The Board denied service connection for GERD and remanded the issue of service connection for insomnia. The Veteran's GERD was not found to have started during active duty, but his current insomnia may be related to an undiagnosed illness or GERD.
The deciding factor: The preponderance of evidence does not support a finding that the Veteran's GERD began during active duty and is not service-connected. The Board also remanded for further examination regarding the nature and etiology of the Veteran's insomnia, which may be related to an undiagnosed illness or GERD.
- Claimed conditions
- Gastroesophageal reflux disorder (GERD), Insomnia
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- January 8, 2019
- Citation
- 19101694
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,911 · Granted: 10% (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 19101694.
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 rated at 10 percent since May 2023. The Board has granted an initial rating of 60 percent for the condition, effective from May 19, 2024.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the case due to an inadequate opinion regarding the relationship between any current acquired psychiatric disorder and service, specifically a claimed in-service personal assault. The Veteran's contentions are that he did not report or seek treatment for this assault because he feared it would complicate his discharge.
- Denied
The Veteran's claim for a separate disability rating for insomnia is denied as it is subsumed under his service-connected PTSD.,The effective date for the grant of service connection for PTSD is denied as no new and material evidence was submitted within one year of the July 1986 denial, making the June 9, 2017, claim without legal merit.,The effective date for the grant of service connection for OSA is denied as no new and material evidence was submitted within one year of the April 2013 denial, making the June 9, 2017, claim without legal merit.
- Granted
The Veteran's service connection claim for insomnia is granted as the evidence supports a finding that his current insomnia began during and has continued since service, and was at least as likely as not caused by service.
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