I Tried Hear.com's At-Home Test for New Prescription Hearing Aids. Here’s How It Works

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Putting aside their exorbitant cost, the trouble with prescription hearing aids is the prescription. Find a doctor. Get an appointment. Sit in a waiting room. Suffer through an hour of testing before getting the hard sell on a pair of hearing aids. Why, the indignity of it all is even worse than going deaf.

Telehealth offers a glimmer of a solution, but as everyone who’s tried to show off a concerning mole to a doctor via a smartphone camera knows: Video technology can only get you so far. Audiological testing requires significant one-on-one interaction and plenty of technology to back that up. Every audiogram I’ve sat for has been inside a sophisticated, soundproof chamber.

Hear.com—a ...