ELEHEAR, an over-the-counter hearing aid company, has launched a paid tele-audiology service called ElePro Plus, giving owners of its Beyond-series hearing aids access to live, one-on-one video sessions with licensed audiologists. The service went live on August 17, 2026, according to a company announcement distributed via GLOBE NEWSWIRE, and is currently available in nine U.S. states for $99 per session.
The launch matters because it addresses a criticism that has followed the over-the-counter hearing aid category since it became legal in the United States in 2022: buying a device without a prescription is easy, but getting it properly fitted and adjusted often is not. ElePro Plus is ELEHEAR’s attempt to sell that missing piece directly, as an add-on rather than a bundled freebie.
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What ELEHEAR Announced
According to the company’s press release, ElePro Plus is a live, 45-minute video session that combines a remote hearing assessment with personalized device optimization, conducted by a licensed audiologist through the ELEHEAR app. The service costs $99 per session, though ELEHEAR offered an introductory rate of $89 through August 23, 2026.
This is not ELEHEAR’s first attempt at remote audiology support. The company has offered a complimentary consultation feature — referred to in its own materials as ElePro, ElePro Basic, or ElePro Remote Support — since at least 2023, available to customers at no additional cost after purchase. ElePro Plus is a new, more structured layer on top of that existing free tier, not a replacement for it.
David Hogan, ELEHEAR’s managing director, framed the launch as a bet on “hybrid care” — pairing low-cost, direct-to-consumer hardware with paid access to clinical expertise. In the announcement, Hogan argued that owning an OTC device isn’t the same as having access to professional expertise, and said the service puts a licensed audiologist to work “tuning their devices for the rooms they actually live in.”
How ElePro Plus Works
The process, as described by ELEHEAR, follows a few steps. A customer purchases a session through ELEHEAR’s website, then either uploads an existing audiogram or completes a hearing test inside the app or during the session itself. From there, they book directly with one of ELEHEAR’s audiologists and join a live video call, during which the audiologist reviews the results and adjusts the hearing aid’s settings.
The company’s pitch centers on one specific idea: tuning devices in the environment where people actually use them, rather than in a simulated sound booth. Linda Carr-Kraft, an in-house audiologist at ELEHEAR with 36 years in the field, explained in the company’s release that while a sound-booth fitting can be made to perform well, ElePro Plus lets her adjust a device based on a person’s actual living environment instead.
That is a reasonable clinical premise — real-room acoustics differ from lab conditions — but it’s worth noting this is a company description of the service’s value, not an independently tested outcome. No third-party review of ElePro Plus itself exists yet, since the service is only days old.
Who Can Use It (Eligibility and Availability)
ElePro Plus is not yet available to every ELEHEAR customer. At launch, it works only with the company’s Beyond-series hearing aids, which is ELEHEAR’s flagship rechargeable line. ELEHEAR says it plans to expand the feature to other devices in its lineup over time, but no timeline has been given.
Geographic availability is similarly limited. ElePro Plus currently operates in nine states: Florida, Texas, California, Ohio, North Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, Indiana, and West Virginia. That narrow footprint isn’t a technology constraint — it’s a legal one. Audiologists practicing telehealth must hold an active license in the state where the patient is physically located during the session, and ELEHEAR verifies that licensing eligibility before each appointment.
The company says it intends to expand into more states as regulatory frameworks allow, including through the Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology Interstate Compact, a multistate licensure agreement that ELEHEAR describes as enacted in 36 states and the U.S. Virgin Islands. That compact covers a much larger footprint than ElePro Plus currently reaches, which suggests the rollout pace will depend on more than licensure alone — likely staffing and operational readiness as well.
States where ElePro Plus is currently available:
- Florida
- Texas
- California
- Ohio
- North Carolina
- Virginia
- Tennessee
- Indiana
- West Virginia
ElePro Plus vs. ELEHEAR’s Existing Free Support
| Feature | ElePro Basic (Free) | ElePro Plus (Paid) |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | Included with device purchase | $99 per session ($89 introductory rate through Aug. 23, 2026) |
| Format | Submitted hearing test/audiogram reviewed remotely; programming recommendations sent back | Live 45-minute video session with real-time, in-home adjustments |
| Availability | Offered to ELEHEAR device owners generally | Beyond-series owners in 9 states at launch |
| Follow-up scope | Not clearly defined in company materials | Not publicly disclosed by ELEHEAR |
It’s easy to conflate ElePro Plus with ELEHEAR’s older, free remote-support feature, since both connect customers with audiologists through the same app. The distinction matters for anyone deciding whether to pay.
ElePro Basic (the free tier) has functioned more like an on-demand consultation and troubleshooting resource — customers can submit hearing test results or an existing audiogram and receive programming recommendations. ElePro Plus is a paid, scheduled, live video appointment specifically built around real-time, real-environment fine-tuning.
ELEHEAR has not clarified publicly whether an ElePro Plus session is a one-time purchase per adjustment need, or whether it includes any follow-up access. That detail isn’t spelled out in the company’s current materials, so prospective buyers weighing the $99 fee against the free alternative should treat the exact scope of what one session includes as an open question until ELEHEAR provides more detail.
The Technology Behind ELEHEAR’s Hearing Aids
ELEHEAR’s hardware is built around a proprietary sound-processing system the company markets as VocClear, with a newer version, VocClear 2.0, powering its current Beyond Pro devices. ELEHEAR describes it as a deep-learning system based on Computational Auditory Scene Analysis, a research area concerned with helping software distinguish speech from background noise the way the human ear does. The company says VocClear analyzes environmental sound 500 times per second and claims it delivers up to 30% clearer speech recognition compared to earlier models.
These are company-reported figures. No independent lab has published a benchmark validating the “500 times per second” or “30% clearer” claims specifically, so they should be read as ELEHEAR’s own description of its technology rather than confirmed, third-party-tested performance. Notably, no source identifies a specific hardware chip powering this processing — ELEHEAR describes VocClear as software, and the company has not publicly disclosed underlying chipset details.
ELEHEAR’s Beyond-series devices are FDA-cleared under the Food and Drug Administration’s 2022 rule establishing the over-the-counter hearing aid category for adults with mild-to-moderate hearing loss. That clearance applies to the hardware itself, not to the ElePro Plus service.
Why This Matters: The OTC Fitting Gap
ELEHEAR’s press materials point to a specific problem it says ElePro Plus is designed to solve. Citing data it attributes to the National Library of Medicine, the company states that 72% of OTC hearing aid users sought a professional hearing evaluation, but only 56% actually received fitting support.
That statistic is central to ELEHEAR’s rationale for the launch, but it comes from the company’s own announcement rather than a study this article was able to independently trace and verify. It should be read as ELEHEAR’s characterization of a National Library of Medicine data point, not as an independently confirmed figure.
Regardless of the precise numbers, the underlying concern — that OTC devices are easy to buy but harder to get properly adjusted — is one that has been raised repeatedly by audiologists and consumer reviewers evaluating the broader OTC hearing aid category since it launched in 2022.
How ElePro Plus Compares to Competitors
Live or remote access to hearing care professionals is now common across the OTC hearing aid industry, but companies structure it differently.
| Company | Remote/Tele-Audiology Access | How It’s Priced |
|---|---|---|
| ELEHEAR (ElePro Plus) | Live 45-minute video session with a licensed audiologist | $99 per session ($89 introductory rate through Aug. 23, 2026) |
| Jabra Enhance | Up to three years of unlimited virtual audiologist appointments (Premium package) | Bundled into the price of the Premium device tier; not available with the Basic tier |
| Eargo | Ongoing phone and video consultations with licensed hearing professionals | Included with device purchase |
| Audicus | Remote programming with a hearing specialist; some reviewers describe “lifetime” audiology support | Included with purchase or available through monthly subscription plans |
| Lexie Hearing | Support available, but described by independent reviewers as less extensive than Jabra Enhance’s follow-up care | Included, more limited scope |
The structural difference is clear: most of ELEHEAR’s competitors bundle remote audiologist access into the price of the device or a subscription package, while ElePro Plus charges separately, per session, on top of the hardware purchase. Neither approach is objectively better — it depends on how often a given customer expects to need professional adjustments. Someone who needs one thorough tuning session might find ElePro Plus’s $99 fee reasonable; someone who anticipates years of ongoing support might get more value from a competitor’s bundled model.
Company Background
ELEHEAR was founded in 2017 by Eric Miao, who is also a co-founder of Elevoc, a separate company focused on machine-hearing and voice-signal-processing technology. ELEHEAR’s Beyond-line devices carry FDA clearance under the agency’s OTC hearing aid rule.
Publicly available business records give conflicting details about ELEHEAR’s current headquarters and funding history — some describe the company as based in Seattle, others cite a dual Shenzhen–Minneapolis structure, and financial databases disagree on whether the company has raised institutional funding. Because these details could not be reconciled from available sources, they’re noted here only to flag that inconsistency rather than to assert a single answer.
Limitations and Open Questions
ElePro Plus’s reach today is narrow by design and by law. It works with one product line, in nine states, and depends on individual audiologists holding active licenses wherever a given customer is located — a structural limit on how quickly the company can scale, regardless of demand.
The platform is described by ELEHEAR and in press coverage as “fully HIPAA-compliant,” but that characterization comes from the company itself; no independent compliance audit has been cited. Similarly, no independent data yet exists on how well ElePro Plus performs in practice, since the service only became available this month. Third-party reviews of ELEHEAR’s existing free remote support have generally been positive but have also noted that the company’s remote programming has tended to be more conservative than an in-person clinical fitting, which relies on real-ear measurement equipment that a video call cannot replicate.
Finally, ELEHEAR has not detailed what happens after an ElePro Plus session — whether follow-up adjustments require purchasing another session, or whether some ongoing support is included. That’s a practical question for prospective buyers that the company hasn’t yet answered publicly.
What to Watch Next
ElePro Plus is a real, live, commercially available service — not a pilot or a beta — but its current footprint is intentionally small. The most useful signals to watch for going forward are whether ELEHEAR expands the service beyond the Beyond series to its other hearing aid models, whether it adds states as promised through the interstate licensure compact, and whether any independent reviewers publish hands-on assessments of the sessions themselves.
For now, the clearest facts are these: ElePro Plus is a new paid option, distinct from ELEHEAR’s existing free support, priced at $99 per session, available to Beyond-series owners in nine states, and built around the idea of tuning hearing aids in the environments people actually live in. Whether that premium tier proves worth the cost for most users is something only time, and independent testing, will show.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is ELEHEAR ElePro Plus? It’s a paid, live video tele-audiology service that connects ELEHEAR hearing aid owners with licensed audiologists for a 45-minute session focused on real-time device tuning in the user’s own environment.
How much does ElePro Plus cost? Sessions cost $99, though ELEHEAR offered an introductory rate of $89 through August 23, 2026.
Which ELEHEAR hearing aids work with ElePro Plus? At launch, only ELEHEAR’s Beyond-series devices are compatible. The company says it plans to expand to other models but hasn’t given a timeline.
What states is ElePro Plus available in? Nine states at launch: Florida, Texas, California, Ohio, North Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, Indiana, and West Virginia. Expansion depends on audiologist licensing in additional states.
Is ElePro Plus different from ELEHEAR’s free ElePro support? Yes. ELEHEAR has offered free remote consultations (ElePro Basic) since around 2023. ElePro Plus is a new, paid, live-video service layered on top of that existing free option.
Are the ElePro Plus audiologists licensed professionals? ELEHEAR states that its audiologists are licensed and that it verifies each professional’s licensing eligibility before a session. This is a company claim; it was not independently checked against state licensing boards for this article.
How long is an ElePro Plus session, and what happens during it? Sessions run 45 minutes. The audiologist reviews the user’s hearing test or audiogram, then adjusts the hearing aid’s settings live, based on the user’s actual home environment rather than a simulated sound booth.