The Board has determined that a VA examination is needed to determine the cause of the Veteran's lower back disability, which may be related to service. The appeal will be remanded for this purpose.
The deciding factor: The inconsistency in the Veteran's statements and medical records does not provide enough information to make a decision on the issue without further evaluation.
- Claimed conditions
- lower back arthritis
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- January 8, 2019
- Citation
- 19101843
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,030 · Granted: 17% (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 19101843.
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 Veteran's claims for service connection for Parkinson's disease, upper back arthritis, lower back arthritis, right shoulder arthritis, and left shoulder arthritis are remanded due to the need for a TERA examination and opinion under the PACT Act.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the claims for higher ratings for various knee and shoulder conditions due to inadequate medical opinions in previous examinations. The Veteran is required to provide additional evidence, and VA will schedule further examinations.
- Granted
The Board has granted service connection for lower back arthritis on a chronic disease presumptive basis, finding that the Veteran sustained an in-service injury and experienced chronic symptoms of lower back pain since service separation.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the Veteran's claims for service connection due to insufficient evidence regarding the etiology of his sickle cell anemia and related secondary disabilities. The claims are inextricably intertwined with the claim for sickle cell anemia.
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