People will soon be able to buy hearing aids without a medical exam, prescription or fitting adjustment.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a final rule on Tuesday which will allow hearing aids to be sold over-the-counter to adults with mild to moderate hearing impairment.
This rule is expected to lower the cost of hearing aids and will take effect in mid-October.
“Reducing health care costs in America has been a priority of mine since Day One and this rule is expected to help us achieve quality, affordable health care access for millions of Americans in need,” said Xavier Becerra, Health and Human Services secretary, per the press release. “Today’s action by the FDA represents a significant milestone in making hearing aids more cost-effective and accessible.”
The FDA estimates that 30 million people in the U.S. suffer from hearing loss and could benefit from hearing aid use.
“This action makes good on my commitment to lower costs for American families, delivering nearly $3,000 in savings to American families for a pair of hearing aids and giving people more choices to improve their health and well-being. And, it’s the latest action we are taking to make our economy more competitive and less concentrated,” said President Joe Biden in a statement.
“When too few companies dominate, American consumers pay higher costs. We’re finally building an economy that works for working families,” he said.
Nicholas Reed, an audiologist at the department of epidemiology at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, told The New York Times that this legislation could “fundamentally change technology.”
“We don’t know what these companies might come up with. We may literally see new ways hearing aids work, how they look.”