Danny Aronson, co-founder and CEO of hearing health company Tuned, started taking action on his hearing about 10 years ago. He served in the Israeli army and, like many veterans, has moderate hearing loss.
Even if the situation is not severe, the impact of the loss could be huge, he said.
“That means for me, my brain needs to do some extra work to differentiate between ‘bad’ and ‘daddy’ when we’re having a conversation,” he said. “If there’s a little background noise, I need to focus more. Now, imagine I’m doing this for eight hours a day. The result is cognitive fatigue, which is burnout.”
This led Aronson to help create the New York City-based tuning, which was founded in 2020, recently launched its audiology platform for employers or third-party administrators to add to their benefits package. Employees of companies contracted with Tuned can have online hearing health exams, virtual consultations with qualified audiologists and access to personalized care.
Aronson’s experience is common.Nearly 25% of working-age adults have hearing problems australian medical journal established. However, according to data, 50% of people with untreated hearing loss have never had a professional hearing test before the age of 60, and 60% of people with hearing loss are below retirement age. Hearing MagazineOften, hearing care isn’t an employer-provided benefit, Aronson said.
“The insight or impetus to create Tuned was the understanding that the vast majority of people with hearing problems are not fit for hearing aids…but people of working age,” he said. “They might have some kind of mild, moderate hearing loss. They might have tinnitus, ringing in the ears.”
Screening provided by Tuned consists of a questionnaire and two clinically validated hearing tests. The questionnaire asked respondents what problems they had and what they would like to improve. In the first test, people listened to a person say three numbers with background noise, and they had to enter the numbers they heard. The test consists of multiple steps in which the background noise becomes progressively louder. The second test gave a set of five different tones, and people had to mark the lowest volume they could hear in their left and right ears.
People will then have a virtual consultation with one of Tuned’s 140 audiologists, where clinicians discuss options for improving hearing. That could include directing them to certain products or referring them to clinics, Aronson said.
Aronson pointed out that there are many hearing care companies, but they are primarily aimed at consumers, unlike Tuned, which sells to employers and third-party administrators.
These include hearing aid companies such as Ergo and Livelyor tech companies sound cloud.
“I think what really sets us apart is that we have nothing to do with selling any kind of product,” Aronson declared. “I would say that’s a real competitive advantage and something that makes us very unique.”
Tuned charges employers different forms of pricing, including pay-as-you-go or per member per month. It then pays the audiologist a flat fee for each consultation. Clinicians can add Tuned to their existing practice or use it as the infrastructure for a fully virtual clinic.
The company’s original customers were Retail Bound and Mishe, but the product is now available to other employers. Aronson said there has been a lot of interest in the platform, with Tuned expected to sign 10 to 15 contracts with companies and third-party administrators.
He added that his ultimate goal is to mainstream hearing care, offering benefits alongside other common forms of health care such as dental and vision.
“If you have 1,000 employees, 200 of them have hearing problems,” he said. “Being able to screen this out is critical, and we can do it very efficiently. It’s not expensive, and the solution is there.”
Photo: Olena Agapova, Getty Images
