Citation Nr: 20005885 Decision Date: 01/23/20 Archive Date: 01/23/20 DOCKET NO. 16-42 159 DATE: January 23, 2020 REMANDED Entitlement to a rating in excess of 10 percent for bilateral hearing loss is remanded. REASONS FOR REMAND The Veteran served on active duty from October 1965 to July 1967. This matter comes before the Board of Veterans’ Appeals (Board) on appeal from a July 2016 rating decision issued by a Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Regional Office. In December 2019, the Veteran testified at a Board hearing before the undersigned Veterans Law Judge. A transcript of the hearing is associated with the record. At such time, the Veteran waived Agency of Original Jurisdiction (AOJ) consideration of the evidence received since the August 2016 statement of the case. 38 C.F.R. § 20.1304(c). Therefore, the Board may consider the entirety of the evidence of record. Entitlement to a rating in excess of 10 percent for bilateral hearing loss. The Veteran was last afforded a VA examination in May 2016 so as to determine the nature and severity of his bilateral hearing loss. However, the Board finds that, as he testified to additional and increased symptomatology of his bilateral hearing loss at the December 2019 Board hearing, a remand is necessary in order to afford him a contemporaneous VA examination so as to address the current nature and severity of such disability. In this regard, the Veteran reported that his ears hurt whenever people spoke very loudly, or he heard sirens from emergency vehicles. He further stated that, in the previous few years, his hearing worsened to the point where he had to ask people to repeat themselves several times and he was unable to understand them. Furthermore, the Veteran’s representative indicated that, when comparing the Veteran’s speech discrimination scores between examinations conducted in January 2016 and May 2016, such decreased in the four-month period, thus supporting the alleged ongoing worsening of his bilateral hearing loss. Therefore, as the evidence suggests that the Veteran’s bilateral hearing loss symptomatology may have increased in severity since the last VA examination, a remand is necessary in order to afford him a contemporaneous VA examination in order to assess the current nature and severity of such service-connected disability. See Snuffer v. Gober, 10 Vet. App. 400 (1997); Caffrey v. Brown, 6 Vet. App. 377 (1994); VAOPGCPREC 11-95 (1995). The matters are REMANDED for the following action: Afford the Veteran an appropriate VA examination to determine the current nature and severity of his service-connected bilateral hearing loss. The record, to include a copy of this Remand, should be made available to, and be reviewed by, the examiner. The examiner should identify auditory thresholds of both ears, in decibels, at frequencies of 1000, 2000, 3000, and 4000 Hertz. A Maryland CNC Test should also be administered to determine speech recognition scores in both ears. Any additional evaluations, studies, and tests deemed necessary by the examiner should be conducted. The examiner is requested to indicate whether the Veteran’s reported pain in his ears whenever people spoke very loudly or he heard sirens from emergency vehicles is related to his bilateral hearing loss. The examiner should also describe the functional effects caused by the Veteran’s bilateral hearing loss. A rationale for any opinion offered should be provided. A. JAEGER Veterans Law Judge Board of Veterans’ Appeals Attorney for the Board Koria B. Stanton, Associate Counsel The Board’s decision in this case is binding only with respect to the instant matter decided. This decision is not precedential, and does not establish VA policies or interpretations of general applicability. 38 C.F.R. § 20.1303.