The Board has remanded the Veteran's claims for service connection for various joint disabilities, finding that the provided opinions were inadequate and requiring additional medical opinions to address causation and aggravation.
The deciding factor: The Board found the previous opinions insufficient due to their failure to consider all relevant evidence and provide a clear rationale for their conclusions regarding causation and aggravation.
- Claimed conditions
- Degenerative joint disease of the right shoulder, Left shoulder strain, Right hip strain, Osteoarthritis of the left hip, Degenerative joint disease of the right knee, Left knee strain, Lateral collateral ligament sprain of the right ankle, Osteoarthritis of the left ankle
- How they argued it
- Secondary to another service-connected condition
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- April 29, 2019
- Citation
- 19133210
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.
- Denied
The Board denied service connection for PTSD and an initial evaluation in excess of 20 percent for a left shoulder strain.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board remands the claims for further development to ensure that the severity of the Veteran's bilateral knee disability is accurately assessed without considering the ameliorative effects of medication.
- Partly granted
The Board denied service connection for bilateral hearing loss and tinnitus, while remanding claims for depression, anxiety, sleep disorder, right knee strain, left knee strain, and lumbar spine strain.
- Dismissed
The Board dismissed the appeals for higher ratings on all claims due to untimely Notices of Disagreement.
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