--- title: Hearing Aids Are Now Sold Over the Counter: What to Know description: FDA-approved hearing aids became available over the counter for the first time, for thousands less than prescription hearing aids. canonical: https://time.com/6222754/hearing-aids-over-the-counter-buying/ author: Tara Law article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2022-10-17T21:35:37.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:44:22.485Z article:section: Health og:title: Hearing Aids Are Now Available Over the Counter. What to Know Before Buying One og:description: They can cost thousands less than prescription hearing aids og:url: https://time.com/6222754/hearing-aids-over-the-counter-buying/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfd93e239779f8e72/698a3683d075330f79e6d557/Pink-Hearing-Aid.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4992 og:image:height: 2808 og:image:alt: Hearing-Aid og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Hearing Aids Are Now Available Over the Counter. What to Know Before Buying One twitter:description: They can cost thousands less than prescription hearing aids twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfd93e239779f8e72/698a3683d075330f79e6d557/Pink-Hearing-Aid.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Hearing Aids Are Now Available Over the Counter. What to Know Before Buying One > Sponsored content. 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EyeEm—Getty Images  by [Tara Law](https://time.com/author/tara-law/)  ## Tara Law Oct 17, 2022 9:35 PM UTC On Oct. 17, hearing aids approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) became available over the counter for the first time, for potentially thousands of dollars less than prescription hearing aids. Many experts are hopeful that opening the market up will spur the creation of innovative new devices, bring down costs, and encourage hearing-aid use in a country where only a [fraction](https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/1108706) of [older adults who are hard of hearing](https://time.com/6053519/how-to-keep-brain-sharp-aging/) use hearing aids. What do these expanded options mean for people who are thinking about buying a hearing aid? For now, experts say there’s still a lot we don’t know—including which devices will be announced in the coming months and how much prices may fluctuate on the new market. However, over-the-counter hearing aids could make a big difference in your life if you have mild or moderate hearing loss. Here’s what you need to know. ## **When will over-the-counter hearing aids be available at stores?** The first over-the-counter hearing aids are available online and in-person at some stores, including pharmacies like Walgreens, beginning this week. Walmart [announced](https://corporate.walmart.com/newsroom/2022/10/17/walmart-now-offers-over-the-counter-hearing-aids-to-help-customers-hear-and-feel-their-best) on Oct. 17 that hearing aids will be available at its website, at Walmart Vision Centers in certain states (although the company plans to eventually offer these services nationwide) and at more than 400 Sam’s Club Hearing Aid Center locations. More stores are expected to announce that they’ll be carrying over-the-counter hearing aids in the coming weeks. Best Buy, for instance, [announced](https://corporate.bestbuy.com/best-buy-expands-hearing-solutions/) on Oct. 17 that it will open hearing centers in 300 stores by the end of the month. Best Buy customers can also use an online hearing assessment tool and buy their products online. ## **Should I buy an over-the-counter hearing aid?** Over-the-counter hearing aids are intended for people with mild to moderate hearing loss, so the first step is determining whether you are eligible for one. People with mild or moderate hearing loss tend to have difficulty hearing when talking with people in a group or when there’s background noise, according to the Hearing Loss Association of America. Another sign is needing to turn the volume up on the television or phone. A signal of more severe hearing loss is finding it difficult to hear when you’re having a one-on-one conversation with someone in a quiet environment. For more guidance, the Hearing Loss Association of America has a [helpful checklist](https://www.hearingloss.org/hearing-help/technology/otc-hearing-devices/otc-hearing-aids/) of potential signs. An audiologist can help you to determine your level of hearing loss, says Nicholas Reed, an audiologist at Johns Hopkins University. These tests, unlike hearing-aid fittings, are also typically covered by insurance. Other tests are available through apps, including [SonicCloud](https://www.soniccloud.com/the-hearing-assessment). Reed says hearing tests can be helpful, as people tend to be bad at sensing how much their hearing has changed. “Hearing loss happens really slowly, really insidiously,” he says. “And the truth is, your brain is good at not picking up those kinds of changes.” People who are more tech-savvy may also be better equipped to buy an over-the-counter hearing aid, since the devices require tinkering to get the fit and levels right, says Dr. Catherine Palmer, director of audiology at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. If you’re not, Reed suggests considering bringing your over-the-counter device to an audiologist to get some help using it. “It’s easy to set yourself on the wrong path,” says Reed. “If you’re at all confused or not super tech savvy, an audiologist could help.”  Lon Tweeten ## **How much do over-the-counter hearing aids cost? What about prescription hearing aids?** The cost of hearing aids can vary dramatically. Over-the-counter hearing aids can cost anywhere from a few hundred dollars to thousands. Hearing aids that require a prescription typically cost a few thousand dollars on average for a pair, [according to the FDA](https://www.fda.gov/media/160971/download), although that price is often bundled with other services, including the cost of having the device fitted by an audiologist. ## **Are over-the-counter hearing aids covered by insurance?** Medicare does not cover hearing aids or hearing aid fittings, although some Medicare Advantage plans offer some coverage. Some private insurance companies cover hearing aids, but not all. Check with your insurance provider to see if you’re covered under your individual plan. ## **Are more expensive hearing aids always better than cheaper ones?** More expensive hearing aids may come with specialized features, such as being smaller in size and having a smoother user experience, says Reed. However, now that over-the-counter hearing aids have been FDA approved, Reed says that buyers can feel reassured that the products are held to a standard, and less-expensive hearing aids should be able to fit your basic needs if you have moderate or mild hearing loss. If you’re not that comfortable with technology, Reed says, you might even be happier with a simpler (and less pricey) device. “There’s almost no evidence that cost is related to outcomes,” says Reed. --- ### More from TIME --- ## **How should I choose an over-the-counter hearing aid?** Hearing is a bit like a “fingerprint,” says Reed. That means hearing loss is a little bit different for everyone—and that hearing aids won’t work the same for everyone. Over-the-counter hearing aids come in two main types, says Palmer. The first is a self-fitting device, which users typically modify by connecting the device to an application on their smartphone, and then tuning it by listening to sounds. To operate the other type—called a simple modifier—users can manually control volume and sometimes the bass and treble of sounds. It’s important to buy a device with a warranty so that you can return it if the device doesn’t work for you or your lifestyle, Palmer says. “Until the person uses the device, they will not know if it will meet their needs,” she says. Under the FDA regulation, the packaging must state if your device can be returned. Reed also suggests checking whether the device comes with robust customer support, which can help you learn to use the device and address any problems. ## Transcript Vaccines are often called The Miracle of modern medicine for their ability to Target the immune system against disease-causing, viruses and bacteria. Since they work against infectious diseases, why not against other conditions that have long plagued Humanity like cancer. To say we're working to develop a vaccine to prevent Cancers and individuals for the rest of your life. It sounds like Star Wars but it's not a concept that's totally unchartered me vaccines against human papillomavirus which is causative agent in certain types of human cancers. Work to prevent cancer in those individuals who get vaccinated and so are we? We no longer is nikoli more about the immune system in the last 20 years in the face of cancer. Studies and cancer. And now it's covid that we can bring this knowledge to this big goal of using a new system to prevent all types of cancers and and do so with humility and optimize the immune response against cancer by training cells to recognize tumors as foreign. Once that happens in breast cancer, it may be possible to not only prevent Prince's in people who have already had cancer, but to even prevent it in the first place, I was diagnosed in 1987 and I wasn't treated much differently from what the treatments or today. Oh, wow. Yes, there's a lot of focus on immunotherapy and that's exciting. It's exciting from a research perspective but it hasn't really made a difference in women's lives. Yet, we believe that a vaccine approach is certainly the key and primary prevention or preventing people from getting breast cancer to begin with because we believe that that is the future, that that is one of the areas that we should be focusing on now. We believe not only will it save lives, but it will also be less toxic than existing Therapies. You know, technologies that have have been developed over the past five to ten years. Are number one, immune checkpoint Inhibitors. So, immune checkpoint Inhibitors is a form of therapy that has been you know now approved by the Food and Drug Administration for use in targeting a number of different cancers were, we had has been effective lasso in in certain tumors. And so, the reason that vaccines don't work against metastatic deposits of tumor is because the tumors themselves. Throw up a number of Walls that ultimately prevents the immune response from acting and killing the tumor. So the whole idea just like an infectious disease, vaccine used to identify what's foreign in the tumor as much as possible and to really craft A vaccine that targets what's foreign because that's really word. You know we're going to see the power of the immune response and in shrinking or preventing a cancer is having multiple targets within the tumor. But also having them be very foreign at the Mayo. Clinic Newton has developed a vaccine targeting, a very early form of breast cancer called ductal carcinoma inside you or DC, is he is working with his colleague dr. Amy degnan to test that vaccine experts, have debated in recent years, whether dcis is actually cancer since it involves lesions that remain in the ducts of the breast tissue and don't spread throughout the breast as other forms of breast cancer. Do about 50 1,000 women. A year are diagnosed with DC is in the US and some of those cases will become cancerous. Although doctors, can't predict which one As a result many women with the condition up to have radiation and surgery to remove the lesions to avoid the risk of developing cancer. if the immune system could be trained to attack tcis instead that would potentially help women to avoid the more invasive treatments, which some experts believe might be over treating their condition We are interested in pushing forward, you know, toward a goal of vaccines for breast cancer prevention. And so one strategy to do that is to then evaluate a vaccine that we found was safe and women who had invasive cancer and apply it to women who don't have invasive cancer yet who have this dcis and evaluate what kind of immune response we see in those women. And one of the things that were specifically interested in this study to see is what kind of response do we see in the breast tissue after this vaccine is given, can we find evidence that the immune system is reacting to the vaccine and potentially, you know, trying to clear out these cancer cells in the breast tissue. So, in this trial, we give the vaccine for several doses of the vaccine before surgery, and women who have dcis. And then at the time of We're removing their dcis as we would not normally to treat it, but we're also able to then investigate the breast tissue and the area of DCs and and see what is happening with the immune response there after the vaccine, the team at the Abramson Cancer Center, at Penn Medicine, is studying a different approach to a breast cancer vaccine. They are currently a rolling about 16th bull who have been diagnosed with cancer and who have the genetic mutations, bcra one or bcra to which put them at higher risk of developing breast cancer to see if vaccinating them will lower their chance of recurrence. The researchers also had to study a couple dozen people with the genetic risk, but who has not yet been diagnosed with cancer to see if the vaccine could lower their risk of ever developing the disease. It's a, it's a game changer and we recognize that we have a ways to go. But right now, if you're a 25 year old woman who has undergone genetic testing and is told that you have a safe for me to yishun, you're talkin about raining for the rest of your life for your breasts or deciding to do a bilateral, mastectomy have your breasts removed and at this point we had no effective screening for ovarian cancer. And so we strongly recommend that individuals have their ovaries removed between ages, 35 and 44 a beer, signaling carrier, putting them into early menopause. And with all the attendant Dallas ring consequence that we really have not had great options apart from surgical options. And, you know, we're working on many different types of strategies to try alternative National the natural history. But this concept of immune interception being able to use the immune system to change the natural history for these individual is so critical. We are probably at the end of the era of using cancer, vaccines with great hope in a patient, whose party been treated with everything in the tumor is still Advanced to using these vaccines and all our new knowledge in patients, who are at risk for relapse or individuals who are simply a high risk for cancer and we want to prevent so prevention. 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