The Veteran's claim for specially adapted housing and a special home adaptation grant is remanded due to the lack of VA examinations evaluating his service-connected disabilities, which are necessary to determine his eligibility.
The deciding factor: The Board cannot make a fully-informed decision without an examination assessing the severity of the Veteran’s service-connected disabilities and their impact on his activities of daily living.
- Claimed conditions
- nephropathy, degenerative arthritis of the right shoulder, traumatic arthritis of the right hip, ischemic heart disease, status post myocardial infarction and coronary artery bypass graft, degenerative disc disease of the thoracolumbar spine, type II diabetes mellitus, erectile dysfunction, bilateral peripheral neuropathy of the lower extremities, bilateral osteoarthritis of the wrists, degenerative joint disease of the right knee, scars, residuals of scrap metal on nose, residual scar, post cardiac surgery
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- October 30, 2019
- Citation
- A19002300
What this means for you
A remand is not a loss. The Board sent the case back for more development — often a new exam or missing records — before making a final decision. Many remands later end in a grant, and the decision spells out exactly what the Board wanted to see.
What you can do next
Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board remands the claim for service connection for erectile dysfunction due to an inadequate VA opinion regarding its etiology.
- Denied
The Board denied service connection for various conditions, including sinusitis, elbows condition, cervical condition, erectile dysfunction, kidney condition, sleep apnea, wrists condition, asthma, shoulders condition, ankles condition, eye condition (bilateral dry macular degeneration), peripheral vascular disease (heart condition), and rhinitis.
- Partly granted
The Board granted a 50 percent rating for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and denied increased ratings for right shoulder impingement syndrome, hearing loss, painful scar, patellofemoral pain syndromes of the knees, and other conditions.
- Partly granted
The Board grants service connection for tinnitus, finding that the Veteran's tinnitus began during his period of active duty service. The claims for ischemic heart disease, aortic valve replacement, status post aortic stenosis, and peripheral vascular disease with popliteal aneurysm are remanded.
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