The Board has remanded the issues of service connection for right hip disorder, lumbar spine disorder, and secondary service connection for these disorders due to right ankle degenerative changes. The Veteran is required to provide any outstanding private or VA treatment records and undergo addendum opinions from medical professionals.
The deciding factor: The current VA examinations are inadequate as they did not address both avenues of secondary service connection (proximate causation and aggravation) for the lumbar spine disorder and right hip disorder, nor did they provide an opinion on direct service connection. The Veteran is also required to provide any outstanding private or VA treatment records.
- Claimed conditions
- Right ankle degenerative changes, Lumbar spine disorder, Right hip disorder
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- June 18, 2019
- Citation
- 19147357
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 granted initial ratings of 40 percent for lumbar spine disorder, 70 percent for major depressive disorder, and 40 percent for left lower extremity radiculopathy. TDIU and SMC based on housebound status were also granted.
- Granted
The Board granted service connection for an acquired psychiatric disorder, a right knee disorder, and a lumbar spine disorder.
- Partly granted
The appeal was denied for service connection of a cervical spine disorder, and several claims were remanded for further development.
- Denied
The Board denied a total disability rating based on individual unemployability (TDIU) prior to July 1, 2015, and from January 10, 2017, as well as an effective date earlier than July 1, 2015, for the award of Dependents' Educational Assistance (DEA) benefits.
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