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FDA deregulates over-the-counter hearing aids

sqlsavior

sqlsavior

Lunatic Member
Finally, after proposals languished for years, this month the Food and Drug Administration finalized rules to allow 'over-the-counter' hearing aids to be sold without the involvement of audiologists, and without state regulations that previously kept the market closed. While a good audiologist can help a great deal, the resulting prices ($2000-$5000 per ear) has kept millions for accessing a basic health measure that would improve many lives.

https://www.forbes.com/health/hearing-aids/over-the-counter-hearing-aids/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/08/16/fda-hearing-aids-biden/

Right at the start of the pandemic, my wife and I went to an audiologist for help with her hearing. After testing and some education, she managed to get a 'discount' price of $4000 for a pair, and we bought them on credit. Long before they were paid for, the dog got one, and a windstorm took its replacement, so she goes without, because wearing just one sounds too weird.

With a potential wordwide market of more than a billion pairs, I am hoping that decent ones eventually come down into the $150 range, with competition and mass production. It's about damn time, IMO.

One consumer advocate said to look for a return policy, which should be right on the box, if offered. We'll be shopping sometime, I'm sure. Anyone else?
 
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I've had hearing aids for a year and a half now. If I had not sold the condo I lived in and moved to a small town, I could not have afforded them.

The first pair I got, I did not enjoy. They were on the cheap end of the scale of what I was offered - $3600 CAD. Within a month I upgraded to some that were $5000 but happened to be on sale at the time - $4250. Still not bliss but I can hear better with them than without.

It so happened that I got acquainted with someone who owned a retail business with an audiologist next door. He too was in need of hearing aids. His audiologist neighbour was somehow beholden to him and either provided hearing aids at no cost or at his cost which was around $600 CAD.

Those were the same hearing aids I paid $4250 for that had the supposedly regular price of $5000.

I suspect that there are expenses an audiologist incurs to become a hearing aid reseller and there is overhead maintaining a business premises. But a healthy mark up none the less.
 
I'm not sure this thread belongs in this section but, I'm waiting a bit to get HAs.
Pricing on them always seemed out of line to me.
My Dad had cheap ones & they were always buzzing & squawking. Went thru batteries fast too.

I do think there's ample room for innovation & maybe the change shakes up a complacent industry.
Seems like a complacent industry to me anyway - maybe my perception is flawed.
 
This hopefully will help drive down the costs of obviously over priced hearing aids. Over the counter aids probably won't be the greatest quality, but at leased many will be able to afford them and hear better. I hope there will be some oversight to make sure there is at leased some basic quality control also.
I do believe there has been some serious price gouging over the years.
 
There's really no reason why OTC HA's can't be every bit as good as the Rx ones. RX drugs don't decline in quality when the go OTC. With technology available on anyone's home computer or tablet, they should be able to custom fit and adjust OTC HA's via phone / Zoom / Facetime, etc. I hope the competition brings price down and forces quality to improve. A large HA company (Sonova) bought Sennheiser recently, so ..... higher fidelity HA's may be around the corner?
 
I received a pair of Lexie OTC hearing aids yesterday. Price was $1000. They are horrible for music. The mids and treble have a metallic sound that is irritating. And, they have a loud screech of feedback when listening to music. I'm returning them. Oh well. I used to have a pair of Starkey hearing aids that were pretty expensive. They worked really well for listening to music. Unfortunately, the dog ate them. I guess I'm going to bite the bullet and look into some of the prescription options.
 
The value in real tuned hearings aids is the person creating the equalization curve. A very good friend of mine is the business. I helped him with his studying. We were both CE refugees, but his focus was video, mine was audio. The books were really interesting.
 
coming soon: $10.000.00-$25,000.00 OTC "audiophile" hearing aids that are really just repackaged Apple AirPods.
 
About a year ago I went to an audiologist. He did some tests and showed me some fancy graphs indicating the deficiencies in my earing. OK. Then the costs of the recommended earing aids.
WTF!!!

It is good to know that now I might be able to buy something for an affordable price.
 
With the advancements in earbud technology, I don't see why some of that couldn't be applied to hearing aids. The Blue Tooth earbuds that came with my phone are rechargeable, takes care of the battery issue. The app that controls them has an equalizer, takes care of the EQ curve. They already have mics built into them. Retail for $150, can be found for less.
 
I had heard hearing aides and audio don’t mix. Not so. I almost always listen to music now with my hearing aides. I was fortunate to work for GE and had great coverage.

but now that I’m retired I will someday need new ones without the great coverage. Whether they die or more likely I loose them.

good to see there is hope that it be more affordable
 
It’s so curious to me that on AudioKarma, where we discuss the differences in sound of speakers, phono pick ups , preamps, amps, microphones, all things audio, that we’d have so many who seem to think all hearing aids are the same. There are “Mac” hearing aids and there are “Silvertone” hearing aids.
 
Well, the hearing aid itself might be over the counter, but someone still needs to do an "ear" checkup, do the frequency sweep and all the rest. So its not just running down to Target to get a set, more involved than that.
 
My wife has been telling me for years to get my hearing checked. A year ago I went to an audiologist for a full hearing test. My right ear has a noticeable deficit in mids and high frequencies and my left is on the borderline. My audiologist recommended one hearing aid for the right ear, helped me choose among models and features and tuned the one I chose. I've been wearing it for a year and it helps me hear voices in restaurants, meetings and large rooms where there is lots of ambient sound. It especially helps me hear women's voices. She tuned it again a few weeks ago and the results are better--not perfect hearing, but a definite improvement. The cost for one was $2,000. My health insurance paid half and I used funds from my Health Saving Account for the $1,000 balance.

The brand is Phonak and the model has different automatic presets for restaurant, music and TV. I don't hear much difference in performance among the presets. I prefer not to wear the aid when listening to music on my audio system since it sounds too bright and unnatural in my right ear. So I turn it off. Down the road, if I need two hearing aids, I think it sound will be more balanced more beneficial for music listening.

It also has bluetooth which connects to my cell phone for receiving and making calls. I did not think I would like this function but it is very convenient. It also sits behind my ear and is invisible.

So my bottom line recommendations are: go to an audiologist who can match a hearing aid brand and function to characteristics of your hearing loss No way could I do this without professional help. Hearing aids are complicated, not like audio headphones that you just strap on and adjust the volume and tone. Get rechargeable vs. battery powered. Much more convenient. Don't expect perfect hearing to return, but look for helpful improvements. You will also realize how much lip reading contributes to understanding speech. I estimate 20 - 25% of "hearing" speech is lip reading which I still depend on.
 
shacky said:
I had heard hearing aides and audio don’t mix. Not so. I almost always listen to music now with my hearing aides. I was fortunate to work for GE and had great coverage.

but now that I’m retired I will someday need new ones without the great coverage. Whether they die or more likely I loose them.

good to see there is hope that it be more affordable
Click to expand...
What brand do you have? I'm going to be needing some and am concerned about the ability to listen to music.
 
4r54r5 said:
What brand do you have? I'm going to be needing some and am concerned about the ability to listen to music.
Click to expand...

my newest are Phonak. They were $3K a piece two years ago.

they have music setting. It will auto select when playing music but I usually set manually for serious listening. You definitely want it on music otherwise it’s optimized for conversations and compresses high frequencies down so they can be heard - not good for music.

they are not effective when it gets up to 14-15Khz. I still can’t hear crickets when it transitions Sun King on Abbey Road. I know the night scape is there but can’t hear it anymore unless I use IEM cranked.
 
My previous were ReSound a Danish company. What I loved about them is their iPhone App did live tracking. So several times I found them using the App - once on golf course!
 
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