Apple Is Providing A Hearing Test For The Masses. Certainly A Worthwhile Screening Test!

 This appeared last week:

How Apple’s new hearing test and AirPods ‘hearing aids’ stack up

Jared Lynch

30 March 2025

In crowded, noisy venues I often find myself smiling and nodding instead of listening to a conversation. I’m not being rude, It’s just I can’t hear exactly what’s being said.

So when Apple released a software update last week that allowed people to perform a hearing test at home with a pair of AirPods Pro 2 earbuds and an iPhone or iPad, I was keen to give it a shot.

It has been about 20 years since I had a hearing test with an audiologist. The test was in a mobile booth in a van at Timboon in regional Victoria. The good news was back then I had no hearing loss.

And I haven’t been back since.

This is a mistake. Ear and Hearing Australia recommends adults aged 18-40 have a test every three to five years. And those aged 40-60 should have one every one to three years.

More troubling is that people who start feeling some type of loss don’t seek treatment for up to 10 years afterwards.

This is what Apple is hoping to change. When I sat down with Apple’s vice president of health, Sumbul Desai, she told me that the new hearing test did not aim to replace audiologists but create more awareness and encourage people to seek professional health treatment.

How accurate is the test?

The Therapeutic Goods Administration quietly approved the test in December. Apple says it is clinically validated and was developed using more than 150,000 “real world” audiograms and “millions of simulations”.

But it’s not perfect.

The challenge is finding a quiet space, like an audiologist’s booth. I sat down at a desk in regional Victoria where I had nothing but birdsong in the background – but even the occasional tweet was enough to distract my hearing in the test.

Apple aims to overcome such difficulties by playing the range of tones at different frequencies several times in case someone mishears.

How long does it take?

Apple says it can take around 5 minutes. If you take your time reading the instructions and screen prompts before the test, It can take about eight minutes, which is reasonably quick.

It starts by ensuring that the AirPods fit in your ear correctly, to create a seal. The left ear is tested first. Tones are played through the earbuds and you tap the screen when you hear them. When that is completed the right ear is tested and then you’re given a summary of your hearing.

Apple says this summary can be displayed in the Health app so a user can discuss it with a doctor or audiologist later.

The results?

Apple's vice president of health Sumbul Desai says the hearing test feature augments the work of audiologists.

I tested myself twice. Both displayed little to no loss, which was a relief. Apple says individuals with healthy hearing can hear very low sounds close to 0 decibels. According to my test, my left ear recorded -7, which was odd In another test it recorded 2dB. I tested again and recorded 3dB for my left ear. Apple says the quieter the room, the more accurate test, and during the first test, there was a bit of birdsong in the background.

Regardless, I have readouts of all tests, so I can book time with audiologist to discuss my hearing health further.

What do audiologists say?

Australians can now peforrm a hearing test using Apple AirPods Pro 2 and an iPhone or iPad.

Devin McCaslin of the University of Michigan’s audiology program describes the test as a “helpful first step” for someone who suspects they might have hearing loss and needs treatment.

“In-person tests with an audiologist offer much more,” Dr McCaslin says.

“We have the ability to control the testing environment, use advanced diagnostic tools and assess more than just hearing sensitivity, like speech understanding and middle-ear function. Plus, we can tailor recommendations based on a person’s unique hearing profile and overall health.”

What about using AirPods as a hearing aid?

Dr McCaslin says a barrier to treatment, besides cost (hearing aids can cost thousands of dollars) is “the stigma” – people think hearing aids make them look old, unlike glasses which have become fashionable.

“But kids wear AirPods (which cost $399). My daughter and son wear them everywhere,” Dr McCaslin says.

“Therefore, the stigma isn’t really an issue, and the cost is quite reasonable, especially if you’re already purchasing them as headphones. Other hearing aid manufacturers have been working to connect their devices to different smartphone platforms, but Apple’s platform stands out for its seamless integration between its products.”

Apple also provides an explanation about the audiogram and hearing ranges.

Apple is also aiming to prevent loss as well as enhance hearing. While the tips on the AirPods Pro 2 provide up to 10dB of passive noise reduction, the H2 chip helps to actively reduce louder noises 48,000 times a second.

What this means, according to a National Acoustic Laboratories (NAL) study, is AirPods Pro 2’s active noise cancellation function can reduce background sounds by up to 27dB on average. So it can reduce sounds in a noisy restaurant, which can be around 80dB, to the level of a normal conversation, which is around 60dB, for example.

NAL principal engineer Nicky Chong-White said reducing background noise has several benefits.

“It lowers the risk of noise-induced hearing loss by reducing the need to turn up the volume. Additionally, it enhances the clarity of calls and music, and it may even reduce stress related to exposure to loud noise,” she said.

Apple has also developed a conversation booster function, so people can wear their AirPods in noisy venues – like a crowded restaurant – to better hear speech. This is unlike conventional hearing aids, which amplify all sounds.

I have found myself wearing AirPods – playing no music – to access this function, which works well – even for healthy ears.

Here is the link:

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/technology/how-apples-new-hearing-test-and-airpods-hearing-aids-stack-up/news-story/bd28df0f0881d6601b1edfed563a3a75

It certainly sounds like Apple have a useful screening test system here which could be used to identify loss and lead on to more formal testing and diagnosis.

Interesting to see the niche roles Apple seems to be finding for itself!

David.

What Can Be Done To Keep The Cost Of Health Insurance Under Control?

This appeared last week:

The healthcare policies rising at more than double the average

Michael Smith Health editor

Mar 23, 2025 – 1.53pm

Private health insurers are slugging some top-tier policyholders with annual premium rises of up to 9 per cent, more than double Labor’s approved average, prompting Health Minister Mark Butler to seek fresh advice into whether funds are price gouging.

Major funds including Bupa, Medibank, HCF, and NIB have written to policyholders in the past fortnight advising them of premium hikes ranging from 7 per cent to 9.4 per cent on “gold” and “silver” policies from April 1, according to 14 letters sent by disgruntled policyholders to The Australian Financial Review.

This is well above the 3.7 per cent industry average approved by Butler last month and also higher than the average increases for individual insurers. Bupa’s average premium increase was 5.1 per cent, HCF’s 2.8 per cent, Medibank’s 4 per cent and NIB’s 5.8 per cent, according to government data.

While insurers are allowed to increase annual premiums more than the average because some policies rise more than others, Butler said he had asked the Health Department to advise him if insurers were price gouging customers following the latest premium round, the process that determines annual increases in policy prices.

“During the recent premium round, we scrutinised insurers on this to ensure they weren’t continuing to rip off customers in this way,” Butler said in response to questions from the Financial Review.

“I have been clear to insurers: we will continue to monitor this closely. If it continues to happen, then I will force them to stop.”

Labor has put healthcare at the centre of its federal election campaign as it seeks to lower the cost of medicines and doctor visits, although managing the rising cost of health insurance is more challenging.

In December, Butler called out the practice of funds retiring cheaper gold-tier products and replacing them with almost identical ones at a higher cost – which is called “phoenixing” – after it emerged some funds had increased the price of some top-tier products by 21 per cent in 2023 and 14 per cent in 2024.

Insurers say they are doing nothing wrong and some policies will increase more than others, reflecting the rising cost of providing healthcare services and medical devices and specialist fees. But they also admit that gold coverage is increasingly becoming unaffordable and more people are switching to lower-tier products.

“People are downgrading their health cover due to the cost-of-living crisis. Our data from health funds shows 216,000 policies were downgraded during the first half of 2024, meaning health insurers collected $52 million less in revenue last year,” said Rachel David, chief executive of industry body Private Healthcare Australia.

“When fewer people hold gold and silver cover, this increases the risk pool and costs for those tiers.”

People with top-end cover more likely to claim

She said there are bigger premium rises for more comprehensive cover such as silver and gold tiers because they cover the most expensive treatments in the system such as obstetrics, psychiatry, joint replacement surgery, and weight loss surgery.

People taking out those policies are more likely to make a claim than people with lower levels of cover. Insurers also do not want to encourage patients to shift in and out of gold policies just when they know they will use them, for example, if they are planning to have a baby.

Some policyholders say they feel insurers are trying to force them out of existing policies by jacking up the price.

“They just keep aggressively raising the cost of my policy, I assume to make me drop it. They told me I couldn’t change my existing policy such as dropping extras without moving onto a new plan,” said Julia, a healthy 54-year-old from Sydney’s inner west. Her Bupa gold policy is rising 8.8 per cent to $374 per month from April 1. When she joined in 2010, her policy cost $135.45 per month.

Mary, whose family silver policy with HCF is increasing 8.7 per cent to $433.88 per month, said her insurer singled out “significant out-of-contract payments” to private hospitals and higher fees to use public hospital beds in NSW as the reason for the increase.

Private hospitals, which are campaigning for profitable health funds to give them more funding as they struggle with soaring costs, slammed the above-average increases.

“If 8-9 per cent is the reality from the big end of town, it’s a massive gouge no one, including the minister, should be tolerating,” said Brett Heffernan, chief executive of the Australian Private Hospitals Association.

“Last year, the Commonwealth ombudsman lifted the lid on phoenix policies. This loophole-exploiting practice sees health insurers scrap existing products, replace them with near-identical services and sell them at a higher price. At the time, the minister asked the insurers to stop it. Clearly, a more strident response is necessary.”

A spokesman for the ombudsman said some policies would have a smaller percentage cost increase than others, but it would expect more complaints in coming months as members are notified of the rises.

Analysts said higher-than-average policy rises on existing policies are not unreasonable.

“For example, Bupa’s average rate increase is 5.1 per cent, but some policies within their product catalogue are actually decreasing in price under certain circumstances. This means that, conversely, some policies will see increases well beyond the 5.1 per cent average,” Chris Quinn, general manager of comparison site Health Deal, says.

“Gold-tier policies have seen substantial price increases. Many members require coverage for services like pregnancy and IVF for only a short period. Once they no longer need these benefits, they often opt for lower-tier policies. ”

For example, in Victoria, the most affordable pregnancy-inclusive policy for a single person is approximately $2895 per year. Given that specialist fees for pregnancy in Victoria average around $3600, with hospital costs adding another $6700, health funds must strike a balance between setting sustainable premiums and covering the higher likelihood of claims on comprehensive policies like gold.”

Here is the link:

https://www.afr.com/companies/healthcare-and-fitness/the-health-care-policies-rising-at-more-than-double-the-average-20250319-p5lkp5

I have to say the example at the bottom of this article really show what we are up against in getting the pricing of private health insurance right and fair for all parties!

Is seems to me this is a problem that is ripe for a total re-think to make cost and prices fair for both customer and insurer. I reckon this problem is one that occupies a good deal of Mr Butler’s time, as right now it does not seem sustainable.

What do you think?

David.

More Reasons To Be Concerned About Where Trump Goes Next!

This appeared a few days ago:

John Durie

Surprising fallout from the instability of an unchecked Trump

4:38 PM March 28, 2025

US President Donald Trump came to power to make the country great again but the initial business enthusiasm has given way to outright fear on the bourse and across business.

Some conservative Americans are working out whether and how to get their money out of the country before disaster strikes.

Business likes certainty and Trump is the antithesis, even if his supporters say his programs will translate into longer term growth.

His attack on the multilateral trade system means his impact is global.

The federal election in Australia just adds to the caution on the local bourse after an anaemic budget. In the past six weeks an overvalued equities market has dropped 600 points or circa 9 per cent and is now trading at around 18.5 times forecast earnings.

There are some positives which may be lost on some investors.

UBS strategist Richard Schellbach has noted 34 per cent of the ASX 200 is now comprised of what he calls growth stocks, up from 23 per cent in 2018, or a third of the market.

After struggling last year, income stocks are also back in vogue in these uncertain terms as outlined recently by MST’s Hasan Tevfik.

Bank deposits are no longer safe havens, so alternatives are being sought and the field is wider than high-dividend paying bank stocks.

A portfolio of the top dividend yield stocks returned just 1.3 per cent last year against an ASX 200 that returned 11.4 per cent.

In the first two months of this year the top quintile of dividend yielders have returned 2.5 per cent while the ASX 200 provided a total return of just 60 basis points before slipping into negative territory on price terms.

Tevfik explains the return of income stocks by moves in bond yields – last year bond yields in Australia increased. The Aussie five-year bond yield rose 32 basis points but fell by 12 basis points for the first two months of 2025.

Yield investing has worked best when bond yields are falling and this has certainly been the case more recently too. Tevfik figures “the combination of a weakening global growth outlook and further RBA rate cuts should mean lower Aussie bond yields in the medium term”.

MST’s ideas for good income-producing stocks include Vicinity, Origin, Challenger, JB Hi-Fi and Steadfast.

Tefvik drew a line under stocks with a dividend yield below the market’s median yield of 3.2 per cent and his advanced income strategy is headlined by Origin at 5.8 per cent and Vicinity, followed by BOQ. He avoids stocks that issue too much equity because that reduces earnings per share and by definition rely on external capital to fund growth instead of internally generated funds.

Goldman’s Matt Ross includes one flyer on his list, US-based boutique investment manager GQG Partners, along with Aurizon, Ampol, Rio and Santos.

GQG is not for the faint of heart, a classic buy-the-dip scenario, given the stock has fallen some 23 per cent in the past few months as global stock markets have wobbled.

But funds under management last year rose 45 per cent to $US148.2bn ($235.6bn) and revenues by 47 per cent

Shellbach is stressing the more growth-oriented focus of the ASX 200 as offering appeal some international investors have failed to grasp, now outpacing value stocks.

The market has changed.

Since 2004 banks’ share of the ASX 200 has slipped from 27.4 to 26.1 per cent, resources have stayed flat at just over 22 per cent, food and beverage has slipped from 4 per cent to 0.8 per cent but healthcare has exploded from 2.8 per cent to 9.8 per cent and info tech from 0.5 per cent to 3.3 per cent. In early 1980s miners accounted for 80 per cent of the ASX value, now they are 22 per cent.

……

Political process

The fact federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers slipped out the ACCC treatise on supermarkets underlines the political process.

The ACCC has of course already issued proceedings against Coles and Woolworths for alleged dodgy discounts but its report provided no smoking gun because maybe there isn’t one to be found.

Full credit to the ACCC then for not making up a yarn to satisfy Chalmers.

Election aside, the Treasurer has some work to do to increase transparency around the code to give perishable fruit and vegetable growers a better deal and better notice for consumers. These need changes to the code by Chalmers if he actually accepts the ACCC’s recommendations.

The bad news of course is Chalmers has already given the ACCC control of the supermarket code, which means small suppliers have to fight the bureaucracy to get heard.

An informal settlement process gave the small suppliers at least a chance of being heard.

Critical deals

Australia’s strength in critical minerals is underlined by the fact deals listed on the ASX in the sector are more than double that of its nearest rival, Toronto.

The relative strength of the sector is obviously part of the story, but the ASX has proved a happy stamping ground for raising capital in a field in which private capital rarely plays.

According to the International Energy Agency, Australia has 6 per cent of the world’s known critical mineral reserves, well behind China at 48 per cent, Brazil at 23 per cent and India at eight.

Demand for rare earths is tipped to increase 62 per cent by 2040 if countries meet their climate pledges and demand for nickel will be up 73 per cent, cobalt by 80 per cent and lithium by 400 per cent.

The case for more minerals processing is shown by China which has 23 per cent of global copper production and 44 per cent of refined copper.

Investor support clearly helps.

Macquarie Capital is a key player in capital raising having led on 24 per cent of the deals in the sector over the past five years.

The sector has emerged a potential bargaining chip with the US as President Trump attempts to overthrow the multilateral trading system with his campaign of unilateral tariff hikes.

But everyone has learned expected behaviour and President Trump are oxymorons.

Here is the link:

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/surprising-fallout-from-the-instability-of-an-unchecked-trump/news-story/b92eb2a89f49c226d3e36b97b819fdfe

This is an interesting article showing just how complex the business scene has become and how we need to watch closely for unintended outcomes. Some of the recent actions by Government have seemed to me to be really unnecessary – especially around supermarkets. They know they are closely watched, don’t want any trouble, so I am sure they do their best to avoid attention – and try to just get on with business!

Lots of this has the smell of political beat-ups to me. What do others think?

It could be all the beating up on supermarkets is just a reflection of frustration with how little Government can to about Trump – or is that too wild an idea???

Is there a reason you can think of that the supermarkets want to do anything other than just serve their customers needs for a profit, and avoid unwanted attention from regulators and Governments?

David.