Question:

I am a Vietnam Veteran and I went to the VA to have my hearing checked, I ended up paying almost $100 and was not satisfied with their service. I keep being told by fellow Vets to get an Advocate. How do I go about that? Thank you.

Jim's Reply:

I'll assume that since your hearing isn't service connected you were billed for audiology services since you asked for a hearing test. If that's correct, I think this is a situation where we can use that old adage; Let the buyer beware. If you're a Vietnam veteran and you had filed a claim for hearing loss, VA would have done that test for free and you'd probably be getting some benefits for it.

Ultimately I don't know why you weren't happy with what took place since you didn't share that with me so I can't tell you what sort of response is appropriate. An advocate usually helps you to file a claim, not settle some score about how unhappy you are. What would an advocate do to help?

I think that you may be best off if you forget about whatever transpired and take this as a lesson learned. Then you should go ahead and file a claim for hearing loss and if you have hearing loss and tinnitus, VA will conduct another exam and you may be able to recover your monetary loss with a disability rating.