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RESEARCH ARTICLE (Open Access)
Contents Vol 31(5)

Changes in US hearing aid regulations: possible benefits and risks to Australia

Amber Willink A B * , Nicholas Reed B C , Isabelle Boisvert D , Catherine McMahon E and Frank Lin B F
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A Menzies Centre for Health Policy and Economics, University of Sydney, NSW, Australia

B Cochlear Center for Hearing and Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, US

C Department of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, US

D Sydney School of Health Sciences, University of Sydney, NSW, Australia

E HEAR Centre, Department of Linguistics, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia

F Department of Otolaryngology, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, US

* Correspondence to: amber.willink@sydney.edu.au

Public Health Research and Practice 31, e3152132 https://doi.org/10.17061/phrp3152132
Published: 2 December 2021

2021 © Willink et al. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International Licence, which allows others to redistribute, adapt and share this work non-commercially provided they attribute the work and any adapted version of it is distributed under the same Creative Commons licence terms.

Abstract

Objective:

Hearing aids are costly for many Australians with hearing loss who are not eligible for public funding, and are not widely used. The purpose of this article is to describe a recent policy shift from the United States (US) that might improve access to hearing devices and services in Australia.

Type of program or service:

In 2017, the US legislated the Over-the-Counter Hearing Aid Act of 2017, directing the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to develop regulations for over-the-counter sale of hearing aids for mild to moderate hearing loss.

Findings:

Changes in the development of hearing devices and changes to service delivery were well underway in the US prior to anticipated release of new FDA regulations, with new technology entrants in the ‘hearables’ market. For Australians with hearing loss not eligible for public funding, the current hearing health system is expensive and device-centred. If Australia follows suit with regulatory changes for a class of over-the-counter hearing aids, consumers are likely to benefit from access to safe and affordable devices. Additional policies to support access to hearing services are also likely to be needed.

Lessons learnt:

The hearing health system in Australia will undergo tremendous change in the coming years because of the introduction of over-the-counter hearing aids in the US. For Australians to benefit, changes to regulations of devices, as well as hearing services and device provision, will be required.