Hearing Instrument Specialist Certification vs License: Which Credentials Do You Need?

The credential the law requires is the state’s.

IHS states that hearing aid specialists are regulated by state or provincial authorities and that regulations vary by jurisdiction, and its own licensing guidance refers to maintaining licensure or registration.

The name is not uniform.

In the District of Columbia, it is unlawful to fit and sell hearing aids without a certificate of registration issued under the Hearing Aid Dealers and Consumers Act.

Pennsylvania registers hearing aid dealers and fitters through its Department of Health rather than licensing them.

Minnesota’s Department of Health certifies dispensers of prescription hearing aids, and dispensing one without that certificate is a gross misdemeanor.

That credential is the one that authorizes dispensing.

Our guide to the state license covers the route step by step — education minimums, trainee permits, supervised hours, exams and renewal.

A voluntary certification is a different kind of credential: one issued by a non-governmental body, recognizing training, experience or exam performance.

It does not authorize dispensing on its own.

Outside Minnesota’s state certificate, “certification” in this field gets attached to two things — NBC-HIS’s BC-HIS board certification, and course completion certificates.

Part of the tangle is the exam.

The International Hearing Society says its International Licensing Examination (ILE), a multiple-choice exam, is used as the written licensing exam by the majority of states and provinces across the United States and Canada.

Eligibility to sit it is determined by your state or provincial licensing agency, not by IHS.

Passing the ILE is a step toward the state’s credential, not a certification in its own right.

Another naming trap: in DC and Minnesota, where the state credential is itself a certificate, a state certificate and a course certificate sound identical while doing completely different jobs.

IHS adds one more overlap: IHS says that depending on the state, its Distance Learning course is a required or recommended prerequisite for licensing.

A prerequisite for the credential is still not the credential.

BC-HIS stands for Board Certified in Hearing Instrument Sciences — the credential behind “board certified hearing aid specialist” on a resume or a job ad.

The National Board for Certification in Hearing Instrument Sciences, NBC-HIS, awards it to dispensers who pass its National Competency Exam, and frames it as a designation to use after your name.

It is a voluntary credential, not a license: it does not authorize dispensing, and it does not replace the state’s.

Eligibility is built around experience.

NBC-HIS requires a current state or provincial dispensing license or registration, plus at least 2 years of full-time dispensing experience within the last 5 years.

A diploma route exists, but only from programs NBC-HIS lists, such as MacEwan University and George Brown College.

NBC-HIS says its program is the only board certification in hearing instrument sciences accredited by the National Commission for Certifying Agencies (NCCA) — reaccredited on January 29, 2020 — and that it has been offering certification since 1981.

IHS membership is not required for it, which keeps the two organizations straight: IHS is the professional society that owns the ILE; NBC-HIS is the certification board.

Maintaining BC-HIS is its own commitment.

Certificants revalidate annually and recertify every 3 years with 24 continuing education credits per cycle, and NBC-HIS offers no extensions, exceptions or grace period.

For U.S. holders, that CE must be approved by the American Academy of Audiology, ASHA or IHS.

Cost for U.S. candidates, as of October 2026: a $225 new applicant and exam fee, charged again on every attempt including retakes, plus a $299 annual fee.

One question this page will not answer for you: which states accept BC-HIS in place of their own licensing exam.

The NBC-HIS pages our research read do not publish a state list, and our research did not confirm one either — ask the agency that licenses dispensers in your state before counting BC-HIS toward anything.

The best-known course certificate in the field comes from IHS: the Distance Learning for Professionals in Hearing Health Sciences course, seven units delivered as a textbook, workbook and e-learning.

It costs $789 for IHS members and $839 for non-members, rising to $1,049 and $1,119 for the full kit with the Trainer Package — prices as of October 2026, shipping extra.

The course ends with its own gate: a final exam of 80 questions in 120 minutes, closed book and online-proctored, with a 72% passing score and unlimited attempts.

Passing earns a Certificate of Completion.

That certificate is a course credential, not a license — IHS says so itself.

Its licensing value is whatever your state assigns: depending on the state, IHS says, the course is a required or recommended prerequisite for licensing — our research did not pin down which states.

Ask your licensing agency whether it expects the course.

On classroom routes, IHS describes on-the-job training and apprenticeship as how most people enter the field, with academic hearing instrument sciences programs offered at a few U.S. and Canadian colleges.

A college program’s diploma or certificate documents your training — it still sits alongside the state’s dispensing credential rather than instead of it.

Manufacturer product training is the loosest use of the word.

A hearing aid manufacturer may run courses on its own devices and fitting software and issue a certificate carrying its brand — training that can matter for the day-to-day job, but that never substitutes for the state credential that authorizes dispensing.

Our research has less to offer here than it does for the license, BC-HIS and the IHS course: we did not verify specific manufacturer certificate programs — which manufacturers issue them, what they cost, or how employers weigh them.

So this page lists none, and anything you read about a particular program is worth confirming with that manufacturer directly.

The same gap sits around repair work: our research did not confirm any national certification for hearing aid repair technicians either.

If repair is the direction you want, the training that counts is what an employer provides and documents — and the credential that still matters is the state’s.

Sorted by what each credential does, the employer picture is simple.

The state credential is the mandatory one: without it there is no legal dispensing, so a hearing aid employer needs it in place — or needs you on a trainee path toward it under your state’s rules.

BC-HIS is the credential built on experience.

Because its eligibility requires a current license or registration plus 2 years of full-time dispensing experience within the last 5 years, it is a credential you add once the years are behind you — not a route around them.

Course certificates document how you trained; a Certificate of Completion from IHS, a college program credential or a manufacturer course each say something about preparation, and none of them replaces the state credential.

If you hire dispensers rather than apply to them, the same sort runs in reverse: verify the state credential with the agency that issued it, and read BC-HIS and course certificates as supporting evidence.

For more on hiring dispensers, see our hiring guides.

New to the role itself?

The HIS career guide covers what hearing instrument specialists do, where they work and how they get hired.

Career information, not medical, legal or tax advice. Requirements are set by your state’s licensing agency, and certification details by NBC-HIS, IHS and each manufacturer — confirm current rules with the body that issues them.