Citation Nr: 18153986
Decision Date: 11/28/18	Archive Date: 11/28/18

DOCKET NO. 18-07 024
DATE:	November 28, 2018
REMANDED
Entitlement to service connection for bilateral hearing loss is remanded.
REASONS FOR REMAND
The Veteran served in the United States Air Force from June 1994 to July 2014, with subsequent Guard service. 
This matter comes before the Board of Veterans’ Appeals (Board) on appeal from a January 2015 rating decision of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Regional Office (RO) in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, which denied the Veteran’s claim for entitlement to service connection for bilateral hearing loss among other things.   In the Veteran’s January 2018 VA Form 9 Substantive Appeal, the Veteran limited his appeal to the issue of entitlement to service connection for bilateral hearing loss.
1. Entitlement to service connection for bilateral hearing loss is remanded.
While the Board sincerely regrets further delay, additional development is required before the Veteran’s claim may be adjudicated on the merits. 
Specifically, the Board finds that a new VA audiological examination is warranted to determine if the Veteran currently meets the criteria for hearing loss for VA purposes.  In this regard, the Board notes that a December 2014 VA examination indicated that the Veteran did not have a current diagnosis of bilateral hearing loss for VA purposes.  Yet, results from the Veteran’s February 2015 and March 2015 audiological examinations from the National Guard indicate that his hearing loss may meet the criteria for hearing loss for VA purposes.  Given the large discrepancy between the audiological findings in 2014 and 2015, the discrepancies between the 2015 audiological findings (which are only one month apart), and the absence of the Maryland CNC speech recognition test results, a remand for a new examination is needed.  
It is noted that while the audiological results of this examination are negative for a diagnosis of bilateral hearing loss as defined by VA, the December 2014 VA audiologist stated that the Veteran’s impaired hearing and significant threshold shifts which occurred in-service are due to his military noise exposure and therefore, in-service noise exposure is conceded.  See, December 2014 VA examination.  The purpose of the new examination is solely to determine if the Veteran’s current level of hearing loss meets the criteria as defined by VA. 
The matter is REMANDED for the following action:
1. Obtain any outstanding VA treatment records and associate them with the Veteran’s claims file.
2.  After obtaining any outstanding records, the Veteran should be scheduled for a VA audiological examination in order to determine if his hearing loss meets the criteria for a diagnosis for VA purposes.  The entire claims file, to include a copy of this remand, should be made available to the examiner.  Following a complete review of the record, the examiner is asked to provide the following opinion: 
If the examiner finds that the Veteran’s hearing loss does not meet the criteria for a diagnosis of bilateral hearing loss for VA purposes, the examiner is asked to provide an explanation for the February 2015 and March 2015 hearing tests.  It is noted that in-service noise exposure is conceded. 
A complete rationale must be provided for all findings and conclusions reached.  If the examiner must resort to speculation for any of the requested opinions, an explanation is required. 

 
C. CRAWFORD
Veterans Law Judge
Board of Veterans’ Appeals
ATTORNEY FOR THE BOARD	P. Daugherty, Associate Counsel