tinnitus Davo68 - New Member With Questions

[Davo68]

I'm new to this site, very helpful and informative reading. I filed a claim in early January 2013 and have been going through the process. My claim is for hearing loss and had an audioligy exam by the VA at their hospital in Bonham Texas and at one point my claim was at the Reviewing Evidence stage, it was then sent back to the Gathering Evidence phase and turned over to VES. I was contacted by VES and underwent another audioigy exam. A few questions:

1) Since I was sent for another hearing exam after the evidence was being reviewed stage can I assume that the SC aspect was not an issue?

2) My claim was for Hearing Loss, but the VES examiner also checked out my tinnitus and asked asked a lot of question with regard to the tinnitus. Do i need to file a seperate claim for the tinnitus?

3) If I file for tinnitus will it slow my current claim decision?

4) I am not using a VSO for this claim, should I get VSO support at this stage?

[harleyman]

Are these the results from your C&P exam? Or are these results from someone else? If they are the exam have you received your decision? If it's just the C&P report what does the opinion statement say?

The higher the number on the ear decible the worse the hearing. The rater puts these numbers in the evaluation builder and it will tell him the level of the disability. Raters used to use charts, they still have the charts, but the eval builder is much easier. The eval builder also spits out all the verbage that goes into the decision letter so the rater doesn't even have to type anything, just some data entry.

The question I have is, did you get service connection for the hearing loss and tinnitus? Based on these number you should have been hooked up for hearing loss if you have a nexus from the examiner.

There should be an answer to the 50/50 question. Is the Veteran's hearing loss at least as likely as not related to his military service? Also, the opinion statement for the tinnitus.

Edited July 26, 2013 by harleyman

[Davo68]

Are these the results from your C&P exam? Or are these results from someone else? If they are the exam have you received your decision? If it's just the C&P report what does the opinion statement say?

The higher the number on the ear decible the worse the hearing. The rater puts these numbers in the evaluation builder and it will tell him the level of the disability. Raters used to use charts, they still have the charts, but the eval builder is much easier. The eval builder also spits out all the verbage that goes into the decision letter so the rater doesn't even have to type anything, just some data entry.

The question I have is, did you get service connection for the hearing loss and tinnitus? Based on these number you should have been hooked up for hearing loss if you have a nexus from the examiner.

There should be an answer to the 50/50 question. Is the Veteran's hearing loss at least as likely as not related to his military service? Also, the opinion statement for the tinnitus.

Harleyman, thanks for the quick reply. The numbers came from an exam by the VA, and they did provide hearing aids, which don't help alot. I had an exam through the VES for my claim a month ago but have not received a copy of the exam/report yet. My claim is at the gathering information stage after being kicked back from the reviewing evidence stage. I'm assuming the VES exam is the same as the C&P exam. With the above numbers, do you have an idea of the per cent determination?

[harleyman]

I am at home and I don't have that information available to check it out. I am sure someone here on Hadit has the charts or maybe there is someone who can access their evaluation builder and check it out. I really don't even want to guess on it, but some of your numbers are really high, and your speach recognition also is taken into the consideration on this.

Hang in there is won't be that much longer. I am much more worried that they provided the nexus to service connect the hearing loss to your militaray service resultng in a grant of benefits.

Edited July 26, 2013 by harleyman

[meghp0405]

I wouldn't submit anything else. wait for your rating decision. What I believe you should be concerned about is the minimal loss in the 500 block of each ear. The regulation states that you need at least a 40 in those blocks. You may have enough with the huge loss in your ears at the other levels.

Good luck!

[Davo68]

Have requested a copy of my C&P report (several weeks ago) but have not received it, did get an acknowledgement of my request.

[Davo68]

Have requested a copy of my C&P report (several weeks ago) but have not received it, did get an acknowledgement of my request.

Thanks to all, received by new SC rating, received 50% for hearing loss and 10% for tinnitus, this added to previous SC of 20%, more than satisfied, wishing everyone success.