Upcoming NASEM Meeting Continues Discussion on Affordability and Accessibility of Hearing Care
On Friday, June 9th the National Academy of Science, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) will convene a full day meeting devoted to accessible and affordable hearing care for adults. The meeting will begin at 9 am EDT and is a continuation of the December 7 NASEM meeting focused on this topic. You can attend the June…
Read More
Another Prominent US Senator Co-Sponsors OTC Hearing Aid Bill
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Another prominent lawmaker has joined the ranks of bipartisan co-sponsors for the Over-the-Counter Hearing Aid Act of 2017. Senator Susan Collins (R-ME), Chairman of the Senate Aging Committee, announced her support of the bill originally introduced by Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Chuck Grassley (R-IA) in a press release this week. The…
Read More
AudiologyNOW and FTC Workshop Focus on Innovation & Competition
As the month of April draws to a close, as large parts of the country continue to wait for the full bloom of spring, audiologists look back on two recently concluded events. Key topics at both events hold potentially monumental consequences, as government regulatory agencies wrestle with issues related to competition, innovation and consumer access.…
Read More
Over-the-Counter Hearing Aid Act Re-introduced into New Congress
WASHINGTON, DC — The Over-the-Counter Hearing Aid Act of 2017 was introduced into the 115th Congress on Monday, March 20th. It is a bipartisan bill that would allow hearing aids to be sold over-the-counter (OTC) to address mild to moderate hearing loss. Like a similar bill introduced late last year, this bill was in sponsored…
Read More
AAA Leaders Meet With US Senate Health Policy Staff to Discuss Audiology and OTC Legislation
WASHINGTON, DC — In a message sent to Academy members this morning, the American Academy of Audiology (AAA) announced that Academy President Ian Windmill, PhD and President-Elect Jackie Clark, PhD met with health policy staff in Senator Elizabeth Warren’s (D-MA) office on March 15th. According to the announcement, the focus of the meeting was to…
Read More
At CES Hearing Aids and Consumer Audio Continue to Morph
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA — With more than 175,000 attendees, 3,800 exhibiting companies and 2.6 million square feet of floor space spread across three locations, the Consumer Electronic Show– now so familiar it’s simply “CES” -is one of the largest annual conventions in the world. Everything from drones to self-driving cars, from smart canes to smart…
Read More
FTC to Hold Hearing Aid Workshop
On April 18th the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) will host a workshop in Washington, DC . The purpose of the workshop is to examine several of the issues surrounding the current marketplace for hearing aids, including competition, innovation, and consumer protection. As per a January 4th press release, the FTC’s workshop, “Now Hear This:…
Read More
President Obama Supports OTC Hearing Aids as Part of Fair Competition
Legal titan and former Supreme Court Justice, Louis Brandeis decried what he referred to as the “curse of bigness” – a school of thought reaching back to Thomas Jefferson that says the American economy is better off when there’s smaller companies competing head-to-head with each other. With his term in office ending soon, President Barack…
Read More