Heller

I had a detailed communication with my private certified AuD audiologist, who rated my word recognition at 65% for my best ear. I asked her how she rated words if I did not respond, and she said: " I understand wanting to know :) For word recognition scores, I present 25 words, and score it incorrect if one speech sound is incorrect. For example, if the word was fit and you said pit, it would be incorrect. If you didn't respond to a word it should be counted as incorrect. Let me know if I can be of further assistance." Because I did not respond to many of the words presented by my VA contractor audiologist, I was shocked to find my word recognition was rated at 94%, so she clearly ignored the words where I did not answer at all, and only scored the ones I actually responded to. I am going to an audiologist at the VA hospital later this month for a full audiology exam for my hearing aids, so I will get another exam sample. How do I deal with this incompetent VA contractor audiologist on my appeal?

Somewhere in all the vet forums, we were cautioned to never ever guess, as you will be declared successful and thought to hear better than your pure tone averages imply. So now I've heard two opposite recommendations. When I go to my VA hospital audiologist for my new pure-tone/CNC exam for hearing aids, I will ask him what I should do or say in this circumstance. I think I can trust him, as he is MY doctor, not the contractor hired by the VA examiners.

The VA audiologist never gave me any instruction before the "Say the ___ again" part. I didn't mean I was silent because I "can't hear that", but because even though I heard the word, I had absolutely no idea what that word was, just babble to me. I was declared service-connected tinnitus, got 10%. Declared service-connected bilateral hearing loss, but got 0% because my speech recognition was 94%. I posted all the numbers for the pure-tone test and the SRT above, both by the VA audiologist and by my private audiologist. I just applied for hearing aids at the VA hospital in Vancouver, and the audiologist said that my VA exam from July was too long ago, and he would give me the entire pure-tone/Maryland CNC exam again. He also seemed to not be happy that the VA was using contractors for the audiology exam.

In the SRT using the Maryland CNC, I did not respond at all if I did not understand the test word, only responded if I could actually hear the word. I know I didn't respond to many of the words, but my speech recognition was graded at 94%. I now suspect that the blank responses were not counted as a failure to hear, but were simply ignored, and only my actual responses were used for the 94% grade. Should I have said, "can't hear that" or something for each of the unknown words?

I submitted a fully-developed claim which included audiology results from a certified Au.D.: Average of 1k, 2k, 3k, 4k = 58 in best ear. Speech recognition 55% & 65% The VA made me take a test with their (outsourced) audiologist, unknown credentials: Average of 1k, 2k, 3k, 4k = 56 in best ear. Speech recognition 94% & 94%! How could there be such a discrepancy? Is this enough to appeal, or should I get another audiologist?