.
Since I only need one hearing aid, the bluetooth feature was of minimal interest. I've not heard of any hearing aids that have a microphone that is useful for the bluetooth headset profile. The microphones for this use tend to be an add-on device which may or may not come with a pair of hearing aids. Admittedly, I've not researched this area much.
That's still useful information for someone like me in the UK, where hearing aids are covered by our basic level of national health care, that would probably assume that that most would.
Yes, but that doesn't make it a "key problem" with the question being asked. The question was fine, even though it wasn't global in scope, but why should it have to be?
If a doctor prescribed you hearing aids, could you get the Bluetooth kind instead, and still have them covered by your insurance? Or is this like the Epi-pen/Adrenaclick thing?