Laws and regulations about hearing aids in Norway 

Eikholtis a resource and competence centre that offers courses and expertise to people with combined visual and hearing impairment/deafblindness and their families. Below is an overview of laws and regulations regarding hearing aids in Norway that you may want to know about. 

Who has the right to requisition?

There are many laws and regulations relating to hearing aids. In Norway, hearing aids are free, and you get them from NAV via a hearing centre at a hospital or an appointment specialist who has an agreement with a health authority.

Only audiologists and otorhinolaryngologists with the right to requisition can apply to NAV for benefits for hearing aids. Eikholt does not have requisition rights.  

How to get hearing aids for the first time?  

• To get hearing aids, contact your GP. Your GP will refer you to a hearing centre at the hospital or to a specialist.
• Before you visit your GP, you may want to consider whether you want to start wearing hearing aids if the hearing test shows that you need them. In the referral, it's important to get the doctor to note whether you also have a visual impairment, so that the recipient of the referral has the opportunity to accommodate this.  
• Eventually, you'll be given an appointment with an audiologist and an ear, nose and throat doctor, and your hearing will be assessed. If you need hearing aids, you will be fitted with them. Control appointments are usually scheduled to ensure that the hearing aid is working properly.  

Right to trial multiple hearing aids  

• When hearing aids are on trial, the hearing aids are borrowed from NAV, via a hearing centre or clinic. You are entitled to try several different hearing aids if you want and need them.
• The trial period is generally a maximum of 6 months. It is important to test your hearing aids in different sound situations. If you also have a visual impairment, it is particularly important to test conversations in noise. If you use your hearing for mobility, it's important to check whether the hearing aids work to hear ambient sound.
• When you have decided to keep your hearing aid, you sign a NAV form. Then the trial ends and the hearing aid becomes your property.  

The 6-year rule for hearing aid replacement  

In Norway, the cost of a new set of hearing aids is covered every six years. When it has been six years since you were fitted with hearing aids, you should normally contact your hearing centre or specialist to make an appointment to try out new hearing aids.

The 6 years are counted from the time you decided on a hearing aid and the trial ended. Because the old hearing aids are your property, you do not have to hand them in when you get new ones.  

Hearing aid insurance  

A hearing aid costs between NOK 6,000 and NOK 10,000 each, depending on the model. You are responsible for the hearing aids both when you have them on trial from NAV and after you have decided to keep the hearing aids. If you lose your hearing aids before you are entitled to new ones, they will not be replaced by NAV. You may therefore want to insure your hearing aids. You usually do this as a separate valuables insurance.

Hearing aid repair

NAV covers the cost of repairs to hearing aids. This means that you do not have to pay for the actual repair of hearing aids. However, hospitals and clinics can still charge for repairing, sending or examining hearing aids.

Replacement hearing aids

As a general rule, NAV does not cover the cost of replacement hearing aids. However, there are exceptions to this rule. In the "Circular to the National Insurance Act Section 10-7 first paragraph letter b: Hearing aids and tinnitus masks" states: "Children under the age of 18 who have a hearing aid that requires a long repair time can be given a replacement. Adults do not have the same right."  

There is also an exception to the main rule on replacement hearing aids for people with deafblindness.  

"In very special cases, the strain of being without a hearing aid in connection with repairs will be so great that a spare device can be provided. This applies, for example, when the user in practice becomes blind, deaf and unable to orientate themselves without a hearing aid. The practice is intended to be very restrictive. It must not conflict with the fundamental view that the vast majority of people do not have a necessary and sufficient need for a backup device when the main device is being serviced or repaired." 

This exception can be good to know about, as many people with both visual impairment and hearing impairment/deafblindness have a great need for both regular and replacement hearing aids.  

Sources

Read more about NAV's rules on hearing aids: https://www.nav.no/horeapparat  

Read more on Lovdata's circular and legal text on hearing aids: https://lovdata.no/nav/rundskriv/r10-07bn  

Other useful resources:

What is hearing and characteristics of hearing loss?

About Eikholt's clinic for combined visual and hearing impairment: Read about Eikholt's vision and hearing clinic

On the NAV Knowledge Bank you will find information about assistive technology and other support for people with hearing loss, as well as other hearing challenges: Hearing | Knowledge Bank

On the NAV Knowledge Bank you will find a description of apps that may be relevant to you with hearing loss; Hearing (app) | Knowledge bank

Do you have questions about combined visual and hearing impairment?

Contact us - Eikholt

The article is written 16.05.2024