The Board has dismissed the appeal regarding an earlier effective date for service connection of post-operative scars. The appeals for initial ratings and increased ratings are being remanded.
The deciding factor: The Veteran did not file a notice of disagreement with the effective date assigned for the grant of service connection, thus the Board lacks jurisdiction over this issue.
- Claimed conditions
- post-operative scars
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- June 20, 2019
- Citation
- 19148432
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,886 · Granted: 24% (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 19148432.
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 the appellant's request for a higher rating for his bilateral hearing loss and also denied his claim for TDIU due to service-connected disabilities. The Board found that the evidence did not support a higher rating for the hearing loss, as it was rated at 30 percent, which is the maximum schedular rating available under VA guidelines. For TDIU, the Board determined that the appellant's combined disability ratings were sufficient to meet the criteria but concluded he could still maintain substantially gainful employment due to his work history and current physical condition.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Veteran's appeal is being remanded due to the need for additional evidence and medical opinions regarding his service-connected knee disabilities.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Veteran's claim for reimbursement of unauthorized medical expenses is being remanded due to the need for additional VA treatment records from 2009.
- Denied
The Board has determined that the veteran has not submitted new and material evidence to reopen his claim for service connection for post-operative scars as a residual of surgery for hammertoes, which was previously denied in April 1957. The appeal is therefore denied.
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