The New Hampshire Hearing Aid Dealer credential is a certificate of registration, not a license: under RSA 326-F:9, no person shall engage in the business of selling or offering for rent hearing aids in New Hampshire unless registered in accordance with that chapter. Registration, issued through the Governing Board of Speech-Language Pathologists and Hearing Care Providers, requires a supervised training program and two examinations — the written or online International Licensing Examination of the International Hearing Society, and a practical examination administered by the Board itself. The PassProfessor New Hampshire Hearing Aid Dealer program prepares candidates for that examination pair. The companion exam guide at /new-hampshire-hearing-instrument-specialist-exam-guide/ works through the same verified facts in greater depth.
This program is part of the expanding PassProfessor catalog — join the notify list and we’ll email you when enrollment opens.
What this credential certifies
A registered New Hampshire Hearing Aid Dealer sells and offers for rent hearing aids, and the registration certifies the measured skills that work depends on: testing hearing for selection and fitting, examining the ear, taking ear mold impressions, fitting and servicing instruments, and — placed first in the Board’s own practical list — knowing and applying the FDA criteria for mandatory medical referral. The dealer who cannot recognise the presentation that must go to a physician before any sale is not merely under-prepared; that dealer is a risk the examination is specifically built to screen out.
New Hampshire’s wording matters, and this page follows it exactly. Audiologists in New Hampshire are licensed; hearing aid dealers are registered. The credential is a certificate of registration, the governing statute is RSA 326-F, and the examinations sit in the Board’s Hcp rules, principally Hcp 304.05. A candidate who searches for a New Hampshire hearing aid “license” will find the occupation, but under the wrong name — and the distinction is not pedantry, because the registration route, its exemptions, and its training requirement are all written in registration language.
The examination at a glance
| Item | Verified position |
|---|---|
| Program | New Hampshire Hearing Aid Dealer, a certificate of registration for engaging in the business of selling or offering for rent hearing aids in New Hampshire |
| Registering authority | Governing Board of Speech-Language Pathologists and Hearing Care Providers, administered through the New Hampshire Office of Professional Licensure and Certification (OPLC); RSA 326-F:9; rules Hcp 304.01–304.07 |
| Examination | Two examinations, both required under Hcp 304.05: (1) the written or online International Licensing Examination of the IHS (the ILE), given by or on behalf of the Board; and (2) a practical examination administered by the Board, given twice a year, testing FDA mandatory-medical-referral criteria, otological examination, selection and fitting testing including air conduction, bone conduction and masking, ear mold impressions, and hearing aid troubleshooting and servicing |
| Practical standard | Hcp 304.05(e): an applicant who fails to obtain a score of 70% or higher on any part of the practical examination re-enters the training program and retakes the failed portion |
| Training before the exams | A supervised training program under Hcp 304.04, not to exceed 24 months, directly supervised by a licensed audiologist or a registered hearing aid dealer registered for at least 2 years; an IHS-approved distance learning program is also accepted toward the requirement |
| Exemptions from both exams | Applicants board certified by the National Board for Certification in Hearing Instrument Sciences (NBC-HIS), and applicants who passed the ILE in another state or jurisdiction whose requirements are substantially equivalent to New Hampshire’s |
| Initial registration fee | $300 (the Board’s fee schedule in Hcp 306.01); the written examination fee is paid to IHS at the fee IHS sets |
| Administrator note | PassProfessor is independent and is not affiliated with the Governing Board, OPLC, or the International Hearing Society |
Not a license, and not the training program: three things that are routinely confused
First, the credential itself. Registration is the whole credential — there is no separate New Hampshire hearing aid dealer license behind it, and a registered dealer is not an audiologist and does not hold the audiologist’s license. Second, the supervised training program under Hcp 304.04 is not the credential either: it is the preparation the rules require before the examinations, completed under a licensed audiologist or a dealer registered for at least two years, on a plan covering hearing testing and interpretation, otoscopic ear examination, earmold impression procedures, hearing aid selection and fitting protocol, and hearing aid troubleshooting and servicing. Third, the exemptions are not a shortcut around registration: the NBC-HIS board-certified applicant and the applicant who passed the ILE in a substantially-equivalent jurisdiction are exempt from the two examinations, not from applying, documenting, and being registered.
What the examinations cover
New Hampshire examines in two registers, and a complete preparation addresses each on its own terms.
The written examination — the ILE. Each applicant must submit proof of passing the written or online International Licensing Examination of the IHS, given by or on behalf of the Board. It is the occupation’s general professional paper: the science of sound and hearing, audiometric evaluation, hearing instrument technology, selection and fitting, and the follow-up care a wearer depends on. The applicant pays IHS an examination fee at the fee IHS sets.
The practical examination — the Board’s own, twice a year. The practical is administered by the Board and is given twice a year; the applicant is notified in writing within 30 days whether they passed or failed. Hcp 304.05 lists its territory in five parts: knowledge and mastery of FDA criteria for mandatory medical referral; otological examination; testing procedures and techniques during hearing aid selection and fitting — air conduction testing, bone conduction testing, and masking techniques; ear mold impressions; and hearing aid trouble-shooting and servicing. This is a performed examination of the dealer’s daily craft, not a second written paper.
What makes this examination pair demanding
The first demand is the practical’s standard, stated in the rule itself: an applicant who fails the written examination, or who fails to obtain a score of 70% or higher on any part of the practical examination, must re-enter the training program required by Hcp 304.04 and retake the failed portion at the next regularly scheduled examination date. “Any part” is the operative phrase — a strong average does not carry a weak part, so masking, impressions, referral criteria, otological examination, and servicing must each stand on their own. The second demand is what happens while a candidate is still unpassed: an applicant who has not passed one or both examinations works in the physical presence of a licensed audiologist or a registered hearing aid dealer registered for at least 2 years until both parts are passed. The third demand is the attempt limit: an applicant unable to pass the examinations after 3 consecutive attempts shall not be issued a certificate of registration in New Hampshire. Twice-yearly practical sittings make each attempt a calendar event, not a casual retry — a failed part can cost months, and the training clock described below keeps running.
The route, in order
Step one — meet the age and education requirements of Hcp 304.03. The applicant must have attained the age of 18 by the application date and be of good professional character, and must hold an associate’s degree in any field, or have earned at least 60 credits toward a baccalaureate degree in any field, or have been board certified by the National Board for Certification in Hearing Instrument Sciences for at least 2 years. Step two — complete the supervised training program under Hcp 304.04, not exceeding 24 months, directly supervised as described above; the Board also accepts an IHS-approved distance learning program as satisfying the training requirement. On completion, the applicant registers for the first available written and practical examinations. Step three — sit and pass both examinations under Hcp 304.05, unless exempt. A trainee who fails either examination re-enters the training program and has 2 more opportunities, must take the next available examination, and must take and pass the examinations within 2 years of commencing the training program — the Board may extend that limit on grounds of health or medical issues, accident, mistake, or misfortune, not neglect. Step four — registration: the Board issues the certificate of registration, for the initial registration fee of $300 in Hcp 306.01.
Staying registered: the working credential
Registration is held, not merely earned. Under Hcp 401, registrations run for two full years, expire on July 1 after the second full year, and are renewed on or before June 30 in the expiry year. Hcp 402 makes continuing education a condition of renewal for hearing aid dealers: at least 16 credit hours of board-approved continuing education relevant to, and enhancing, the registrant’s practice as a hearing aid dealer, documented and retained as the rules require. Registrants must also notify the Board in writing of changes in employment connection and of home or business address within the periods Hcp 403 sets. The authority behind these rules has itself changed form within living memory: the former Board of Hearing Care Providers was abolished and merged into the Governing Board of Speech-Language Pathologists and Hearing Care Providers effective July 1, 2021, and the Hcp rules adopted under the former chapter continue in effect until they expire or are amended or repealed — which is why a current rulebook still carries the Hcp chapter name.
One further boundary belongs in the working picture. The dealer’s examined competence includes recognising the limits of the dealer’s own role: the FDA mandatory-medical-referral criteria head the practical list because the registered dealer’s first clinical duty, on meeting the ear that needs a physician, is referral rather than a sale. Preparation that treats referral criteria as a formality to memorise, rather than as the gate the Board examines first, misreads the order the rule itself chose.
What the PassProfessor program will cover
Built to the New Hampshire examination pair, part by part. The program is organised on Hcp 304.05 as the Board publishes it: the ILE’s professional knowledge as the written register, and the Board practical’s five parts — FDA mandatory-medical-referral criteria, otological examination, selection and fitting testing with air conduction, bone conduction and masking, ear mold impressions, and troubleshooting and servicing — prepared as performed skills, each part held to the rule’s own standard.
The route, taught as part of the subject. New Hampshire candidates lose time to sequence and clocks: a training program that must finish inside its limits, examinations that must be passed within 2 years of commencing training, a practical offered only twice a year, and an attempt limit that makes each sitting count. The program teaches the education → training → examinations → registration sequence as the rules publish it, so sittings and deadlines are planned as one timeline.
Independence, stated plainly. PassProfessor is an independent preparation provider, not affiliated with the Governing Board of Speech-Language Pathologists and Hearing Care Providers, the Office of Professional Licensure and Certification, or the International Hearing Society. This program is not a Board course, confers no registration, and satisfies no training-program requirement; the Board alone registers, and candidates apply, train, and test through the Board and IHS.
Tell me when enrollment opens. The New Hampshire Hearing Aid Dealer program is in the works as PassProfessor expands its catalog of health examination preparation, and enrollment is not yet open. Leave an email address and PassProfessor will write to you when the program is ready — and only about this program. No date is promised, because the program will open when it meets the standard described above, not before.
Frequently asked questions
Is the New Hampshire Hearing Aid Dealer credential a license?
No. It is a certificate of registration. RSA 326-F:9 requires a person engaging in the business of selling or offering for rent hearing aids to be registered, and this page uses registration language throughout, as the state does.
Who registers hearing aid dealers in New Hampshire?
The Governing Board of Speech-Language Pathologists and Hearing Care Providers, administered through the Office of Professional Licensure and Certification (OPLC). The Board also licenses audiologists — a different credential from dealer registration.
What examinations does registration require?
Two, under Hcp 304.05: the written or online International Licensing Examination of the IHS (the ILE), given by or on behalf of the Board, and a practical examination administered by the Board, given twice a year.
What does the practical examination test?
Five parts: FDA criteria for mandatory medical referral; otological examination; testing procedures and techniques during hearing aid selection and fitting, including air conduction, bone conduction, and masking; ear mold impressions; and hearing aid trouble-shooting and servicing.
What score passes the practical examination?
Hcp 304.05(e) provides that an applicant who fails to obtain a score of 70% or higher on any part of the practical examination re-enters the training program and retakes the failed portion. No separate passing figure for the written ILE is stated in the New Hampshire rules cited here, and none is printed on this page.
What training must come before the examinations?
A supervised training program under Hcp 304.04, not to exceed 24 months, directly supervised by a licensed audiologist or a registered hearing aid dealer registered for at least 2 years. The Board also accepts an IHS-approved distance learning program toward the requirement.
Who is exempt from the examinations?
Applicants board certified by the National Board for Certification in Hearing Instrument Sciences, and applicants who passed the ILE in another state or jurisdiction whose requirements are substantially equivalent to New Hampshire’s. Exemption is from the examinations, not from registration.
What happens if I fail an examination?
You re-enter the training program, retake the failed portion at the next regularly scheduled date, and work in the physical presence of a licensed audiologist or a dealer registered for at least 2 years until both examinations are passed. A trainee has 2 more opportunities after a first failure, must pass within 2 years of commencing training, and an applicant unable to pass after 3 consecutive attempts shall not be issued a certificate of registration.
How long does registration last, and what does renewal require?
Two full years, expiring July 1 after the second full year, renewed on or before June 30 in the expiry year, with at least 16 credit hours of board-approved continuing education for hearing aid dealers under Hcp 402.
What is the initial registration fee?
$300, on the Board’s fee schedule in Hcp 306.01. The written examination fee is paid separately to IHS, at the fee IHS sets.
Is PassProfessor affiliated with the Board, OPLC, or IHS?
No. PassProfessor is an independent preparation provider. The Board alone registers hearing aid dealers in New Hampshire.
When does enrollment open?
The program is in the works and enrollment is not yet open. Leave an email address on this page and PassProfessor will write to you when the program is ready — and only about this program.