However, you must then look to see if the scores meet the criteria for a higher numeric designation based on “exceptional patterns of hearing impairment.” You get a higher rating if (a) or (b) is true: Using Table VI, the right ear would be designated as VIII based on a puretone threshold average of 63 and a speech discrimination score of 44. Here’s an example to illustrate the point. An Example of a 60% VA Hearing Loss Disability Rating You will then combine these two Roman numeral in Table VII (bottom of this page) to get the overall VA hearing loss rating. Staying on the chart’s row you had based on the speech discrimination score, move to the right based on the average decibel loss in the puretone threshold test. Your puretone threshold score will be the average decibel loss from the frequencies of 1000 Hertz, 2000 Hertz, 3000 Hertz, and 4000 Hertz. Look down the left-hand side of the Table VI below to see what row you should be on. Your speech discrimination score will be a percentage of the words you understood during the test. How Your Two Tests Are Used to Calculate Your VA Hearing Loss Disability Rating Although the testing results should include information on who conducted the test, you will want to include that information if it is not clear so that VA does not use that as a basis to ignore your test results and deny your claim. Who Needs to Conduct My Test for VA Hearing Loss?Īn examination for hearing impairment for VA purposes must be conducted by a state-licensed audiologist. Examinations will be conducted without the use of hearing aids. Even if you only claim hearing loss in one ear, both ears should be tested. A puretone audiometry test is different tones that must be detected at varying frequencies (low frequencies to high frequencies). The Maryland CNC test is a particular word list that is used to test your ability to hear spoken words. The test must include a controlled speech discrimination test (Maryland CNC) and a puretone audiometry test. Do I Need a Certain Type of VA Hearing Loss Test to Support my Claim? Keep reading to see how to avoid this for your claim. The result? You guessed it – a lower VA hearing loss rating than the veteran deserved. We have seen several instances where VA did not go through each of these steps. On the other hand, though, there are several steps to evaluating a VA hearing loss claim properly. On the one hand, these claims should be easy for VA to get right since it is all based on numbers from the audiological testing. Nevertheless, we will try to tackle it here to explain as simply as possible how VA hearing loss claims are supposed to be rated. If you get confused with how VA rates most types of disabilities, your VA hearing loss claim will probably make your head spin.
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