BC-HIS certification: cost, exam & renewal

What is BC-HIS certification?

BC-HIS (Board Certified in Hearing Instrument Sciences) is a voluntary national credential from the National Board for Certification in Hearing Instrument Sciences (NBC-HIS), for people who already dispense hearing aids. NBC-HIS wants a current state, provincial, or jurisdictional dispensing license before you can apply, which tells you what it's for. It's evidence of experience. The license is what permits the work. The exam costs $225. Keeping the credential costs $299 a year.

BC-HIS vs your state license

One of these lets you work. The other tells people how long you've been doing it.

The dependency runs one way and it never stops running. NBC-HIS re-checks at every recertification that you still hold a state license where one applies, and says that if you don't, the certificate it issued remains its property. Lose the license and you lose the certification with it.

Who requires BC-HIS

Hearing aid retailers, manufacturer-owned dispensing chains, and ENT and audiology practices ask for it on hearing instrument specialist roles, almost always as a preference. It's rarely a hard requirement for an entry-level job: the experience route takes 2 years, so most new dispensers can't hold it yet. Where it shows up as a genuine requirement is senior, training, and management postings. It also has a second audience that isn't you: practices advertise board-certified staff to patients, so the credential does marketing work for your employer as well as career work for you. Audiologist roles sit outside this entirely.

Requirements and eligibility

• Hold a current state, provincial, or jurisdictional dispensing license or certificate of registration.
• Then clear the experience bar one of two ways: 2 years of full-time dispensing within the last 5 years, or a diploma from one of 5 named programs.
• Those 5 are MacEwan University's Hearing Aid Practitioner Program, George Brown's Hearing Instrument Specialist Program, Conestoga College's Hearing Instrument Specialist Program, Douglas College's Hearing Aid Sciences, and Spokane Falls Community College's Hearing Instrument Specialist Program.
• Submit a self-attestation form, notarized.
• Pass the National Competency Exam.

Read that program list closely if you're in the US. 4 of the 5 are Canadian, and Spokane Falls is the only American one on it. For nearly everyone dispensing in the States, the experience route is the route.

Cost, format, and recertification

Fees are NBC-HIS's own, current as of July 2026.

Do the arithmetic before you apply. The exam is $225 per attempt. The annual fee is $299 every year you hold the credential, so a single 36-month cycle costs $897 in annual fees before you've paid for a single CE hour. That's a real decision, and it's one an employer can reasonably be asked to make with you.

Everyone's renewal lands on the same date

BC-HIS runs on a fixed national calendar: the annual bill goes out in May and falls due June 30, recertification materials are due at headquarters on or before June 30 of your recertifying year, and the new 36-month cycle starts July 1.

Your CE hours, your paperwork, and your annual fee all converge on one date every June, along with everyone else's, and there's no personal expiry date drifting to a quieter month. Plan the 24 hours across the 36 months rather than in the spring of year 3, and get the state license renewal out of the way first, since the recertification checks for it.

How to get certified

1. Get your state dispensing license first. Nothing here is available without it, and it's the credential that lets you work.
2. Count your experience: 2 years of full-time dispensing inside the last 5. If you're short and you didn't attend one of the 5 named programs, you're not eligible yet.
3. Ask your employer whether they buy exam vouchers in bulk, and whether they cover the $299 a year. Both answers change the math.
4. Get the self-attestation form notarized.
5. Apply through NBC-HIS and pay the $225. They contact you to schedule once the application is approved.
6. Take the National Competency Exam: 100 scored items across the 5 competency areas.
7. Start logging CE hours in year 1. You need 24 across 36 months, and they're due at the end of June.

On the job

Practices advertise board certification to patients, so it has marketing value to your employer as well as career value to you. That's the argument to make when you ask them to cover the annual fee. Keep your state license current above everything else: it's the thing that permits the work, and it's the thing that quietly takes BC-HIS down with it if it lapses.