Citation Nr: 21007970
Decision Date: 02/11/21	Archive Date: 02/11/21

DOCKET NO. 16-45 188
DATE: February 11, 2021

REMANDED

The issue of an initial rating greater than 70 percent for bilateral hearing loss is remanded.

REASONS FOR REMAND

The Veteran had active service from July 1966 to July 1968. 

These issues were previously before the Board.  In November 2020, the Board remanded the appeal to the agency of original jurisdiction (AOJ) for additional development.  Specifically, the Board directed the AOJ to obtain outstanding VA treatment records, to include all records and results in Vista imaging, including testing results from March 2017 and October 2019 audiological appointments.

In December 2020, the AOJ added the outstanding VA treatment records, including testing results from March 2017 and October 2019.

Thus, the Board finds that the AOJ substantially complied with the remand directives and no further action is necessary in this regard.  Stegall v. West, 11 Vet. App. 268 (1998).

Following evidentiary development, the VA Appeals Management Center (AMC) continued the previous denials in a supplemental statement of the case (SSOC) issued in December 2020.  The Veteran’s VA claims file has been returned to the Board for further appellate proceedings.

This appeal has been advanced on the Board’s docket pursuant to 38 C.F.R. § 20.902(c).  38 U.S.C. § 7107(b).

The issue of an initial rating greater than 70 percent for bilateral hearing loss is remanded.

After a review of the evidence, the Board finds that additional evidentiary development is necessary.

In January 2021, the Veteran asserted that he “believes the severity of his hearing loss is getting worse” and that his hearing loss has been underrated, warranting reconsideration for a higher rating.  The most recent VA examination for the Veteran’s bilateral hearing loss was in August 2020.  

In light of the Veteran’s statements, the Board finds that the Veteran should be afforded a new VA examination to obtain contemporaneous, pertinent information to assess the current nature and severity of his service-connected bilateral hearing loss.  See Snuffer v. Gober, 10 Vet. App. 400, 403 (1997); Caffrey v. Brown, 6 Vet. App. 377 (1994).

The matters are REMANDED for the following action:

Schedule the Veteran for a new VA examination as to the severity of his service-connected bilateral hearing loss.  All necessary tests should be conducted.  The claims file must be sent to the examiner for review.

The examiner should examine the Veteran and render findings in accordance with the currently applicable disability benefits questionnaire.  All opinions must be supported by a detailed rationale.  

If a speech recognition score could not be obtained using the Maryland CNC word list, the examiner must indicate whether the use of speech discrimination score is appropriate for this Veteran, or if use of the speech discrimination score is not appropriate for this Veteran because of language difficulties, cognitive problems, inconsistent speech discrimination scores, etc., that make combined use of puretone average and speech discrimination scores inappropriate.

 

JAMES L. MARCH

Veterans Law Judge

Board of Veterans’ Appeals

Attorney for the Board	H. Yun

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.