What happened with the proposed changes in ratings for mental health and tinnitus that were proposed in early 2022?

I'm not a medical professional, and certainly not an audiologist, but having just read the proposed changes they appear to be almost entirely cosmetic -- replacing one word or phrase with a new word or phrase that means the same thing. So far as I can see, the VA will continue to pretend that hearing loss above normal speech frequencies ("high frequency hearing loss") has zero impact and will be ignored.

MSG Thomas Currie - The main change that is going to happen with tinnitus is that the rule would evaluate tinnitus as a symptom of an underlying disease which causes it, rather than as currently rated as a stand-alone disability.

Right now, tinnitus is a 10% stand-alone rating. In the proposed change, as a symptom of an underlying disease/condition, that condition needs to have a service connection established. If the condition is a non-compensatory one (0% rating), then if tinnitus is also present, then it would increase the rating to 10%. Otherwise, if the condition is rated at 10% or higher, then tinnitus wouldn't be a factor in increasing the rating.

The specific language in the CFR proposed change is, "VA proposes to evaluate tinnitus only as part of its underlying pathology and to delete DC 6260 entirely. In other words, tinnitus will be compensated through application of DCs 6100, 6204, 6205, 8045, 8046, or 9305, depending on its service-connected cause."

Diagnostic Code (DC) 6260 is "Tinnitus, recurrent", DC 6100 is "Hearing Impairment", 6204 is "Peripheral vestibular disorders", 6205 is "Meniere's syndrome", 8045 is "Residuals of traumatic brain injury (TBI)", 8046 is "Cerebral arteriosclerosis", and 9305 is "Major or mild vascular neurocognitive disorder"

Is all the above DCs, only hearing impairment would have a possible increase to the rating due to tinnitus, and only if the hearing impairment (loss/discernment) was a service-connected non-compensatory (0%) disability. If tinnitus is present in that situation, then it would increase the rating to 10%. Otherwise, tinnitus is a symptom of a condition and not a condition in itself.

CPT Lawrence Cable - I hear you brother ☺

Like you, I have tinnitus, but it gets drowned out if there is enough background noise. It's when it's quiet that it is very pronounced.

Regarding the dropping of the proposed changes to tinnitus. I couldn't find any indication of that from the VA. The period of discussion was early last year and they've been in the "finalization" mode with an expected release on the final rule in December (for the "ear, nose, and throat" body system).

I just did a quick scan of the meeting notes for the Advisory Committee on Disability Compensation (ACDC) since the proposed change was released, and there's no mention of changes to tinnitus being removed.

However, I guess we'll see in about a month.

I'm rated at 10% for tinnitus and mine sounds similar to being in a forest at night with cicadas at full blast.