Is It Hard To Get Va Disability For Hearing Loss
disability hearing wallpaperIf you experience any hearing loss damage ear-related disease or other conditions related to hearing get evaluated as soon as possible and its important to let the VA decide whether you are eligible for benefits related to conditions such as these. While some VA disability claims are clear cut it is not always easy to prove or to connect them to service incidents and hearing loss VA claims are difficult to get service connected.
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Hearing problems are rated under the VA Schedule of Ratings Disabilities in Section 487 diagnostic codes 6200 to 6260.
Is it hard to get va disability for hearing loss. This claim is a Hard to Prove VA Disability. More importantly hearing loss is 2 on the list of service-connected disabilities that vets get payments for today. Cancer entitled to a 100 rating for six months following termination of cancer treatment.
Hearing damage hearing loss tinnitus and related conditions are among the most common types of medical issues for military people and getting the VA to take such claims seriously requires a qualifying medical diagnosis of the condition. In 2019 the VA approved 88055 new disability compensation claims from veterans with hearing loss. On the other hand though there are several steps to evaluating a VA hearing loss claim properly.
3385 defines the three ways to prove that you have a VA hearing loss disability. However it is possible for veterans to receive separate disability ratings for both hearing loss and tinnitus. The rating criteria for the 100 percent schedular disability rating directs VA to specifically consider SMC.
Tinnitus is especially prevalent in veterans with nearly 10 of all veterans receiving disability compensation for the condition and many more believed to suffer from it despite not filing a claim. Veterans who receive VA hearing loss or tinnitus disability compensation can file a lawsuit against 3M without losing their benefits. In short if you have a functional impact from your hearing loss BEYOND decreased hearing and difficulty understanding speech then as a matter of law the VA rating criteria do NOT adequately compensate you for the symptoms of your hearing loss.
Qualifying for Veterans Disability Benefits with Hearing Loss. By Susan Kelley on July 22 2020 in Veterans Disability Benefits. Sensorineural hearing loss caused by damage to the inner ear and auditory nerve is permanent but can often be helped through the use of hearing aids.
As of the close of fiscal year 2014 more than 933000 Veterans were receiving disability compensation for hearing loss and nearly 13 million received compensation for tinnitus. Pure-tone audiometry and speech audiometry also called speech discrimination. Common hearing issues for veterans include hearing loss and tinnitus.
How to establish you have a VA disability for your hearing loss claim. This is due to frequent stress on the eardrums from a large amount of loud noises veterans are exposed to both in training and in deployment including gunfire loud machinery and other explosive blasts. If you suffer from hearing loss as a result of your military service you may qualify for veterans disability benefits.
If you sustained any hearing loss resulting from your service in the military you may be eligible for VA disability compensation but you must first file a VA disability claim for hearing loss. If you have a total hearing loss in both ears you may be entitled to additional compensation beyond the 100 percent schedular rating through a benefit called special monthly compensation SMC. Hearing Tests The military uses two basic tests to check for hearing loss and disability ratings.
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. We have seen several instances where VA did not go through each of these steps. Hearing loss is unique among VA disabilities because it is one of the few for which the VA provides a specific definition in the Code of Federal Regulations.
Fortunately hard to prove can be overcome with the VA especially if we remember that the burden of proof is as likely as not rather than absolute proof beyond all other doubt. Other ear disabilities include.