The Veteran's claim for payment of private medical expenses incurred on May 4, 2016, is denied as the treatment was not related to a service-connected disability and there were no emergency conditions that would have made immediate care necessary.
The deciding factor: The Veteran did not meet the criteria for reimbursement under 38 U.S.C. § 1728 or 38 C.F.R. § 17.1002, as his condition was not an emergency and VA facilities were feasibly available.
- Claimed conditions
- Trigeminal Neuralgia
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- April 22, 2019
- Citation
- 19130872
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,642 · Granted: 19% (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 19130872.
What this means for you
A denial is a starting point, not the end of the road. You can see why this claim fell short — and, if you are still inside the one-year window, the appeal lanes that may remain open to you.
What you can do next
Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
- Granted
The Board has granted an initial rating of 50 percent for the Veteran's trigeminal neuralgia and a separate rating of 10 percent for his olfactory neuralgia, both based on their severity.
- Granted
The Veteran's trigeminal neuralgia is rated at a 10 percent disability rating, effective from August 1, 2023.
- Denied
The Board denied the Veteran's claim for service connection for trigeminal neuralgia, finding that it did not meet the criteria to establish service connection and was not a MUCMI.
- Denied
The Veteran's right side trigeminal neuralgia was found to be manifested by moderate incomplete paralysis of the fifth cranial nerve, but not severe. The Board denied a rating in excess of 10 percent.
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