Service Connected Disability Claims for Hearing Loss and Tinnitus
Many of the veterans that visit our office suffer from hearing
loss and persistent ringing or buzzing in the ears known as tinnitus. Many
of those veterans were exposed to extremely loud environmental and/or combat
related noises while they were on active duty. Medical science has known for
years that loud noises, experienced over an extended period of time, at an
early age, cause acoustic trauma which may not become symptomatic for many
years.
Military personnel have often been exposed to noises such as
machine guns, mortars, bombs, artillery, airplane engines and shipboard machinery
to name a few, usually without the benefit of hearing protection. Those veterans
frequently develop hearing loss and tinnitus as they become older.
The veterans
administration recognizes the causal relationship between exposure to loud
environmental noise and the impact that such exposure may have on hearing
loss and tinnitus. Persistent tinnitus (ringing or buzzing in the ears) is
frequently present when there is significant hearing loss.
Claims for bilateral
hearing loss and bilateral tinnitus must be well supported by current medical
evidence. There must be a pertinent military service history which indicates
that the veteran was exposed to prolonged loud noises while on active duty,
there must be medical evidence of a current hearing loss with or without
tinnitus and, most importantly, there must be a documented medical opinion
from a state licensed audiologist that the current hearing loss or tinnitus
was more likely than not to have been caused by his/her exposure to environmental
and/or combat related noise while on active duty.
All veterans who are contemplating
filing a claim for bilateral hearing loss and bilateral tinnitus are advised
to request an audiologist exam from the VA Medical Center, Gainesville, Florida.
The audiologists at that facility know exactly what the VA regional office
needs for a service connected hearing claim. The amount of disability granted
for service connected hearing loss depends on the degree of loss.
Service Connected Hearing Loss
What we need from you to assist with the preparation of your claim.
If you are enrolled with VA Health and are being seen at a local VA Clinic,
when you see your VA primary care provider at your next appointment please
remember to tell your provider that you have hearing loss and ringing in your
ears. Ask them to make you an appointment with the audiologist clinic at the
nearest VA facility for an audiologist evaluation.
When you see the audiologist tell him:
- You have a hearing loss.
- You have continuous ringing/buzzing in your ears
.
- You were exposed to loud environmental noise while you were on active
duty.
After your examination go to the “release of information office” and
ask them to send a copy of your audiologist evaluation results to your home.
When you receive the results bring them in to our office. We will submit the
results as medical evidence to the VA Regional Office along with your claim.
Medical
evidence is critical to the approval of your claim. Medical evidence establishes
the verification needed by the VA to confirm that the disability you are
claiming actually exists.
The audiologist may or may not further document an
opinion in the report as to whether or not the possible cause of the hearing
disability is a result of your earlier exposure to environmental and/or combat
related noises while on active duty.
The sample letter is a copy
of the type of letter that the VA will accept as medical evidence of a “link” between
your current hearing loss with tinnitus and the loud noise that you were
exposed to while on active duty.
Click to see sample Audiologist's letter concerning veteran's hearing loss
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