Two different VA systems answer two different questions about your hearing. Disability compensation asks: is the hearing loss connected to service, and how severe is it. VA health care asks: are you eligible to be treated by the VA, including for audiology and hearing aids. Veterans routinely conflate the two and miss benefits in both directions.
Disability compensation
Compensation is monthly money based on the rating percentage, which comes from the audiometric formula in 38 CFR 4.85 through 4.87 described in our rating guide. It does not buy treatment, and it is not affected by whether you wear hearing aids or who fits them.
Compensation is service connection based. A veteran with severe hearing loss purely from civilian factory work receives nothing from this system, regardless of how disabled they are.
VA audiology and hearing aids
Treatment eligibility follows VA health care enrollment rules, not the rating schedule. Hearing aids and audiology care are provided to veterans whose hearing loss is service connected, veterans rated 10 percent or more for any condition, and several other categories described on the VA's hearing aid benefits page.
The important asymmetry: a 0 percent service-connected hearing rating still qualifies many veterans for VA-fitted hearing aids, and a veteran with severe nonservice-connected loss may receive treatment through VA care while receiving no compensation at all.
Why the difference matters in practice
Veterans denied compensation sometimes abandon VA care, not realizing their audiology eligibility may be intact - and veterans receiving hearing aids sometimes never file a claim, not realizing the same loss may be compensable. Filing the claim and enrolling in care are parallel tracks, not alternatives.
The claim side is covered by our service connection guide and the evidence guide. Free accredited help with filing is available to every veteran through a Veterans Service Officer, and a medical records review is where veterans start when they want to know whether the file supports a claim before filing one.