The Veteran's unauthorized medical expenses and ambulance transportation services incurred during a non-VA hospitalization at McLaren Bay Regional Medical Center on June 23, 2015 are granted. The private hospitalization was for a nonservice-connected condition.
The deciding factor: The private hospitalization met the criteria for emergency treatment under VA regulations due to the Veteran's inability to access VA facilities and the nature of his medical condition.
- Claimed conditions
- Degenerative arthritis of the right hip, Low back with 'acute' sciatica into the right leg
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- January 4, 2019
- Citation
- 19101172
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,156 · Granted: 29% (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 19101172.
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.
- Partly granted
The Board denied initial ratings in excess of 10 percent for degenerative arthritis of the right and left hips, but granted a 10 percent rating from April 12, 2011, for both hip conditions.
- Granted
The Board granted service connection for a right knee disability, right hip disability, right hand disability, and right wrist disability on a direct basis.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board remands the claims for service connection for degenerative arthritis of the right hip and osteitis pubis to correct duty to assist errors that occurred prior to the rating decision on appeal.
- Partly granted
The appeal for higher ratings of sciatic and femoral nerve radiculopathies was dismissed, while the claims for service connection of degenerative arthritis and avascular necrosis of both hips were remanded.
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