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In my experience the people who distribute these HAs are bottom feeders who only prey on the elderly and hearing impaired.

If you use either prepare to lose a lot of money, and have your units tampered with in order to get more money out of you.

Over the last 25 years I have been taken for probably $20,000 to $25,000 by these pillars of the community. Please if you are hard of hearing see an degreed audiologist......the 3 that I have been to have been very honest and forthright and have never attempted to sell me anything..

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Guest

Nuff said.........

Been warning people for years about their unethical practices. Now that they don't have a family member on the state board that is responsible for licensing dealers will be interesting to watch this play out.

Richard Geraci (Source: Angelina County Jail)

Richard Geraci (Source: Angelina County Jail)

LUFKIN, TX (KTRE)-

An Angelina County grand jury has indicted a Lufkin hearing center owner accused of charging Medicaid for services that were not performed by properly licensed personnel.

Richard Charles Geraci, 50, of Lufkin, has been booked in and out of the Angelina County Jail on two counts of state-jail felony Medicaid fraud. He posted a $50,000 bond. Geraci is the owner of Audibel, which has locations in Lufkin, Nacogdoches and Jasper. According to the business website, Geraci is certified in Hearing Instrument Sciences (NBC-HIS) and audioprosthology (ACA).

According to the indictment, Geraci submitted claims for Medicaid payment that involved diagnostic testing not performed by a physician or licensed audiologist when the rules of Medicaid required it between Dec. 2, 2008, and Dec. 24, 2011. It also alleges he concealed that information from Medicaid.

The indictment alleges he defrauded Medicaid between $20,000 and $100,000.

Copyright 2016 KTRE. All rights rese

Guest

Hello, everyone. I know this is an old post, so who knows who will even see this.

However, just putting in my two cents. I am an audiologist (Au.D. and Ph.D.) who happens to work at a Beltone. I had my own prejudices with the company based on an experience as a student with a Beltone hearing instrument specialist (HIS) and his very sales-y attitude.

Since being persuaded to and now working for them, my entire perception has changed. Beltone Corporate is fantastic and very customer friendly. The problem, I have very much learned with experience, isn't the devices or the company...it's rather the individual. Beltone franchises their label and aids to private companies, so each office has different processes.

Some offices only hire HIS, some AuD, some both. No two audiologists are the same; and with any hearing device, the quality will only be as good as the technology and the person fitting it. If you have had a poor experience with your hearing aids, I urge you not to give up. Rather, please take your hearing aids to another audiologist or Beltone location and let them adjust it.

IF YOU HAVE NOT BEEN BACK TO YOUR CURRENT HEARING PROVIDER FIRST, PLEASE GO TO THEM. Echo, noise reduction, metallic sounds, tinniness, loudness, muffle, lack of clarity and the like can be adjusted. I would say my patients come back to me 2-3 times on average after the initial fitting for tweeking to get the settings comfortable for them. If you don't complain about an issue, they will not know to fix it!

Don't give up yet.

Unfortunately there are some in our area of service that are in it solely for money, BUT most of us in the field desire to truly help you hear better. Truly.

Gene C Vsv

Steve, Steve, Steve........You may be the salt of the earth, I don't know you and don't want to. But your asseveration that dispensers are all upright is pure nonsense.

State boards be damned, they are controlled by dispensers and mfgs.

If you are interested, check it out, the state board that covers dispensers in Texas is corrupt and has the blessings of our state government. You are naive to believe otherwise.

Gene C Vsv

David

So, for 1 you don't dispense Audibel or Beltone.

And for 2 you approve of of their dispensers tactics if removing money from the aged and hearing impaired. For Shame..........

Guest

I am amazed how Consumers seem to always blame the Manufacturer of hearing aids for all of their problems associated with the use of hearing aids.

Beltone is one of the finest manufacturers of hearing aids in the World, but unlike MacDonalds, cannot control the Dispensers that sell their products.

If any of the contributors of all the comments involving Beltone,or any other Manufacturer, would like to discuss the subject of hearing aids, policies,practices,customs,procedures,etc,of the hearing aid industry, please feel free to call me at my expense. (800) 432-****

I have never purchased nor dispensed a BELTONE hearing aid, since they only sell to their own Franchised Dealers.

I have been dispensing every other brand of hearing aids for the past 28 years.

David A. Thorpe

Gene C Vsv

Which he had intentionally done because he was po'ed that I would not buy new ones after only 2 years.......

Guest

To JUST ME: 3 putt's hearing aid was not broken at all. The prebent tubing was not pulled through far enough and "bowed" out farther than he liked.

He sent me a picture. There was no tampering-he is a nut.

Guest

After a hearing test they said I needed aids. I waited 2 day then went back and told the owner I was goung to wait and didn\'t feel I was ready.

He went into a used car salesman approach and was not going to take no for an answer. He then said \"go somewhere else.\" I told him to shove it and left, never to return.

Gene C Vsv

Ah, George, have or have you not been fined twice by the state of Texas?

Gene C Vsv

Just me....... Let me see if I can put this down where you can understand it.

I went in to a Beltone office after making an appointment and was willing to pay to have the tubes changed. OK? She tore them down into 3 pieces the mold the tubing and the unit, and then told me to take them back to the Audibel office where I had bought them.........is this clear enough?Steve......after being taken for a considerable amount of money from an Audibel \"dealer\" over about 29 years they decided to get loud and belligerent with me.

I spent the next 3 years going to 3 different Audibel \"specialist\" one of which definitely tampered with my units trying to sell me new ones........so now you know. And that is why I detest chain brand high pressure salesmen, persons, or whatever.......

Guest

This message is to 3-Putt...You say you went to a Hearing Service Office where your BTE Hearing Instrument was "Broken" into three parts and you did not let them touch the other one, I just wanted to take a minute to try and understand how a BTE was broken into three parts, a BTE is made up of three parts, the instrument, the ear-hook, and the earmold that attachs to the ear-hook by a rubber tube... was it these three parts that you are referring to?

If so they are made so that you can take them apart to clean them, replace the tube as it needs to be replaced or to replace the ear-hook if need be...all three of these snap off or on very easily and one other thing that can snap on or off is the battery door... Just Sayin'

Gene C Vsv

Steve.......please accept my most abject apologies. I feel like such a fool by trying to warn those who are hearing impaired to be careful of how they spend their money on hearing aids.

Of course all distributors are fine upright pillars of the community who never would take advantage of someone who is hard of hearing, perish the thought.

And my state board of dispensers is run and controlled by distributors.

That's like letting convicts control the parole board. :roll

Guest

So George - could you please define compression and the new expansion that are in a lot of circuits? Something tells me no - but all Audiologists take a class in that. oh - and if you don't know why it is important to understand that - we have a bigger problem...

Guest

3-putt, what is your problem with dispensers?

I am one, and I will say I have many patients that love what I have done with them. I also have some that probably hate me. In all cases I try my hardest to be fair and make my patient hear the best he or she possibly can.

For the complaints on here, if some of them are true call your state's hearing dispensers board. Make a formal complaint. Don't spread lies that everyone in this is a scam artist. There are millions of satisfied patients out there.

For the ones that are not satisfied, sometimes it is no ones fault. If you did research on hearing you would realize that not everyone can become perfect again with the use of a hearing aid and expectations are not met.

Guest

The instruments hearing aid dealers use to fit me are scary. I looked up online the audiometer my old hearing aid dispenser had, and it was obsolete 15 years ago, as in "no longer sold, repaired".

My audiologist has much more up to date equipment, a more extensive education, and seems more concerned about my hearing. This might not be true across the board, I dont intend to speak in generalizations here...

Gene C Vsv

Wow..........;you dispensers sure come to each others defense, and thats fine, people like this need all the support they can muster. Why should I have to "prove" anything. My statements stand as is, if you care to try and disprove them feel free.

Guest

Very true and accurate AlsipJudge'

For someone to make accusations and generalizations is ignorant and unfair.

Consumers should find someone they can feel comfortable with and be able to talk with.

I have found that some older angry people tend to ecxaggerate.. They should always back up their accusations with fact not inuendos...

Gene C Vsv

Jackie, it's your money.........spend it wisely. I left the last Beltone office I was in with one of my Btes in 3 pieces. Wouldn't let them touch the other one.

Guest

I have been wearing hearing aids since the age of 21. I am now 44.

I have experienced many different types of hearing aids, but I must say that I have had the most outstanding service and hearing aids from Beltone. I currently wear Marq hearing aids, and this is the most natural-sounding hearing aid I've ever experienced.

Plus, my dispenser is professional and takes A LOT of time making appropriate adjustments until it is right. Yes, they can be expensive, but I can't imagine life without them.

Guest

Aha......so you are a distributor George. Audibel or Beltone?

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