Of course, the vision folks turned it into a racket for extracting cash. So ideally we'd want to avoid that and perhaps fix the vision racket while we are at it.
The FDA wants you to be able to buy a hearing aid without a prescription
141–150 of 462 posts
Re: The FDA wants you to be able to buy a hearing aid without a prescription
#142Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have been to maybe a half dozen different optometrists over the last 25 years and they have always used several expensive looking machines to screen for eye disease. Most frequently a machine that uses a puff of air to measure the pressure in your eye and more recently, a machine with a bright light that gets detailed imagery of the vascular structure on the back of your eye.
Yes, although that test is automated and typically done by a technician not an optometrist. You can train someone to use one of these machines in a few hours. If this was a key test no reason we couldn’t just put one in every GP office and have eye pressure checked during an annual checkup.
We're supposed to go EVERY YEAR?
Re: The FDA wants you to be able to buy a hearing aid without a prescription
#143Re: The FDA wants you to be able to buy a hearing aid without a prescription
#144Earlier quoted context omitted.
Then the doctor leaves their signature off the prescription so that it is effectively useless.
This is just a general thing I've learned from working adjacent to US healthcare... It's annoying to work with and there are all kinds of little rules because of how inefficient the system is. First, always have a list of all relevant phone numbers (at a minimum, but other information is helpful too) to any healthcare entity you need to work with. Your primary care doctor, your pharmacy, your hospital, your preferred…
Re: The FDA wants you to be able to buy a hearing aid without a prescription
#145Earlier quoted context omitted.
12 years ago, I walked into a second hand eye glasses shop in India and they had one of these machines. It was amazingly effective. I felt duped by all the optometrist appointments asking me about A or B.
Duped, because they are doing it the old-fashioned way?
Re: The FDA wants you to be able to buy a hearing aid without a prescription
#146Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not sure why vision checks require a doctor at all. In the end, they're just relying on your responses anyway: "What's better: A or B"? In fact, I'd go further and say it doesn't even require another person. I, for one, am glad to see this bill.
Vision checks have also changed a lot in the last five years or so. I have a pretty strong prescription and always used to do rounds of reading charts and "A or B", and now there's a machine that scans my eyes and gets it very close to right, with an adjustment or two at the end.
Re: The FDA wants you to be able to buy a hearing aid without a prescription
#147How much would you pay for: *Hearing test * Hearing aid fitting * Usage counselling * Follow up adjustments * Annual retest of your hearing * Replacement of lost hearing aids * Unlimited repair for 3 years ?? ====== I got out of the Audiology field in 2015. At that time all the above was included for every hearing aid we sold (Prices varied from $750 / ear - $3600 / ear. When I was in that field many companies tried…
Re: The FDA wants you to be able to buy a hearing aid without a prescription
#148BUT WHAT IF PEOPLE ABUSE HEARING AID?????? To be serious: amount of things that are "prescription only", even if they can cause only minimal harm, is astounding.
Re: The FDA wants you to be able to buy a hearing aid without a prescription
#149How much would you pay for: *Hearing test * Hearing aid fitting * Usage counselling * Follow up adjustments * Annual retest of your hearing * Replacement of lost hearing aids * Unlimited repair for 3 years ?? ====== I got out of the Audiology field in 2015. At that time all the above was included for every hearing aid we sold (Prices varied from $750 / ear - $3600 / ear. When I was in that field many companies tried…
Re: The FDA wants you to be able to buy a hearing aid without a prescription
#150BUT WHAT IF PEOPLE ABUSE HEARING AID?????? To be serious: amount of things that are "prescription only", even if they can cause only minimal harm, is astounding.
What if they do end up with a better hearing though? Think about the consequences.. Or what if the ENTs haven't lobbied lately but instead the device makers did this time?