Citation Nr: 18145932
Decision Date: 10/30/18	Archive Date: 10/30/18

DOCKET NO. 14-31 819
DATE:	October 30, 2018
ISSUE
Entitlement to a disability rating in excess of 80 percent for bilateral hearing loss (BHL).
REMANDED
Entitlement to a disability rating in excess of 80 percent for BHL is remanded.
REASONS FOR REMAND
The Veteran served on active duty from July 1973 to August 1976.  
This case comes to the Board of Veterans’ Appeals (Board) on appeal from a June 2011 rating decision of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Regional Office (RO) in Houston, Texas.
The Board is of the opinion that additional development is required before the Veteran’s claim on appeal is decided. 
The Veteran was most recently afforded a VA-contracted examination for his BHL in December 2010, nearly eight years ago. In a December 2014 VA treatment note, the Veteran reported that he was not successful in using his assisted listening devices (ALDs). As such, the Board finds that a remand is necessary to afford the Veteran a contemporaneous examination to determine the current severity of his BHL. See Allday v. Brown, 7 Vet. App. 517, 526 (1995) (indicating that, where the record does not adequately reveal the current state of the claimant’s disability, fulfillment of the statutory duty to assist requires a contemporaneous medical examination, particularly if there is no additional medical evidence that adequately addresses the level of impairment of the disability since the previous examination).
The matter is REMANDED for the following action:
1. Obtain and associate with the claims file any outstanding VA treatment records; and, with appropriate authorization from the Veteran, any additional outstanding private treatment records identified by him as pertinent to his claim.
2. Then, arrange for the Veteran to be afforded a VA examination in order to ascertain the current severity of the service-connected BHL. Access to the electronic claims file must be made available to and reviewed by the examiner, and any indicated studies should be performed. All appropriate diagnostics should be accomplished and all clinical findings should be reported in detail. 
3.   Upon completion of the examination ordered above, review the examination report to ensure that it provides all information required for rating purposes.  Any inadequacies should be addressed prior to recertification to the Board.
4.   After completing the requested actions, and any additional notification and/or development deemed warranted, readjudicate the claim on appeal.  If any benefit sought on appeal remains denied, furnish the Veteran and his representative with an appropriate supplemental statement of the case and afford a reasonable opportunity for response.
 
MICHAEL A. PAPPAS
Veterans Law Judge
Board of Veterans’ Appeals
ATTORNEY FOR THE BOARD	R.M.K., Counsel