VA Rating for Hearing Loss With Hearing Aids: Tables, Frequencies, Tinnitus and Pay

Do hearing aids determine a VA hearing loss rating?

No. The VA rating schedule states that examinations for hearing impairment will be conducted without the use of hearing aids. The same section requires a state-licensed audiologist, a controlled speech discrimination test (Maryland CNC) and a puretone audiometry test.

Three points follow from that text:

• Wearing aids does not lower the rating. The tables read unaided test results, so a good result with your aids in is not what the VA scores.
• Owning aids does not raise it either. No table takes hearing aid use as an input. The only inputs are the speech score and the puretone threshold average.
• The claim and the device are separate. A rating is a compensation decision. Hearing aids come through VA health care, covered on our VA hearing aids page.

The test itself, and how it differs from a clinical audiology visit, is on our VA hearing test page.

How do Tables VI, VIa and VII differ?

The regulation uses three tables in sequence. The first two give each ear a Roman numeral from I through XI; the third turns the pair of numerals into a percentage.

• Table VI crosses the percent of speech discrimination (rows) with the puretone threshold average (columns). The numeral sits where the two meet.
• Table VIa uses the puretone threshold average only. It applies when the examiner certifies that the speech test is not appropriate, for example because of language difficulties or inconsistent speech discrimination scores, or when an exceptional pattern applies.
• Table VII combines the two ears. Rows stand for the ear with better hearing, columns for the ear with poorer hearing, and the percentage evaluation sits at the crossing.

If impaired hearing is service-connected in only one ear, the other ear is assigned numeral I for Table VII, subject to a separate rule in the regulations. For any hearing claim, the VA also checks whether special monthly compensation for deafness may apply.

The tables are printed as images in the eCFR. Our tool lists each table's role; it reads no audiogram and computes no rating.

Which frequencies enter the puretone average?

Four. The current text defines the puretone threshold average as the sum of the thresholds at 1, 2, 3 and 4 kHz (up to 4000 Hertz), divided by four. Some guides in the search results list five frequencies; the regulation in force lists four.

The same average is used in every case, exceptional patterns included, to pick the numeral from Table VI or VIa. Two consequences for a reader comparing an audiogram:

1. Thresholds at frequencies outside those four do not enter the average used by the tables.
2. The speech score is a separate input. Two ears with the same average can land on different numerals in Table VI if their speech scores differ.

Ask the examiner or your representative which values they used. The average alone does not give you the rating.

What are the exceptional patterns in the regulation?

The section on exceptional patterns of hearing impairment adds two cases. In each, the rating specialist takes the numeral from Table VI or Table VIa, whichever results in the higher numeral, and each ear is evaluated separately.

• Pattern A. The puretone threshold at each of the four frequencies (1 to 4 kHz) is 55 decibels or more.
• Pattern B. The threshold is thirty decibels or less at 1 kHz and 70 decibels or more at 2 kHz. Here the numeral is then raised to the next higher Roman numeral.

Both patterns change which table supplies the numeral; they do not add hearing aid use as a factor. Whether an ear meets a pattern is read from the exam by the VA, not by this page.

What is the VA rating for tinnitus?

Recurrent tinnitus has its own line in the VA rating schedule: diagnostic code 6260 under 38 CFR 4.87. The schedule prints one evaluation on that line, 10 percent. Three notes sit under it, quoted as written:

• Note (1), combining with hearing loss. "A separate evaluation for tinnitus may be combined with an evaluation under diagnostic codes 6100, 6200, 6204, or other diagnostic code, except when tinnitus supports an evaluation under one of those diagnostic codes."
• Note (2), one evaluation. "Assign only a single evaluation for recurrent tinnitus, whether the sound is perceived in one ear, both ears, or in the head." Two ears do not make two tinnitus ratings.
• Note (3), objective tinnitus. "Do not evaluate objective tinnitus ... under this diagnostic code, but evaluate it as part of any underlying condition causing it."

Two ratings are not summed. Under 38 CFR 4.25, the VA reads Table I, the Combined Ratings Table, whose caption gives the case of two 10 percent ratings: "10 combined with 10 is 19." The conversion to the nearest degree divisible by 10 is done once per rating decision, after all disabilities are combined. This page reads the official table; it runs no combined rating calculator.

Pay follows the combined rating, not the tinnitus line. At a 10 percent combined rating, the VA publishes $180.42 a month from December 1, 2025. That amount is the payment row for the combined rating, not an extra payment for tinnitus. At 10 to 20 percent, the VA states that the rate does not rise with a dependent spouse, child, or parent.

What are the published compensation rates for a Veteran alone?

The VA pays monthly compensation by combined disability rating. These rates took effect on December 1, 2025.

Monthly rate for a Veteran with no dependents:

• Ten percent: $180.42
• Twenty percent: $356.66
• Thirty percent: $552.47
• Forty percent: $795.84
• Fifty percent: $1,132.90
• Sixty percent: $1,435.02
• Seventy percent: $1,808.45
• Eighty percent: $2,102.15
• Ninety percent: $2,362.30
• One hundred percent: $3,938.58

Read these rows with three limits:

• Combined, not hearing alone. Your payment follows the combined rating across all service-connected conditions, which can differ from the hearing percentage in Table VII.
• Veteran alone. Rates with a spouse, children or parents differ; the VA page lists them separately.
• Not a hearing aid price. These are disability payments. They do not buy or reimburse hearing aids.

Actual payment may vary from these published rows.