The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s http://nationalacademies.org “Committee on Accessible and Affordable Hearing Health Care for Adults” studied the affordability and accessibility of hearing healthcare for adults in the U.S. The resulting report, “Hearing Health Care for Adults: Priorities for Improving Access and Affordability”, recommends several changes.
According to the report, “The wide range of types and severity of hearing loss means that a wide range of technologies should be made available. These technologies should meet safety requirements, be tested in real-world hearing environments, produce outcomes measures, and be compatible with cell phones, televisions, and emergency alert systems.”
The Committee recommends that the FDA www.fda.gov create a category of over-the-counter wearable hearing devices to be used by adults with mild and moderate hearing loss that meets specific safety and quality standards.
The Over-The-Counter (OTC) devices must be marketed as devices that may assist with hearing loss and can be sold either OTC, by mail, or online. These devices must include mobile apps and associated wearable technologies to function as a wearable hearing device for mild to moderate hearing loss
The Committee also sees the need for greater transparency through the unbundling of prices for hearing healthcare services and related technologies. Also, patients must be made aware of their rights to hearing healthcare information and their own records.
The Committee wants to see standards developed and implemented using an open platform approach for hearing and programming that would allow any hearing healthcare professional to program the device settings.
The standards must also provide point-of-sale information on the programming features and the portability of hearing aids. The standards must ensure that hearing aids and OTC wearable hearing devices are compatible and interoperable with other technologies and communications systems.
Go to http://nationalacademies.org/hmd/reports/2016/hearing-health-care-for-adults.aspx for the full report.