Washington Major stores in the U.S. will start selling cheaper hearing aids without a prescription or a medical exam on Monday, when the last rules from the Biden administration go into effect.
In August, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) gave its approval for hearing aids to be sold over-the-counter. This means that millions of Americans can now buy hearing aids without going to an audiologist, which could save them thousands of dollars.
Hearing aids for people with mild to moderate hearing loss must follow the rules. The devices can be bought in stores or online without a medical exam, a prescription, or a fitting by an audiologist.
The White House talked about the news that big stores like Walgreens and Walmart (NYSE:WMT) would start selling hearing aids at lower prices starting on Monday. The White House said that CVS will start selling cheaper hearing aids online on Monday and in some stores in November.
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The White House also said that Best Buy will start selling hearing aids at lower prices online this week and in stores by the end of October.
In August, Brian Deese, director of the White House National Economic Council, said the government thought the rule would save consumers about $2,800 per pair of hearing aids and help “tens of millions of Americans.”
In 2017, Congress passed a law that said the FDA had to make a category of hearing aids that could be bought without a prescription, but it was not fully put into place. In June 2021, President Joe Biden signed a broad competition executive order that told the Health and Human Services Department to “promote the wide availability of low-cost hearing aids.”
