Hear, Hear: The FDA allows hearing aids to be purchased without a prescription

of Food and Drug Administration It paved the way for millions of Americans to buy hearing aids over the counter—a move that would increase competition, spur innovation, and lower the cost of expensive medical devices.

By mid-October, Americans will be able to purchase more affordable hearing aids at pharmacies and stores across the country, he said. About 3,000 dollars For a pair of hearing aids.

But it is not so easy. It’s hard to imagine how quickly a large number of manufacturers will start selling devices on the table and how much money Americans will save.

But Biden officials and a key pair of bipartisan senators see the long-awaited move as a big win for consumers. Hearing aids cost several thousand dollars and are typically not covered by traditional Medicare or other insurers, making them unaffordable for many Americans. The federal government estimates that about 30 million people could benefit from hearing aids, but only about one-fifth actually use the devices.

Yesterday’s final rule was years in the works for The Post. Eugene Scott And Katie Shepherd Note.

• In 2015 The Obama administration’s outside advisers have made a recommendation: The FDA should create a new category of “basic” hearing aids that can be purchased over the counter.
• In 2017 Congress passed legislation giving the FDA three years to propose these rules.
• But the agency failed to meet the deadlines. In an executive order signed in July 2021, Biden put pressure on the FDA — and it took another year before the rules were finalized.

Especially… The change will allow adults with mild to moderate hearing loss to purchase the devices in stores and online without a prescription or medical examination. Such a change is expected to particularly help older, poorer Americans and those living in rural areas where access to audiologists is limited.

“The downside — the downside — is that people may choose to buy a hearing aid without seeing a hearing care professional,” he said. Tricia Neumann, Senior Vice President at Kaiser Family Foundation. “And they may not get a hearing aid that fits them, that adjusts over time.”

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa):

Here’s the big idea: A small number of hearing aid manufacturers dominate the space. Allowing devices to be sold on the market could create more competition in the market and encourage new companies to create more innovative hearing aids.

“We’ll never see Apple trying to get into hearing services in the current state of things, but it’s certainly possible that they’re considering it now,” he said. Nicholas Reed, Assistant Professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

But whether that will happen — and how quickly the technology transition can come — is an open question. Reed believes over-the-counter hearing aids will be on the market in less than six months “relatively quickly,” but said it could take three to five years before the market is fully developed.

It is certain that such devices will be cheaper. In the news summary. Brian Dec, Director of National Economic Council, Such savings can be achieved, he said $2,800 for a pair Hearing aids, though FDA officials take a more cautious line.

• “Those amounts vary,” he said Jeffrey ShurenThe head of the FDA Equipment and radiological health center. “Many of them are difficult to predict and it is very important to see what happens in the market, but we know that we can reduce the price by being competitive.”

In the 100-day fight to end monkey disease

It’s been 100 days since the record-breaking monkey disease was first identified in Europe — and no country has been hit harder than the United States. The federal response has struggled to keep up, with turf wars, ongoing surprises and muddled messaging.

Post Dan Diamond, Fenit Nirapil, and Lina H Some public health experts are diving deeper into error this morning as they warn that the virus may have taken root in the United States.

“For two months, the Biden administration has been in the headlines for failing to order enough vaccines, expedite treatments, and prevent an outbreak that escalated from one case in Massachusetts on May 17. 12,600 this week It is more common among gay and bisexual men,” our colleagues wrote.

protection Biden officials confirmed the response was overwhelming. They also announced the newly created White House Epidemiological Task Force, the decision to declare the virus a public health emergency, and a new plan to increase vaccination rates fivefold.

A few points from the story:

• Bavarian Nordic CEO Paul Chaplin was furious Federal authorities have threatened to cancel all future vaccine orders from the United States to distribute vaccine doses.
• In June, White House coordinator Ashish Jha and top infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci began to believe the number of infections was higher than reported. Click on it Raj Punjabi, The National Security Council’s Office of Epidemics is headed by the National Security Council to promote testing.
• In July, White House chief of staff Ron Klein warned federal health officials. In Denmark, the vaccine doses are stuck and to speed up the treatments that are difficult to remove from the national stock.

The Biden administration sees the next phase of the epidemic

The Biden administration will stop buying some vaccines, treatments and tests for weeks to months to get the country into the next phase of the coronavirus pandemic, according to the White House’s coronavirus response coordinator. Ashish Ja He said yesterday.

The administration is currently undoing the rounds of transitioning the products into the mainstream health care system, a complex process set to begin this fall that involves regulatory, market dynamics and equity issues. “My hope is that by 2023 you will see commercialization of almost all of these products,” Jha said at a sponsored event. American Chamber of Commerce Foundation.

Jha also encouraged them to find new incentives designed to protect against new variants if they are prepared in anticipation of the arrival of the common flu — which has fallen by the wayside nationwide over the past two years in response to Covid-19 control measures like face masks.

• “When it’s not an epidemic, the flu really stretches our health care system.,” he said.

The White House expects the revised ammunition to be ready by early mid-September.But Jeha acknowledged that due to a lack of pandemic funding, the administration has been unable to buy enough for every American adult.

American Chamber of Commerce Foundation:

First Lady Jill Biden tested positive for Covid-19

First Lady Jill Biden has tested positive for the coronavirus and will begin an antiviral treatment, Paxlovide, The Post reports. Amy B. Wang Reports.

Biden, 71, has been vaccinated twice, boosted twice and is showing mild symptoms, her spokeswoman said. Elizabeth Alexander he said. She will be isolated at a private residence in South Carolina until she has two consecutive negative coronavirus tests.

It was confirmed that President Biden was infected with the corona virus yesterday morningBut he will wear a mask for 10 days at home and when he is with others because he is considered an intimate contact of the first lady, the White House press secretary said. Karin Jean-Pierre.

White House orders

Originally posted on Health 202: New ad campaign highlights Democrats’ recent health care achievements

An advocacy group aligned with democracy Keep our care Biden has launched a new TV ad campaign highlighting the Democrats’ spending bill on health care and climate change, which he signed into law yesterday.

The four-figure national ad buy heralds a new rallying cry for the party: Democrats are done. For years, Democratic lawmakers have promised to allow Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices, a key policy contained in Inflation Reduction Act.

The announcement comes as Biden prepares. Hit the road To sell recent successes to voters in anticipation of November’s midterm elections, when Democrats could lose their majorities in one or both houses of Congress. The administration plans to hold “impact briefings” to emphasize its message and is set to kick off the midterms at a rally in Maryland next week, The Post’s Yasmin Abutaleb Reports.

• Polio can be circulating undetected for up to a year. And it may have been in New York’s wastewater since April, 2011 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention He announced in a report issued yesterday.
• The FDA has received more 48,000 reports Faulty ventilators and ventilators manufactured by Dutch Medical Devices Maker Phillips including 44 deaths between May and July; Reuters Reports.
• They have at least eight children in the United States Tested positive For the monkey, ABC News Reports. Most cases in the United States are among men who have sex with men, although health officials say anyone can contract the virus.
• Federal Court of Appeals He bought it yesterday The Americans with Disabilities Act, which covers individuals with “gender dysphoria,” gave a victory to transgender people in a lawsuit involving a former inmate who claimed he was discriminated against in a Virginia prison. CNN Reports.

Why an age-old vaccine offers new hope against pathogens (by Ronnie Karin Rabin | The New York Times)

Buy and Wean: The collapse of private equity-backed rural hospitals leaves workers in medical bills (by Sarah Jane Tribble | Kaiser Health News)

Pregnancy tests are common before many surgical procedures. But Dobbs upped the ante (by Trisha Pasricha | Stats)

Thanks for reading! See you all tomorrow.