The Board has decided to remand the case due to insufficient medical opinion regarding the etiology of hepatitis C, specifically in relation to service and air gun vaccinations.
The deciding factor: The VA examiner's opinion was inadequate as it did not consider VA guidance on the biologically plausible transmission of hepatitis C through air gun injectors.
- Claimed conditions
- hepatitis C virus
- How they argued it
- Not specified
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- March 28, 2019
- Citation
- 19123508
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,084 · Granted: 20% (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 19123508.
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 Board has granted the Veteran's appeal that his October 25, 2019 notice of disagreement was timely filed. The claims for service connection are being remanded to allow the RO to address each issue.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the cases due to insufficient medical opinions regarding the causes of the Veteran's COPD, hepatitis C virus, and skin rash. The issues related to tinnitus, bilateral hearing loss, and service connection for a skin rash are denied as they did not manifest within one year of service separation or were caused by in-service noise exposure.
- Denied
The Veteran's service-connected conditions did not prevent him from obtaining or maintaining substantially gainful employment during the period September 27, 2014 to March 1, 2015.
- Denied
The Veteran's death was not caused by any service-connected disability, and the cause of his death is not otherwise related to service. Service connection for the cause of death is denied.
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