The veteran's claim for payment or reimbursement of expenses for diagnostic testing at St. Joseph's Hospital is denied as the evidence does not meet the criteria for emergency treatment and no VA facility was feasibly available.
The deciding factor: The diagnostic testing was performed for a non-emergency condition (diverticulosis) and there were feasible VA facilities available, making it unreasonable to seek immediate medical attention at St. Joseph's Hospital.
- Claimed conditions
- diverticulosis
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- December 18, 2006
- Citation
- 0639301
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,011 · Granted: 24% (granted or partly granted, in the vetted decisions on this site)
Judge attribution: 2025 complete; earlier years partial.
This is a plain-language summary generated by AI from a public Board of Veterans’ Appeals decision. It can contain errors — always verify against the original. Look up the original decision on VA.gov (opens in a new tab) using citation 0639301.
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Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has decided to remand the case due to a duty to assist error, and will need to obtain an addendum medical opinion regarding the nature and etiology of the Veteran's diverticulosis and colon tumor.
- Granted
The Veteran's service connection claims for various conditions, including adjustment disorder, benign skin lesions, actinic keratosis, poikiloderma, porokeratosis, Parkinson's disease, benign prostatic hypertrophy, hypertension, increased urinary frequency, diverticulosis, duodenal ulcer, and bilateral cataracts are all granted due to exposure to herbicide agents, mustard gas, and ionizing radiation during service.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded several issues related to the Veteran's service connection claims due to errors in the initial decision, including inadequate medical opinions and failure to consider all theories of entitlement.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has determined that there was a duty to assist error and remands the case for further development. The Veteran seeks service connection for diverticulosis, which is currently denied.
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