Denied SC for Tinnitus - Seriously confused - contradictory C&P opinion?

[RangerWife]

My husband was just denied SC for hearing loss and tinnitus. I would have expected 0% hearing loss for left ear and 10% tinnitus. I attached the C&P resultsAudiology DBQ.docx - it seems to me like the audiologist contradicts herself in her rationale - or maybe I am just confused? But overall it does seem to say he has tinnitus and its linked to service? Not sure what to think of this. Any insight would be appreciated!

Thank you!

 

 

Edited July 2, 2019 by RangerWife

[brokensoldier244th]

Sure, but even at a 0 rating you would still qualify for hearing aids, and most of the models available now generate a subtone of white noise to help cancel out tinnitus, too. Its not perfectly tuned to cancel out, but it helps. 

[ShrekTheTank]

You are right the rater is back and forth.  In there the rater stated he does have it and it is related to his hearing loss.  So they should make it secondary to the hearing loss.  I am not sure what they will do with this as I am a bit confused on the rational.  

Edited July 2, 2019 by shrekthetank1

[RangerWife]

Well, ebenefits just updated today and states hearing loss and tinnitus are not service connected. We of course don't have the rater letter yet to hear the rater's rationale but I was surprised it was not SC'd - I guess they took the parts out of the report that they wanted. Frustrating. 

[ShrekTheTank]

If present, is the Veteran's left ear hearing loss at least as likely as not (50% probability or greater) caused by or a result of an event in military service? Yes 
 

This part right here should be enough to service connect him.  

Given the presence of significant permanent positive threshold shifts between enlistment and separation exams, military acoustic trauma cannot be ruled out as a cause of Veteran's current hearing loss.

Then this part is another win for him.

Less likely than not (less than 50% probability) caused by or a result of military noise exposure.
 

This part makes no sense to me as even the rationale below, they stated: Veteran's report that tinnitus began during active military service, military acoustic trauma cannot be ruled out as a cause of Veteran's current tinnitus.

I would seriously go talk to the C&P officer at your VA hospital.  Take this with you and go and ask them what is going on as the DBQ even states in his favor of the hearing loss.  Then they go on to state Tinnitus is secondary to hearing loss.  Maybe they made a mistake in the DBQ.  

[RangerWife]

Thank you shrekthetank1 for reviewing and for the input. We didn't know they had a C&P officer, so that would definitely be a good place to start. Thank you!

[Richard1954]

I agree the examiner is not making sense, the veteran should have received a 10% rating for tinnitus based on the report.. but the examiner says it is more likely than not service connected and then says it is less likely than not.... As to the hearing loss.. its apparent that a hearing loss exist,  but with a 98% speech discrimination score  for both ears.. he will  not get a compensateable  rating.

I have been fighting the VA  for years for my hearing loss (a lot of us have )  my hearing  is actually destroyed in my right ear and I was rated 0% with 10% for tinnitus. I fought for a rating from 1986 to 2004 when I finally received my ratings. I continue to fight even to this date I have an appeal at the BVA.  During my fight,  I learned that the examiners have been told to crank up the DB levels when doing C/P examinations and the word discrimination test. They cranked the DB levels up on  my last hearing tests 70   ,  75 and 80 DB. N ormal hearing ranges from 0- 20 DB at all levels. My last word discrimination was 65 in the right ear and 80 in the left...at 80 DB's.  The way test are conducted present deceiving results  since no one lives in a sound proof box,  and wears head phones in the real world the test are going to present false numbers no matter what the actual hearing is .

I did confront the C/P examiner chief at the Temple VA about 3 years ago concerning an examiner he had assigned to do two of my exams.... I was able to discredit both exams and get new c/p exams  one  resulted in  service connection  ( they were for my heart and a knee)... I had a conversation with the examiner during the a c/p hearing test  and she told me that they have been instructed to increase the DB levels for all C/p Exams, by increasing the levels its a sure thing most claims will be denied.  

My last three test all done within a year of each other show the increase in DB levels used in the speech discrimination test