[Compensation for tinnitus in private accident insurance]

According to the provisions of private accident insurance, mental or psychic reactions are excluded from compensation. Until now, tinnitus was taken as fully psychic and therefore excluded. In two recently published judgments of the Federal Supreme Court in Germany the assessment of tinnitus in private accident insurance and particularly the exclusion clause section sign 2 Abs. 4 AUB 88 has been newly defined. According to this actual jurisdiction the compensation of tinnitus could be possible, when as physical underlying reason a proved harm in the inner ear or the auditory pathway (hearing loss), which can be traced back to the accident according to the rules of causality. This leads to the question how Tinnitus could be compensated without modification of the general terms and conditions of the private accident insurance. A compensating table is proposed, which recognizes the somatic (physical) part of tinnitus and is based on medical and scientific findings of the relation between hearing loss and tinnitus.