Nearly five years ago, Congress
passed bipartisan legislation I led alongside Senator Warren of Massachusetts
to make certain types of hearing aids easily available to Americans with mild
to moderate hearing loss. Our proposal, the
Over-the-Counter Hearing Aid Act,
was
signed into law in August of 2017, but years went by before the Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) established regulations needed to make affordable hearings
aids a reality. After continuously pressuring the FDA over the last several
years, the administration has officially finalized necessary guidelines to put
our legislation into practice. Safe, effective, accessible and affordable hearing
aids will now be available to millions of Americans.
I’ve heard from a number of Iowans who look
forward to benefiting from over-the-counter hearing aids. Jean Helm from Des
Moines said, “I want to clearly hear my grandkids tell me all about baseball and
school, which means I know I’m going to need to invest in hearing aids soon.”
She’s looking forward to having more affordable options. This is just one
example, but it demonstrates how fixing hearing problems is essential to
maintaining a healthy and strong quality of life – especially when it comes to
spending time with family.
Similarly, audiologists in Iowa are
looking forward to the new over-the-counter hearing aid guidelines. Audiologists
are critical health care providers who will continue to provide much-needed
audiology services to seniors. Dr. Jason Aird, who runs an audiology practice
in Coralville – serving communities throughout southeast Iowa – believes these
new guidelines will serve to highlight the essential role that independent audiologists
play in offering consumers a safe, streamlined process for obtaining hearing
aids and access to diagnostic and treatment services that they may need.
According to the National Institute on
Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), nearly
38 million Americans experience some degree of hearing loss. Nearly half of
adults 75 or older and one-third of adults between 65 and 74
experience difficulty hearing. However, only a small percentage – around
14 percent – of those who could benefit from hearing aids use them, oftentimes
due to high costs.
In 2017, I introduced the bipartisan Over-the-Counter Hearing Aid Act to help
make hearing aids more affordable and accessible. Specifically, the bill
required the FDA to establish regulations making hearing aids available at your
local pharmacy, audiologist’s office or elsewhere over-the-counter. By
including the FDA in the regulatory process, individuals buying over-the-counter
hearing aids can have confidence that existing safety, labeling and
manufacturing protections are maintained. Additionally, the legislation removed
outdated and burdensome regulations that blocked consumer access to affordable
hearing aids. It will introduce more competition into the market, providing
consumers with additional options at a more affordable price.
Unfortunately, after our commonsense bill
was signed into law, we ran into some bureaucratic hurdles and pushback from
the “Big Five” hearing aid manufacturers. The FDA slow-rolled the
regulatory-crafting process, missing its first statutory deadline by a year.
After the public comment period closed on January 18 of this year, and the FDA
failed to provide a clear timeline for finalizing regulations, I joined Senator
Warren to ramp up pressure by introducing the
Delivering Over-the-Counter Hearing Aids Now Act. The bill required the FDA to speed up its
timeline for issuing its final regulations.
We also faced pushback from the five
dominant manufacturers in the highly-concentrated hearing aid industry. The Big
Five control 90 percent of the market. Senator Warren and I issued a
report
and immediately sent it to the FDA, shining a light on the nefarious tactics of
these five companies.
Although these final guidelines are long
overdue, millions of Americans impacted by hearing loss now have access to
hearing aids over-the-counter beginning in October. This achievement wouldn’t
have been possible without the strong advocacy of impacted Iowans, audiologists
and my colleagues in Congress.
Chuck Grassley represents the state of Iowa in the U.S. Senate. He is
the former chairman and current member of the Finance Committee and serves as
ranking member of the Judiciary Committee.
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