Citation Nr: 21070751
Decision Date: 11/25/21	Archive Date: 11/25/21

DOCKET NO. 17-00 037
DATE: November 25, 2021

REMANDED

The claim of entitlement to a compensable initial rating for bilateral hearing loss is remanded.

REASONS FOR REMAND

The Veteran served on active duty from February 1968 to November 1969.

This case comes to the Board of Veterans' Appeals (Board) from a March 2016 rating decision of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Regional Office.  In May 2020, the issue was remanded for further development.

The Veteran has requested a compensable rating for his service-connected bilateral hearing loss. 

In May 2020, the Board remanded this issue so that the Veteran could be afforded a new VA examination, and so that the audiometry test results associated with his past VA treatment records could be obtained, including the pure tone test results which were obtained during an August 2017 audiology examination.  Unfortunately, it does not appear that the Regional Office made any attempt to obtain these test results, and the issue is therefore again remanded so that there can be substantial compliance with the Board's prior remand.  See Stegall v. West, 11 Vet. App. 268 (1998) (A remand by the Board confers on the claimant, as a matter of law, a right to compliance with the remand orders.).

The matters are REMANDED for the following action:

1. Obtain all audiometry test results which were scanned into VistA Imaging, or any other database, that are associated with the Veteran's June 2018 audiology private evaluation which he submitted to VA, and with his August 2017 VA audiology evaluation, as well as any other relevant audiometric results. 

If these test results cannot be found, the efforts made to obtain these records must be fully documented, and the Veteran must be notified that they are not available and given an opportunity to respond, prior to any readjudication of the claim.

2. Obtain all VA treatment records since September 2020.

 

 

DELYVONNE M. WHITEHEAD

Veterans Law Judge

Board of Veterans' Appeals

Attorney for the Board	Mary E. Rude, 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 This decision is not precedential and does not establish VA policies or interpretations of general applicability. 38 C.F.R. § 20.1303.