VA usually springs for a new pair about every three years for some vets. Previous pair were Oticons. They were replaced with Phonak the last time around. Newer seems to be better with hearing aids and the Phonaks hear better than the old Oticon. Phonak link to the bluetooth on my Android phone is a lot better. They don't need a BT dongle and there isn't the delay caused by two BT connections that caused me to talk over the guy on the other end of the conversation. Phone is now actually usable for me, so in that respect, I'd never go back to the old ones. 
When dealing with the VA, one of my big gripes was phone to HA link. VA in their infinite wisdom gave me a phone number to call and talk about my difficulties??? Finally got it sorted but sometimes . . .