Disabilityratings For Hearing Impairment
To receive disabilitycompensation for hearing loss, you must first prove that you are eligible for benefits. The VA requires that you:
- Served on active duty, active duty for training, or inactive duty training, and
- Have a disability rating for your service-connected condition
The VA calculates your disability rating, a percentage based on the severity of yourdisability, by looking at your medical history, including any test results ordoctor reports, as well as information from other sources, like federalagencies or a VA claim exam if youve undergone one.
The VA Schedule of Ratings Disabilities shows that mild or moderate hearing loss can range from 0% to 10%, while severe hearing loss may range from 30% to 50%.
The rating for tinnitus is 10%, which is assigned regardless of whether it affects one or both ears. However, you can receive individual ratings for hearing loss and tinnitus.
Types Of Hearing Loss
Peripheral hearing loss is typically categorized as conductive or sensorineural . Hearing loss that has both conductive and sensorineural components is categorized as mixed. Conductive hearing loss results from obstruction or disease of the outer or middle ear that prevents transmission of sound energy to the inner ear. The causes of conductive hearing loss range from cerumen impaction and otitis media to fixation of one or more of the middle-ear bones, mainly fixation of the stapes due to otosclerosis. Medical or surgical treatment of most types of conductive hearing loss often results in full restoration of hearing.
Qualifying With A Cochlear Implant
If youve had cochlear implant surgery, youll automatically qualify to receive benefits for at least 12 months following the procedure. After 12 months have passed, you can continue receiving disability benefits if you have a word recognition score of 60 percent or less, determined by using the Hearing in Noise Test .You may not know what your hearing threshold is or your HINT score without first speaking with your audiologist. Fortunately, the entire Blue Book is available online. You can review the listings for hearing loss and determine if you will medically qualify at your next doctors appointment.
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About Global Burden Of Disease
The Global Burden of Disease Study is a comprehensive regional and global research program of disease burden that assesses mortality and disability from major diseases.
Read more about the Global Burden of Disease Study here: or here:
If you think that you might have a genetic hearing loss, we recommend that you get your hearing checked by a hearing professional.
Moderate To Severe Hearing Loss: Between 56 And 70 Decibels
Some people with moderate to severe hearing loss have trouble hearing their friends and family, which can make it hard for them to feel like theyâre a part of things at social events, which can be depressing.
If you have moderate to severe hearing loss, you wonât be able to hear:
- People talking at a normal volume
- A dishwasher running
- People laughing
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Mild Hearing Loss: Between 26 And 40 Decibels
Some people who have mild hearing loss may not know that they have a problem. They can still hear most of what they heard when they had normal hearing, and theyâre able to hear many sounds if they get closer to the source or raise the volume.
If you have mild hearing loss, you wonât be able to hear:
- People whispering
Read more about how hearing aids for mild hearing loss works.
If You Live In Quebec
If you live in Quebec, you would not apply for the disability benefit under the Canada Pension Plan. You can apply for the Quebec Pension Plan disability benefit if one of the following applies to you:
- you have worked only in the province of Quebec
- you currently live in Quebec and have worked both in the province of Quebec and in another province or territory
- you have worked in Quebec, currently live outside Canada and your last province of residence was Quebec
If you worked both in and outside Quebec
If you paid into both the Canada Pension Plan and Quebec Pension Plan, you need to apply to the province where you live now.
If you worked outside Canada
If you worked in a country other than Canada, the credits you earned in that country may help you qualify for the disability benefit.
If you worked less to care for young children
If you have periods of zero or low income because you stayed home to raise your children, the child-rearing provision could help you qualify for the disability benefit.
If you are divorced or separated
Any contributions you and your spouse or common-law partner made to the CPP while you lived together may be equally divided after a divorce or a separation. This may help you qualify for the disability benefit. Find out more about .
If you missed applying for disability benefits in the past
If you are applying for the disability benefit, but stopped working a while ago, you may still apply for a benefit now.
You may be able to receive the benefit if:
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What Other Benefits Can I Receive For Hearing Loss
Service members are required to meet with a VA audiologist in order to diagnose a medical condition.
After a series of tests are conducted, the VA can help determine if you are entitled to disability benefits.
Veterans that suffer from hearing loss rely on monthly compensation to treat their condition.
Hearing aids and other hearing supported devices are often available to patients.
Furthermore, service animals have been successful in assisting veterans with a variety of medical conditions, including hearing loss.
However, you cannot receive any of these services until you get evaluated by a VA audiologist.
By Bethany K. Laurence, Attorney
If you have profound hearing loss or deafness, you should be able to qualify for Social Security disability benefits. The Social Security Administration details how significant your hearing loss must be for it to qualify as a disability that prevents you from working, and thus makes you eligible for benefits.
Medical Opinion With An Explained Nexus
A medical nexus opinion is where a professional explains the link between your military service experience and how it affected your hearing loss. This is just as crucial as the evidence of the initiating event. Its where the VA will look to determine how likely it is that your experience led to your hearing loss.
In a nexus letter, the doctor will review your medical records and statements and give their opinion as more or less likely than not that your disability was caused by a specific incident. These letters are crucial for the success of your claim!
Your doctor wont write a nexus letter for you? This is why we have the VACI medical team! If youre tired of being told no for your letter, this is the only way to get access to them!
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Children Whose Hearing Deficit Is Severe Enough To Affect Their Learning Communication And Ability To Complete Tasks May Be Able To Get Ssi Disability Benefits
If your child has significant hearing loss that has lasted for at least 12 months, then you should consider applying for Supplemental Security Income disability benefits with the Social Security Administration . Hearing loss can affect your child’s speech, learning, and social development. Children are usually tested a few days after birth to determine whether they have any hearing loss. Further testing is performed by an otolaryngologist doctor or audiologist.
Diagnosing Deafness Or Hearing Loss: Universal Newborn Hearing Screening
Early diagnosis of hearing loss is important. The earlier you find out your child has a hearing loss, the sooner your child can begin early intervention and develop language to communicate with.
In Australia, universal newborn hearing screening is an essential part of diagnosing deafness or hearing loss in children.
All Australian states and territories have a universal newborn hearing screening program that aims to:
- screen the hearing of all babies by 1 month of age
- refer any babies with possible hearing loss for diagnostic testing with an audiologist by 3 months of age to confirm whether they have hearing loss
- start early intervention for babies with hearing loss by 6 months of age.
What is hearing screening? During screening, special equipment plays specific sounds into your babys ears and records the responses from your babys brain. The screening technology might be different in different parts of Australia.
In most places, your baby will be screened in hospital, before you take your baby home. Each state has its own way of following up on babies who dont have a hearing screen in hospital.
Each state also has its own way of referring babies to audiology and supporting parents and families.
Hearing screening isnt compulsory. You have to give your permission for your baby to be screened, which means signing a consent form.
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Hearing Loss Has Several Origins And No One Is Immune
Millions of people in the United States deal with hearing loss, and hearing loss is actually one of the most prevalent disabilities affecting the population. It can affect literally any age group, socio-economic status, or career field.
We use our ears every day, leaving them open to many origins of hearing loss. For instance, loud sounds without proper ear protection can cause hearing loss over time, or even just normal aging has been shown to cause degrees of hearing loss. Genetic factors can also affect hearing loss, which can manifest either at birth or later in life. Autoimmune diseases and even traumatic events can impair your hearing.
Hearing Loss & Hearing Impairment On The Job
Legally, all employers must make reasonable accommodations for employees with hearing loss, as stipulated in the Americans with Disabilities Act . Proactive employers will provide assistive technology to help employees with hearing loss perform their daily responsibilities. For example, employees who answer phones may be provided with a handset amplification system, videophone, or captioned phone that provides a text display of the callers dialogue.
Employees who work with intercoms or paging systems may benefit from software that can turn intercom messages into texts or other video messages. Furthermore, an FM loop system can be utilized to broadcast audio messages directly to an individuals hearing aid without background noise.
Employers searching for ways to accommodate employees with hearing loss can consult the Job Accommodation Network , as well as the Employer Assistance and Resource Network on Disability Inclusion . Workplace accommodations are often inexpensive, with most costing less than $500. However, your employer is not responsible for providing assistive devices or equipment for personal use, which includes hearing aids.
If you believe youre experiencing hearing loss and its affecting your performance at work, please contact a hearing professional in your area immediately. These experts will determine your level of hearing loss and whether you would benefit from wearing hearing aids.
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Why Choose Hearing Aids
For these exact reasons, acquiring hearing aids is a good choice for a person with mild hearing loss. Hearing aids themselves are incredible medical devices that take sound waves and boost them to a new decibel level.
For someone with mild hearing loss, their raised decibel threshold poses very real challenges for their day-to-day lives, and hearing aids will help them overcome that challenge. Hearing aids are also built for multiple degrees and types of hearing loss.
There are two very general styles of hearing aids, even though there are multiple types and models to choose from. Those general styles are known as behind the ear models and in-ear models. The most significant difference between these two styles and their different models and types is size.
The behind the ear types are larger and house more processing and battery power. These are typically used for more severe forms of hearing loss, like moderately to severe. The in-ear styles are the smallest, and while they are still very powerful devices, they have less room for processing power. These devices are perfect for lighter forms of hearing loss, like mild hearing loss.
Qualifying For Disability Benefits With Hearing Loss
If you or someone you love experiences hearing loss, you may be eligible for Social Security disability benefits. The Social Security Administration offers monthly financial resources to people who are unable to work due to a disability. If your hearing loss is preventing you from maintaining employment, you may qualify for assistance.
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Different Levels Of Hearing
Not all health conditions are identical, and it is possible to suffer from light hearing impairment to severe, or even total loss of hearing altogether.
Currently, there are five categories of hearing loss. The degrees of hearing loss have been categorized according to the decibel level recognizable. The threshold works because sounds must reach a certain dB to be recognizable, and everything under that decibel threshold cannot be recognized. As a persons hearing continues to diminish, their dB threshold will continue to increase.
Let’s take a look at the five categories of hearing loss and how to recognize them.
Causes & Symptoms Of Hearing Loss
Hearing loss can be caused by several factors including age, illness, and genetics. Some illnesses put patients at a high risk of hearing loss as it can interfere with the ears blood supply. These illnesses include heart disease, high blood pressure, and diabetes. In addition, otosclerosis is a bone disease which can destroy the inner ear causing hearing loss.
Trauma, such as a punctured eardrum, can also cause hearing loss. Hearing loss signs and symptoms may range from mild to severe. Signs of hearing loss include difficulty hearing people over the phone or while conversing, being unable to hear in noisy environments, and having difficulty hearing high pitched frequencies.
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Va Disability Ratings And Compensation Levels
VA rates your disability between 0 and 100 percent in increments of 10. At a rating of 0 percent, you do not receive monthly compensation, but you might be eligible for other benefits from the VA, such as health care.
As of December 1st, 2020 the VA disability rate benefit amounts are as follows:
- 0 percent disability rating: $0.00 per month
- 10 percent disability rating: $144.14 per month
- 20 percent disability rating: $284.93 per month
- 30 percent disability rating: $441.35 per month
- 40 percent disability rating: $635.77 per month
- 50 percent disability rating: $905.04 per month
- 60 percent disability rating: $1,146.39 per month
- 70 percent disability rating: $1,444.71 per month
- 80 percent disability rating: $1,679.35 per month
- 90 percent disability rating: $1,887.18 per month
- 100 percent disability rating: $3,146.42 per month
A rating of 30 percent or higher qualifies you to receive additional benefits for qualifying dependents.
Disability Ratings And Va Benefits
The VA provides disability compensation for hearing loss and tinnitus.
The first thing a veteran needs to do is to establish that their hearing loss or tinnitus is connected to their service. Visit the VAs eligibility for benefits webpage to read more about how to start a claim.
For hearing loss and tinnitus, a veteran will need to know the basics of their condition:
The VA requires both a pure-tone and a Maryland CNC test for hearing loss. Depending on the results, the VA will assign a disability rating from 0 to 10 percent. You can read more about disability ratings from the VAs ratings guide.
For tinnitus, the disability rating is 10 percent. Veterans with hearing loss and tinnitus can get separate ratings for each disability.
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Degrees Of Hearing Loss
Now that you know the types of hearing loss let’s discuss the degrees to which you can experience this disability. Hearing loss itself is the process of a persons decibel threshold being unnaturally raised to the point that normal sounds are not recognizable anymore. What does this mean? Well, to understand this, you have to first know what a decibel threshold is.
Keeping Medical Information Confidential
With limited exceptions, an employer must keep confidential any medical information it learns about an applicant or employee. Under the following circumstances, however, an employer may disclose that an employee has a hearing impairment:
- to supervisors and managers, if necessary to provide a reasonable accommodation or meet an employee’s work restrictions
- to first aid and safety personnel if an employee may need emergency treatment or require some other assistance at work
- to individuals investigating compliance with the ADA and similar state and local laws and
- where needed for workers’ compensation or insurance purposes .
8. May an employer tell employees who ask why their co-worker is allowed to do something that generally is not permitted that she is receiving a reasonable accommodation?
No. Telling coworkers that an employee is receiving a reasonable accommodation amounts to a disclosure that the employee has a disability. Rather than disclosing that the employee is receiving a reasonable accommodation, the employer should focus on the importance of maintaining the privacy of all employees and emphasize that its policy is to refrain from discussing the work situation of any employee with co-workers. Employers may be able to avoid many of these kinds of questions by training all employees on the requirements of equal employment laws, including the ADA.
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Smoking Adiposity And Chronic Diseases
Strong associations between hearing loss and cigarette smoking, adiposity, diabetes mellitus, and other risk factors for cardiovascular disease are supported by epidemiologic studies, but causality remains uncertain. For example, in the Beaver Dam Eye Study, involving persons between the ages of 43 and 84 years, smoking, central adiposity, and poorly controlled diabetes mellitus were associated with hearing loss in later life, suggesting that vascular changes may contribute to age-related hearing loss. On the basis of data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey for the years 1999 through 2004, a study of patients with diabetes who were 20 to 69 years of age showed that low-density and high-density lipoprotein levels, as well as status with respect to coronary disease, peripheral neuropathy, and general health, were correlated with hearing impairment, whereas glycemic control, number of years since diagnosis, and type of hypoglycemic medication were not. These putative associations with chronic systemic diseases suggest that some contributors to hearing loss may be modifiable.