Yes an OTC aid will not help you but you may need to see a neuro-otologist because if you have normal hearing thresholds but distorted speech recognition and tinnitus you may have anything from Central auditory processing disorder, to cerebrovascular inflammation, to a benign tumor on the acoustic nerve. I wouldn't stop at the test - I'd get an MRI. If that's clear, I'd ask for auditory processing disorder screening.

So medicare does not cover hearing aids at all and his medicaid supplement may dictate he needs to go to a certain provider to get discounted aids, but he can go wherever he pleases if he wants to pay privately for them. These devices are self fitting and for mild losses only so I would say he probably would not benefit tremendously from them. But he would benefit from a second opinion.

Audiologist here. I fully agree. Very few of my patients have mild to moderate loss. If they've sought help already, they're likely not a candidate for OTC. But this will hopefully be a way for hearing-aid -curious individuals with early signs of their loss to start treating sooner. I just wish the product came with a good recommendation to have a diagnostic evaluation first so we can rule out wax impaction, infection, anatomical abnormalities and disease. Unfortunately people will always self treat, but I wish they would not self diagnose this issue. You can really do a lot of damage.