AI Tackles Hearing’s Toughest Problem — While Access Remains a Challenge
Opening Overview
This week brought an interesting contrast in hearing care.
At one end of the spectrum, a relatively new hearing-aid company is using enormous amounts of computing power to attack perhaps the biggest complaint among hearing-aid users:
“I can hear people talking. I just can’t understand them in a noisy room.”
Independent laboratory testing released this week suggests Fortell’s unusual approach to AI and speech separation may represent a meaningful advance.
At the other end of the spectrum is 76-year-old Mable Wilson.
She has Medicare and Medicaid. She was told three years ago that she needed hearing aids.
She still doesn’t have professionally fitted hearing aids.
Meanwhile, new research is asking an important question about how audiologists choose hearing-aid technology for individual patients, while current pricing data show consumers now have dramatically different paths to better hearing — ranging from OTC devices to Costco to premium prescription technology.
Together, these stories illustrate both the remarkable progress and the continuing frustration of hearing care in 2026.
We may be getting much better at building hearing aids.
The harder problem may be making sure people can find, afford and successfully use the right ones.
❤️ She Has Medicare and Medicaid. So Why Has She Waited Three Years for Hearing Aids?
Mable Wilson is 76 and lives in Syracuse, New York.
In 2023, a doctor told her she needed hearing aids.
Three years later, she’s still trying to get them.
Wilson has both Medicare and Medicaid. On paper, that sounds as though she should have a path toward hearing care.
In practice, she encountered confusing insurance rules, difficulty determining what was covered and trouble finding providers who would accept her coverage.
Wilson eventually tried another route.
She spent $74 on a pair of over-the-counter hearing aids at Walmart.
But after struggling with the setup and encountering a high-pitched sound, she wasn’t sure the devices were working correctly.
For someone living on a limited income, even $74 matters. She wondered whether she’d wasted money that could have gone toward groceries.
Her experience highlights an important distinction:
Having hearing coverage isn’t the same as having access to hearing care.
Insurance benefits can involve provider networks, eligibility rules and different responsibilities among Medicare, Medicaid and Medicare Advantage plans.
And while OTC hearing aids eliminate some of those barriers, they introduce another:
The consumer may have to select, set up and adjust the device largely on their own.
For many people, that’s perfectly manageable.
For others, it isn’t.
HArC Insight: Access isn’t simply about whether someone can buy a hearing aid. Real access means being able to find an appropriate device, afford it, set it up successfully and get help when something goes wrong.
🤖 Has AI Finally Cracked the Cocktail-Party Problem?
Imagine sitting in a busy restaurant.
Someone across the table is talking to you.
Unfortunately, the people at the next table are talking too.
Traditional hearing aids can amplify and process sound remarkably well, but separating one human voice from several competing human voices remains extraordinarily difficult.
It’s often called the cocktail-party problem.
And it’s the problem Fortell has set out to solve.
A fascinating new report in The New Yorker traces the development of Fortell’s hearing aids and the enormous amount of computing power the company is putting behind real-time sound processing.
Even comedian and musician Steve Martin participated as an early test user.
Instead of simply deciding that speech is important and noise isn’t, Fortell’s AI attempts to separate individual sound sources and determine which deserve emphasis.
Then came an interesting piece of independent evidence this week.
Fortell announced September 15 that its hearing aids had completed testing by independent hearing-aid laboratory HearAdvisor.
The results were striking.
Fortell received an overall SoundScore of 6.0 and a speech-in-noise score of 6.4 — exceeding HearAdvisor’s nominal five-point scale and the laboratory’s previous tested highs.
HearAdvisor evaluates hearing aids using standardized laboratory conditions with an acoustic manikin surrounded by calibrated speakers. Its SoundScore incorporates speech in noise, speech in quiet, feedback management, own-voice quality and streamed music.
There’s an important caveat.
A laboratory isn’t a crowded restaurant.
And Fortell’s announcement about the results is still a company-issued press release, even though the testing itself was performed independently.
The devices also cost approximately $6,800 per pair.
So this isn’t evidence that everyone should rush out and buy them.
But it is evidence worth paying attention to.
For years, manufacturers have promised better performance in background noise.
Objective testing gives consumers something more useful than another marketing claim.
HArC Insight: AI may finally be making meaningful progress on one of hearing aids’ hardest problems. But the question isn’t whether a device contains AI. It’s whether that AI produces measurable improvement in the situations where you actually struggle.
💰 From $500 OTC Hearing Aids to $6,800 Fortells: What Are You Actually Paying For?
Mable Wilson’s story and Fortell’s technology sit at opposite ends of an increasingly broad hearing-aid market.
Current HearingTracker purchasing data illustrate just how broad.
Its survey of more than 1,100 hearing-aid purchasers found an average 2026 price of about $2,694 per pair, down substantially from 2018.
OTC purchasers reported paying an average of approximately $502 per pair.
Private-pay prescription hearing aids, including Costco purchases, averaged approximately $3,432 per pair.
And Costco represents another increasingly important middle ground.
The retailer sells prescription hearing aids with testing, fitting and follow-up services at prices that can be substantially below many traditional private-practice prices. Current models generally fall in roughly the $1,500–$1,700-per-pair range, depending on model and availability.
Then there are premium products such as Fortell at approximately $6,800.
Does that mean the $6,800 hearing aid is automatically better for you than the $1,500 hearing aid?
No.
Nor does it mean the $500 OTC device is automatically the better value.
Consumers are paying for different combinations of:
• Hearing-aid technology
• Professional testing
• Fitting and verification
• Follow-up adjustments
• Customer support
• Warranty coverage
• Accessories and connectivity
• Advanced speech-processing capability
The right comparison isn’t simply:
“Which hearing aid costs less?”
It’s:
“What am I receiving for the price — and which parts of that package do I actually need?”
HArC Consumer Tip: When comparing hearing-aid prices, ask for the complete cost of the device and professional care. Then ask which services are included, how long they’re included and what you’ll pay if you need additional help.
🔬 How Does an Audiologist Decide Which Hearing Aid You Should Get?
Here’s something consumers rarely get to see:
What actually goes through an audiologist’s mind when recommending one hearing aid over another?
A newly published study in the American Journal of Audiology explored that question through detailed interviews with clinical audiologists.
The researchers were particularly interested in something called auditory lifestyle.
That’s essentially the collection of listening environments someone encounters in everyday life.
A retired person who mostly talks one-on-one at home may have very different hearing needs from someone who regularly attends meetings, restaurants, concerts and large family gatherings.
And two people with very similar audiograms may therefore benefit from different technology.
That’s an important consumer lesson.
An audiogram tells a hearing professional a great deal about what you can hear.
It doesn’t necessarily tell them where you need to hear.
Those aren’t the same question.
This becomes especially important as manufacturers offer multiple technology levels at very different prices.
HArC Insight: When discussing hearing aids with a professional, don’t just describe your hearing loss. Describe your life. Where do you struggle? Restaurants? Golf? Church? Meetings? Television? Grandchildren? Those answers may be just as important when choosing technology.
🛡️ Consumer Guidance: Don’t Buy the Most Expensive Hearing Aid Until You Can Answer This Question
The explosion of AI hearing technology creates an interesting buying problem.
Premium manufacturers increasingly advertise sophisticated processors, deep neural networks and enormous amounts of computing power.
Some of those advances are real.
Fortell’s laboratory results this week are an excellent example.
But before paying thousands of dollars for premium technology, ask yourself:
Where am I actually having difficulty hearing?
If your biggest problem is understanding your spouse while watching television at home, you may not need the industry’s most sophisticated speech-separation system.
If your biggest frustration is understanding conversation in crowded restaurants, advanced speech-in-noise processing may be much more valuable.
If you have mild-to-moderate hearing loss and are comfortable setting up technology yourself, an OTC device might be worth considering.
If you need substantial professional assistance, the cheapest self-fitting option may turn out to be poor value.
And if cost is preventing you from addressing hearing loss altogether, lower-cost prescription channels such as Costco may deserve investigation.
HArC Consumer Tip: Don’t shop for the “best hearing aid.” Shop for the hearing solution that best addresses your hearing loss, your difficult listening situations, your comfort with technology and your budget.
💙 What This Means for You
There’s something almost uncomfortable about putting Mable Wilson and Fortell in the same hearing-news article.
One story involves engineers using extraordinarily sophisticated artificial intelligence to separate voices in real time.
The other involves a 76-year-old woman who has spent three years trying to obtain basic hearing aids despite having public health coverage.
But that’s exactly why the stories belong together.
Hearing technology is advancing remarkably quickly.
Yet technology alone doesn’t solve hearing loss.
People still need to:
Recognize they need help.
Understand their options.
Find appropriate care.
Afford the solution.
Successfully use the technology.
And receive support when something goes wrong.
The hearing industry is making impressive progress on the first part of that equation:
Building better hearing aids.
The next challenge may be equally important:
Making better hearing easier for people to actually obtain.
Closing Thought
The phrase “best hearing aid” gets used constantly.
But perhaps it’s the wrong question.
A $6,800 hearing aid sitting in a drawer isn’t the best hearing aid.
Neither is a $74 OTC device someone can’t successfully set up.
The best hearing solution is the one that provides enough technology, enough professional support and enough value that someone will actually use it.
Fortell’s technology gives us an exciting glimpse of where hearing aids may be going.
Mable Wilson’s experience reminds us how much work remains to make better hearing accessible today.
Innovation matters.
So does access.
The future of hearing care needs both.
HArC I Hear™ shares hearing news and consumer information for educational purposes. It is not a substitute for evaluation, diagnosis or advice from a qualified hearing-care or medical professional.