Audiologists are warning against the privatisation of Australian Hearing, saying people suffering hearing loss will end up paying the price in an industry already rife with predatory pricing and kick-backs.

"It's a cowboy industry that needs to be reined in, and I think the potential harm for people, whether it's physical or financial, could be substantial and it needs to stop," Dr Bill Vass told 7.30.

Dr Vass is a doctor of audiology and he is worried no formal qualifications are needed in the industry.

"In the private sector the regulation is completely absent," he said.

"Anyone can provide hearing aids or pretend to provide the services to hearing-impaired people."

As well as probably being unqualified, the person testing hearing at a private clinic may also be earning commission for whatever product they sell.

The major hearing aid manufacturers own hundreds of clinics throughout Australia.

They use advertising campaigns and free hearing tests to attract potential clients.

Concerned his hearing was deteriorating, retiree Marcel Jones thought he would take advantage of a free hearing test.

"The test went for about 15 or 20 minutes and at the end of the test I was told, 'you are definitely a candidate for hearing aids'," Mr Jones said.

Mr Jones was not aware the clinic was owned by a hearing aid manufacturer and did not think to check the staff's qualifications.

"She only told me that they [hearing aids] range from $2,000 to $10,000 and I couldn't do with anything under the $10,000 for my problem," he said.

"She was really a trained salesperson and ... I couldn't say no. That was the position."

Staff pressured to sell hearing aids for commission

Audiologist Louise Collingridge has seen it from the other side, where there are high sales targets but big commissions on offer for those selling the hearing aids.

"[I] have worked in a clinic where there was an expectation of a certain amount of turnover every month," she told 7.30.

Louise Collingridge says she found it difficult to make clinical judgements while under pressure to make sales commissions. ( ABC 7.30 )

"In spite of being a very experienced audiologist at the time, I worked in that clinic and in spite of valuing codes of ethics and considering myself to make clinical judgements, I found it very difficult to put that out of my mind for the reason that we are in the workplace to please our management."

Such is the concern about the industry, consumer watchdog the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), recently launched an investigation into audiology clinics.

Competing with the private clinics in this $12 billion industry is Federal Government agency Australian Hearing.

It subsidises the expensive technology and qualified staff needed for children and pensioners.

One of the recommendations in the National Commission of Audit, set up by former treasurer Joe Hockey a month after taking office, was to privatise Australian Hearing, opening up all parts of the agency to competition.

Alex Jones, who is profoundly deaf, said the sale was a terrifying prospect and he was concerned about how it could affect his profoundly deaf son, Tobian.

"It's vital for deaf children all around Australia," he told 7.30.

"To privatise Australian Hearing, that will lead to risk, risk where children aren't well looked after.

"Why would the Australian Government privatise something that's working?"

Not-for-profit group Better Hearing Australia said the problems in the industry go deeper than just rip-offs.

"The biggest danger in the industry from a lack of regulation is that we are focused on delivering hearing aids to people and hearing aids alone won't solve someone's loss of hearing," Better Hearing Australia national president Sara Duncan said.

She said she believed there needed to be greater support for people after they receive the right hearing aid.

"I find it really confusing — we wouldn't give them a prosthetic arm and then say, 'your problem is solved', we'd give them rehabilitation, we'd give them other help," she said.