Citation Nr: 21025855
Decision Date: 04/29/21	Archive Date: 04/29/21

DOCKET NO. 18-06 051
DATE: April 29, 2021

REMANDED

Entitlement to an initial compensable rating for bilateral hearing loss is remanded.

REASONS FOR REMAND

The Veteran served on active duty in the Air Force from November 1966 to November 1970 and October 2001 to August 2002.

This matter is before the Board of Veterans’ Appeals (Board) on appeal from a January 2017 rating decision of a Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Regional Office (RO).  In that decision, the RO granted service connection for bilateral hearing loss and assigned an initial noncompensable (0 percent) rating.  The Veteran timely appealed the initial rating assigned.

In November 2020, the Veteran testified at a videoconference hearing before the undersigned; a transcript of that hearing is of record.

Entitlement to an initial compensable rating for bilateral hearing loss is remanded.

The most recent VA examination was completed in December 2017.  A private hearing test was completed in November 2019 indicated more severe impairment on pure tone threshold testing but it is not clear whether the Maryland CNC test was used as required by VA regulations.  38 C.F.R. § 4.85(a).  During the November 2020 Board hearing, the Veteran testified that it was becoming more difficult for him to hear his wife speaking to him.  He also indicated that he had difficulty understanding what the VA examiners were saying to him during audiometric and speech recognition testing.

As the evidence indicates that the hearing loss has worsened since the December 2017 VA examination and there is no additional competent evidence indicating the severity of the Veteran’s hearing loss since then, a remand is warranted for a new examination to determine the current severity of the Veteran’s bilateral hearing loss.  Snuffer v. Gober, 10 Vet. App. 400, 403 (1997) (“Where the appellant complained of increased hearing loss two years after his last audiology examination, VA should have scheduled the appellant for another examination”).  

The matter is REMANDED for the following action:

1. Contact the provider that performed the November 2019 audiometry examination (see Medical Treatment Record, Non-Government Facility, September 18, 2020) and ask whether the Maryland CNC word list was used in the speech recognition testing.

(Continued on the next page)

 

2. Schedule the Veteran for an examination by an appropriate clinician to determine the current severity of his service-connected bilateral hearing loss.  The examination should be consistent with the current disability benefits questionnaire, with the examiner taking care to make sure that the Veteran understands what he or she is saying.

 

 

Jonathan Hager

Veterans Law Judge

Board of Veterans’ Appeals

Attorney for the Board	R. Dean, 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.