The Veteran is entitled to reimbursement for the cost of unauthorized private medical expenses incurred on July 4, 2005 due to the emergency nature of the treatment and the unavailability of VA facilities.
The deciding factor: The condition was urgent in nature, a prudent layperson would have reasonably expected that delay in seeking immediate medical attention would have been hazardous to life or health, and no VA facility was feasibly available at the time.
- Claimed conditions
- left shoulder pain, calcific tendinitis
- How they argued it
- Not specified
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- March 6, 2009
- Citation
- 0908375
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,480 · Granted: 26% (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 0908375.
What this means for you
A grant means the Board agreed the veteran was entitled to the benefit. Decisions like this show the kind of evidence and arguments that tend to succeed for claims like it.
What you can do next
Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
- Granted
The Board has granted the Veteran's requests to reopen previously denied service connection claims for various joint conditions, including right ankle arthritis, left ankle arthritis, right shoulder pain, left shoulder pain, right knee arthritis, and left knee arthritis. The skin condition claim is remanded.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the claims of service connection for skin cancer, facial scars, impairment of cranial nerve V and VII, left eye condition with watering and dryness, and left shoulder pain due to a duty-to-assist error in obtaining an adequate medical opinion regarding the relationship between these conditions and service.
- Denied
The Board denied the Veteran's claims for service connection for left shoulder pain and a rating in excess of 10 percent for right knee strain, finding that there was no evidence to support a nexus between his current conditions and his military service.
- Denied
The Veteran's claims for increased ratings and service connection have been denied. The rating in excess of 10 percent for tinnitus is denied, as the evidence does not support a higher rating under the applicable criteria. The claim for a compensable rating for bilateral hearing loss is also denied due to lack of evidence supporting a higher rating based on audiometric results. Service connection for hypertension and bilateral foot fungus are granted with effective dates from May 19, 2020, to August 9, 2022, respectively. The Veteran's claims for service connection regarding left knee pain (status post arthroscopy), right knee pain (status post arthroscopy), low back disability (degenerative arthritis of the spine), left shoulder pain, and right shoulder pain are all granted with effective dates from August 10, 2022. The Veteran's claims for service connection regarding left leg shooting pain and radiculopathy secondary to low back disability and right leg shooting pain and radiculopathy secondary to low back disability remain pending.
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