Posted on 10/18/2022 7:45:04 AM PDT by Red Badger
You’ll likely notice a deluge of ads about hearing aids, which are available for the first time this week without a doctor’s prescription or a consultation with an audiologist. The current rule has been five years in the making after former President Donald Trump signed the Over-the-Counter Hearing Aid Act in August 2017. It’s at least a minor win for deregulation, but controversy abounds over the elimination of professional tuning of the devices.
Hearing Aids Just Amplifiers?
The Bose company, based in Massachusetts, is mainly responsible for the change in the federal government’s policy on this issue. Famous for making speakers and headphones, Bose is ready to exploit its technology and manufacturing capacity to sell these new hearing devices. Campaign cash records show Bose spent generously to support Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Rep. Joe Kennedy (D-MA). Was the law changed to profit the few, benefit the many, or both?
Adam Curry, former MTV VJ and current No Agenda Show podcast host, has been an outspoken critic of such direct-to-consumer sales. A longtime user of hearing aids, Curry thinks the new devices will result in a negative experience for many. In an exclusive statement to Liberty Nation, he spoke against the updated regulations and Warren’s involvement. Curry said:
“Elizabeth Warren took big campaign donations from Bose among others to introduce the OTC legislation … She is actually hurting her beloved consumers with this. They get sh—- hearing ‘amplifiers.’ That’s the real change. These Silicon Valley ‘amplifiers’ may now be marketed as ‘hearing aids.’”
Curry concluded with “Words matter.”
The legislation prompting the change was introduced in 2017 by Kennedy in the House and Warren in the Senate, passing without opposition as a rider to an FDA reauthorization act. Why would Americans need a prescription for a contraption that has a microphone and a speaker at its core? Its use is not dangerous or habit-forming.
When such a product is designed and sold to correct or cure a medical problem, it becomes a “medical device” under the law, and the FDA has vast control over it. Ask anyone who needs the most commonly used medical device, eyeglasses, which still require a prescription for purchase in the United States. The issue here concerns amplification devices for people with normal hearing acuity and processing, and hearing aids required for more profound hearing difficulty. The FDA said the rule “applies to certain air-conduction hearing aids intended for people 18 years of age and older who have perceived mild to moderate hearing impairment. Hearing aids that do not meet the requirements for the OTC category (for example, because they are intended for severe hearing impairment or users younger than age 18) are prescription devices.”
Promises Made or Bought?
President Joe Biden spurred his FDA to make a final rule on the topic as part of an executive order issued last year. Curry said the most important thing going forward is to make sure companies’ desire for recurring revenue models doesn’t impose harsh outcomes for users. “What is also important is that ALL companies, including the legit [hearing aid] manufacturers, stop tying everything to their cloud.” He said centralizing any medical device where it is “almost impossible to use … without being tethered to their infrastructure” is a horrible idea.
CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW?
Tinnitus RING List Ping!....................
Lots of people have a bad time with the prescription version, too.
Mine came from the VA, and they are GREAT!....................
Hearing Aids Just Amplifiers?
mostly
“Tinnitus RING List Ping!”
I got mine from Vioxx. How’d you get yours?
USMC..................
Formerly known as “P.S.A.P.s”, Personal Sound Amplification Products, can often harm your hearing more than help. While genuine hearing aids are indeed expensive, you’re getting a product tailored to your specific loss, not just a boom-box in your ear.
This is a mess. Apparently Medicare does not cover hearing aids and you have to get tested and buy very expensive aids which are now attached to your cell phone so you can make adjustments, such as unidirectional (one-on-one) or multidirectional (in a crowd).
I think they should be covered by Medicare. Hearing is extremely important for neurological health— people who lose hearing start declining mentally.
For people with serious hearing loss, going through a professional who can test your hearing precisely and explain the ins and outs of using hearing aids is important. There are different kinds of hearing loss and this needs to be taken into account.
For example, I have had for over 20 years difficulty in hearing if there is a lot of noise around or if there is a fan running. The sounds are “blurred” to me.
That is different from someone I know who has trouble with a certain frequency range.
Each requires special aids.
So we kind of need both but there should be a way of covering hearing loss care under Medicare.
My mother-in-law bought two pairs of hearing aids that cost over $6,000 each pair, and that was over five years ago. Insurance nor medicare cover hearing aids. Over the counter should help bring these costs down.
VA didn’t use to until fairly recently.................
My guess it’s going to be a state-by-state thing like glasses.
Florida allows ‘reading glasses’ to be sold anywhere.
Some other states do not............
Not all states are like that.
Some will not allow ‘reading glasses’ to be sold OTC............
Being I wiped out several pairs after tipping a few out on the boats, jumping in the water forgetting i have them in, I now buy buy the $29.00 Walgreens specials!! This all I need!!
Medicare Advantage plans cover hearing aids, and they are not too expensive, usually between $300 and $1,400 each. There’s a free hearing test with an audiologist.
You have to get Medicare Advantage through a broker. The only downside in my opinion is it’s an HMO and you have to use the network’s doctors and specialists.
I buy my reading glasses in bulk at the dollar store. I wasn’t aware you weren’t allowed to purchase them in certain states. Interesting.
At age 67 my problem is more my inability to filter through the noise floor. Most quality sound is perfect in my head. And with 9 grandchildren in the house, well there is the noise floor.
Doesn’t help when the wife stopped looking in my direction when talking. Hearing her now resorts to bounced sound off the far wall.
Strange the camouflage of the person but the shiny lenses of the binoculars and the dish.
“Florida allows ‘reading glasses’ to be sold anywhere.”
Too bad glasses magnifying the ‘other way’ aren’t allowed.
When aging and cataract caused diopter shifts, I couldn’t get glasses OTC that shifted past a 0 into negative range.
Also learned recently that cataracts are brought on from Allipurinol meds. Did me in.
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