![]() ![]() ![]() This spring it began selling its hearing aids, which can be purchased online without a doctor visit, hearing test or prescription. The hearing aid industry has remained largely insulated from price competition because of consolidation among manufacturers, widespread state licensing laws that mandate sales through audiologists or other hearing professionals, and the acquisition of hearing professionals’ practices by device makers.īose chose a different path. That price includes the professional fitting fees and follow-up visits. The price for a pair of standard hearing aids typically ranges from $2,000 to $8,000, depending on the technology. “In a sense, you can say the OTC revolution is happening without the FDA, but the difficulty is it is happening more slowly than if the FDA issued its rules on time.” “There are many more options than there were in 2017 when Trump signed the Hearing Aid Act into law,” said Nancy Williams, president of Auditory Insight, a hearing industry consulting firm in New Haven, Connecticut. These devices, which look like hearing aids and sell for a fraction of the price, amplify sounds, but some do not address other components of hearing loss, such as distortion. ![]() Nationally, personal sound amplification products, or PSAPs, that are smaller and customizable are now available in stores and online. That means it will likely take at least until next summer for consumers to feel the direct effects of the law. That hasn’t happened yet, and President Joe Biden last month ordered the FDA to produce those rules for over-the-counter (OTC) purchases by mid-November. In August 2017, President Donald Trump signed the legislation that called for the Food and Drug Administration to issue regulations by 2020 for hearing aids that could be sold in stores without a prescription or a visit to an audiologist or other hearing specialist. But changes in the industry are offering consumers relief. Spurred by decades of complaints about the high cost of hearing aids, Congress passed a law in 2017 to allow over-the-counter sales, with hopes it would boost competition and lower prices.įour years later, federal regulators have yet to issue rules to implement the law. Walgreens sells Lexie hearing aids in their stores in Arizona, Colorado, North Carolina, Tennessee and Texas ― and offers audiology services online. Although implementation of a 2017 law seeking to spur over-the-counter sales of hearing aids has been delayed, consumers still have a growing choice of products they can buy directly from major retailers and leading brands such as Bose and Apple. ![]()
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