What is the VA rating for Tinnitus?

DC 6260's Note (1) allows a separate tinnitus evaluation to be combined with ratings under DC 6100 (hearing loss), DC 6200 (chronic suppurative otitis media, mastoiditis, or cholesteatoma), DC 6204 (peripheral vestibular disorders), or another diagnostic code - except when the tinnitus finding is what makes that other code qualify in the first place. The rule's real function is preventing the same tinnitus finding from being counted twice, not limiting which conditions tinnitus can otherwise combine with in the ordinary combined-ratings sense.

• The regulation's exact text reads: "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." DC 6100, 6200, and 6204 are named examples, not a closed list - the "or other diagnostic code" clause extends the same rule to any other code a tinnitus finding might otherwise support.
• Tinnitus and hearing loss are different findings under different diagnostic codes, and a veteran can have a separate, combinable rating for each when both are independently documented.
• The exception: if tinnitus itself is the specific finding being used to support or qualify for another diagnostic code (for example, if a chronic ear condition's rating depends partly on a tinnitus complication being present), that same instance of tinnitus is not also separately rated under DC 6260 - it would be double-counting the same finding twice.
• Worked example: a veteran has documented recurrent tinnitus (DC 6260, 10%) and separately documented hearing loss meeting a DC 6100 percentage based on audiometric testing. Because the hearing-loss rating is based on puretone and speech-discrimination findings, not on the tinnitus itself, both the 10% tinnitus rating and the hearing-loss percentage can be combined using VA's whole-person combined-ratings method (see the Percentage Guide) - they are not added directly.
• This combination rule is separate from, and does not change, the single-evaluation rule for tinnitus itself (see below).

Records to review: audiology notes; ENT records; DC 6100/6200/6204 evaluation records.

DC 6260's Note (2) assigns only a single 10 percent evaluation for recurrent tinnitus, regardless of whether it is perceived in one ear, both ears, or generally in the head.

• A veteran with tinnitus in only one ear and a veteran with tinnitus in both ears both receive the same single 10 percent evaluation under this code - there is no separate or doubled rating for bilateral tinnitus.
• This is a deliberate schedule design choice, not a documentation gap - recording tinnitus in both ears does not entitle a veteran to two 10 percent ratings combined.

Records to review: audiology or ENT notes describing laterality.