Sound Investment: Exploring the Economic Case for Hearing Benefits
Brokers and their clients can win by providing hearing solutions.
Treating hearing loss offers many positives for employers and employees, from boosting productivity to providing relief for related mental health issues.
But that’s just the start of the advantages that the solution can offer, says Rob Gibbs, chief growth officer at hearing benefits provider TruHearing. It also comes with economic benefits for employees, employers, and brokers themselves.
Return On Investment
“Hearing benefits are actually very, very affordable depending on the desired level of coverage,” Gibbs says. “They can be pennies on the dollar, as compared to traditional benefits.” As such, Gibbs adds, “When you think about the relative spend being a fraction of what other health benefits cost, the ROI potential is extremely high for employers.”
Furthermore, hearing aids are expensive for members without hearing health coverage. The average cost of hearing aids without hearing benefits is over $4,600, which is out of reach for many employees, he notes.
There is also a preventive care dynamic to hearing benefits, Gibbs explains. “The comorbidities—depression, anxiety, loneliness, social isolation—that can come into play with hearing loss if left untreated make care imperative. Not only that, according to TruHearing’s Hearing Loss in the Workplace Survey, 2024, hearing loss is tied to decreased productivity—up to 10 hours a week, or more.”
Treating hearing loss, and thus the mental health comorbidities that come with it, has real financial benefits for the employer. For example, a study conducted by Gallup in 2022 of almost 16,000 working adults, The Economic Cost of Poor Mental Health, found that untreated mental health issues cost the U.S. economy around $47.6 billion in lost productivity per year—and that, according to Gallup, is a conservative estimate. Implementing a hearing benefits solution goes a long way to reducing missed workdays and hours lost to compensating for issues stemming from hearing impairment.
Other comorbidities from hearing loss include dementia. Gibbs mentions a 2020 report by the Lancet Commission on Dementia Prevention, Intervention, and Care that showed treating hearing loss in midlife was the No. 1 modifiable risk factor for dementia.
Fortunately, according to Gibbs, “Getting hearing aids is not an invasive process, so it’s something somebody can treat pretty easily relative to other medical conditions, like getting a prescription for glasses.” Having a hearing benefits solution in place creates an easy route for an employee to get the necessary testing for hearing aids, he says.
Grow Revenue And Client Relationships
There is an obvious incentive for brokers to offer a hearing benefits solution to their clients, Gibbs says: “the direct revenue opportunity from commissions.” But, for him, that’s just one reason brokers should add hearing benefits to their client offerings.
“The other important factor is that hearing benefits really can be a great differentiator for your brokerage and for your overall offering, so you can generate more revenue by winning more sales,” Gibbs explains. Given the prevalence of hearing difficulties—Gibbs points to TruHearing’s Hearing Loss in the Workplace Survey, 2024 showing that 32% of employees aged 25 to 64 report at least some degree of hearing loss—offering hearing benefits can increase a broker’s value proposition.
Hearing benefits also enable brokers to demonstrate consultative expertise, Gibbs believes. Brokers can consider the likely noise exposure levels and thus hearing loss risk of the industry a client works in—for example, teaching or construction. Having a hearing benefits offering in the toolkit to put in front of clients in those industries and others shows a broker understands their challenges and can be the trusted advisor to meet client needs, Gibbs suggests.
Brokers can further demonstrate their consultative value-add to their clients by familiarizing themselves with the different levels of hearing benefits that fit different employer groups—by industry, demographics, or other factors.
All of this stands to increase brokers’ revenue, Gibbs emphasizes. Increasing the broker value proposition by proactively addressing a need prevalent across every age group and knowing how to tailor hearing benefits to your employer group can lead to not just more commissions but also more closed deals.
