The Veteran's unauthorized medical expenses incurred at a private hospital on May 5, 2014 are being remanded for additional development of the evidence and consideration of the most recent provisions regarding reimbursement for unauthorized medical expenses.
The deciding factor: The VA facilities were not capable of furnishing economical care due to geographic inaccessibility or unavailability, thus requiring authorization from VA. The Veteran's stomach problems were deemed a nonservice-connected disability.
- Claimed conditions
- Gastrointestinal infection
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- January 7, 2019
- Citation
- 19101358
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 19101358.
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.
- Granted
The Veteran's GERD is granted as service connected. The gastrointestinal infection and colon cancer residuals claims are remanded for additional development.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the case for further development, including examinations and a supplemental statement of the case (SSOC), to address issues related to service connection and increased ratings for cold injury residuals. The TDIU issue is also being referred to the Director for extraschedular consideration.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the cases for further development and clarification of diagnoses, as well as opinions regarding service connection.
- Denied
The Board denied the veteran's claims for increased ratings for his service-connected lumbar myositis, psychoneurosis and conversion hysteria, residuals of shrapnel wounds of the left thigh and pelvis with retained foreign bodies and scars, and residuals of shell fragment wounds of the right thigh and left leg. The veteran was also denied entitlement to a total disability rating based on individual unemployability due to service-connected disabilities.
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