- Hi guys. Welcome back to the DrCliffAuD vlog.
This is vlog number 113,
and I hope you guys had a really happy St Patrick's day
this past week.
I hope you got being Irish out of your system
for that one day.
And now you can go back to living your normal lives.
But all that being said today in this vlog
I wanna talk about some interesting news
that came out this past week from state of Connecticut.
Now, I'll get into that here in a second,
but before I do if you could go ahead
and give me one of those likes, I really appreciate it.
And if you are not subscribed to this channel yet
go ahead and do that as well.
So you can get a notification every single time
I publish a new video.
With all of that out of the way,
let's talk about some of this news
that came out of the state of Connecticut.
So the attorney general office in Connecticut
they actually find four different companies
for using the term FDA approved.
Now, if you are unaware of it at this point
there is no such thing as FDA approval for hearing aids.
There is something called FDA registered
but there is no such thing as FDA approval.
And so what these companies are doing
is that they're basically saying
that their hearing aids are FDA approved
in order to trick consumers, to buy their hearing aids
thinking that there's some like upper level of approval
from the FDA, saying that those devices are actually good.
Now, if you guys have been following my vlog for a while
about a year and a half ago,
I was talking about the state attorney general
in the state of Arizona.
Now, if you're unfamiliar with what an attorney general is,
they're basically like advisors for the state
on legal matters.
And they can give their opinions on different things
and issue warnings and things like that.
So, to go back to what I was saying
the state attorney general here in my home state of Arizona,
issued a statement saying that,
beware of these over-the-counter hearing aid companies
or these companies that claim to be selling
over-the-counter hearing aids,
because there's no such thing
as an over-the-counter hearing aid
technically at this point.
There is no final issuance of the FDA guidelines
for what an over-the-counter hearing aid is.
And then about, I don't know if six months or so after that
the state attorney general here in Arizona
they obtained an assurance of discontinuance
against budget hearing aids and its subsidiary audience,
to stop the company from misleading consumers
about over-the-counter hearing aid devices.
And they own several websites.
This budget company owns several websites
and advertises FDA approved or FDA registered.
Now, they only said here in the state of Arizona
that they came to an agreement
to stop marketing in that way.
So that company still exists
and they are still probably trying to figure out ways
to get individuals, to purchase their devices.
And in my opinion, their devices are absolute junk.
Now, you can find out for yourself,
go ahead and order yourself a pair,
just be aware that a lot of these online companies
end up selling crappy products to consumers.
And then when you try to go and get a refund
they give you the runaround.
And hopefully you just like give up
on getting your two to $500 back on those devices.
And you're just like, it's not even worth your time
to try to get that money back.
But nonetheless, the state of Connecticut,
the attorney general basically
fined four different companies, a total of $40,000 combined
between all of them to Lively Hearing Corporation
who does the Listen Lively Hearing Aids,
they fined them $15,000.
Widex which is a major hearing aid brand,
they got fined $15,000.
Hark Wellness which I've never heard of
but they're a direct to consumer hearing aid company
located in New York, they were fine, $10,000.
And then other direct-to-consumer hearing aid company,
again that I've never heard of, Wonder Ear, Inc.
was also find, it looks like an undisclosed amount
from what I can tell on this attorney general press release
that came out this last week.
Now, you know, the crazy thing about this is,
is that some of these are actually like notable companies
those first two Listen Lively and Widex,
those are name brands that most people would recognize.
And they were still using this term FDA approved
in their marketing.
And it's like, don't they have like lawyers
that work at this company
to know what you can and cannot say.
And they're still doing deceptive marketing,
really kind of blows my mind to be honest with you.
Now, I actually thought, you know,
more highly of these two companies
before this report came out
and this does tarnish the reputation a little bit.
Now the thing that really, came out in this article
is obviously that use of the term FDA approved,
which nobody should be using
because that is not an actual thing.
So anytime that you see FDA approved
on any hearing aid device online, or any website, whatever
you know that they are deceptively marketing to you.
So just keep that in mind, anytime you see anything
related to FDA, other than FDA registered
which honestly doesn't mean a whole lot.
You can just assume that
whatever you're going to be buying for them
that you're just buying from a company
who's trying to deceive you.
At least based off of what I can tell in this press release.
That's my, what I get out of this press release basically.
Now there's a couple of different warnings
that the attorney general put out in this press release.
One of them is that the FDA has not approved
any over-the-counter hearing device,
over-the-counter direct to consumer hearing aids
are not regulated like many other medical devices.
And because of this may work poorly or not at all
or could be harmful, you should be researching the seller
with the better business bureau
which I completely disagree with.
I mean the better business bureau is a pay to play thing.
Now, if you are a company that is poorly rated
on the BBB then you know that is a,
like really a bad company
because it takes a lot to get your accreditation taken away,
when you just, all you have to do is essentially pay for it.
I remember when I first started up my practice
the better business bureau reached out to me
and said, "Hey you know, we think
that you're doing great things over there"
and mind you I've been in business for like a month.
And I haven't done anything at that point.
And they say, you really, you know
uphold the standard that we look for in a company
for the better business bureau.
And we think that you should become accredited
and how you do that is you basically pay for accreditation
and that's it.
You just send them a check.
They accredit you and give you essentially an A- rating
right off the bat.
And after you've been in business for a couple of years
they switch it to an A and an A+ I believe.
Nonetheless that's bogus.
So I personally would never recommend
that anyone goes to the better business bureau.
The next thing that they said is,
"Be skeptical of online reviews and endorsements."
And I've told you guys as well in previous videos
that you really should take online reviews
with a grain of salt, because a lot of these
direct to consumer online companies,
they are just fabricating their own online reviews
that they have on their website.
Funny thing is if you do an image search
on some of the pictures that they have on these reviews,
you'll find that they're just stock photos off of Google,
or you know some other website out there
and they're not actual people leaving reviews.
They're just faking it.
You should also read the purchase policy carefully.
Can you get a refund if they don't work,
how long do you have to make a return if necessary.
But here's the thing with all of these,
well, not all of these, but a lot of these online companies
they say that you have like a hundred day
or 45 day or 90 day money back guarantee.
No questions asked, if they don't work for you
we can find a different device that works for you.
Or you can just return it for a refund.
And I don't know if you guys have seen
the actual news reports that have come out
of individuals having to call their news station saying,
"Hey, this particular company is scamming me.
Can you help me get my money back?"
And then the news team reaches out to the company
and they try to get the money back for the consumer.
Sometimes they're successful, sometimes they're not
but basically when you buy devices online
you are rolling the dice of whether or not
you're actually going to get a device at all,
get a quality device
and if you're going to actually get a refund
for the device that you order.
So, I don't think that
whether they say that they offer you a refund
or not is actually legitimate on a lot of these sites.
It says, "If you can get a health screening
and discuss your options with a medical professional
they will be able to tell you exactly
what kind of hearing device would work for you
and make recommendations."
So, I also disagree with that
because a health screening to discuss your options
with a medical professional is exactly
what you do not want to do
when it comes to getting hearing aids.
You want to either go to a licensed audiologist
which is not a medical professional
or you want to go to a hearing instrument specialist
who's been trained on the identification of hearing loss
for the purpose of fitting with a hearing aid.
But if it's not one of those two individuals
then you should not be taking any recommendations
on treating your hearing loss
because you know, a regular, let's say medical doctor
like your primary care doctor,
they may say that, you should go see an audiologist
to get a hearing test because you may need hearing aids
but they ultimately don't know.
And then on top of that
they have no idea what the differences are
between different hearing aids.
The ones that tell you to,
oh just, you know go to Costco
or just go here or just go there.
Like, they don't really know.
I mean, they hearing through the great vine of other people
is like, oh I guess you can just go here
and get hearing aids.
When they don't really know
if you actually need hearing aids.
But I don't wanna seem like I'm just like bashing
a whole bunch of, you know, people here.
I just think that there's a lot of misinformation out there.
And while I love that the state attorney general
in Connecticut, has you know, essentially issued
these fines to these companies
who are doing deceptive marketing tactics.
I do think that there's still misinformation out there
for the state's attorney general.
And I'm talking about in every single state.
I mean if these companies were selling these products
saying that they were FDA approved
in the state of Connecticut,
it likely means that they were selling devices
in every single state.
So every single state's attorney general
should be finding these companies,
whatever amount that is in correlation
with how much how many sales they had
in their particular state
because they're essentially deceiving consumers
all over the country.
And I'm glad that that my state of Arizona
has issued some warnings on this
and has come to agreements with certain companies
to stop their deceptive marketing tactics.
But the thing that you need to know is, is that
there's very few individuals out there
actually trying to protect you from being scammed
when it comes to your hearing loss
and your hearing treatment options.
The FDA, quite honestly,
I really don't think that they care a whole lot.
They're just being tasked with creating these FDA guideline.
I don't think there'll be a whole lot of teeth behind them.
I am very much a free market individual.
I think that you need to be educated enough
to make your own decisions.
And if you think that over-the-counter
is what's right for you, who am I to tell you
that you can't go and get over the counter devices?
I just wanna make it safe for you.
And if you end up not having success
with over-the-counter hearing aids
I want you to be informed enough to be able to know
that you need to go in
and get a professional evaluation
and professional treatment in order to overcome
your actual hearing loss.
So, I think I've effectively rambled on today.
Again, I applaud the state attorney general
of the state of Connecticut.
I hope many, many more states
actually come to the same conclusions
and protect their individuals in their state.
Just as much as Connecticut just did.
If these companies continue to do
deceptive marketing tactics,
I presume that the fines will get bigger and bigger
from here on out.
But to be honest with you
this is probably part of the learning curve
for a lot of these direct to consumer online hearing aids.
This by no means is the first time
that companies like these will get fined
for doing things that they should not be doing.
Part of it might be because they just don't know.
And part of it is probably
because they're just trying to see
what they can actually get away with.
But that is all for today's vlog guys.
I hope you guys enjoyed it.
If you did again, go ahead and give it a huge like
and as always, I'll see you next week.
(upbeat music)