The Veteran's claims for effective dates prior to July 30, 2013, for the awards of service connection for diabetes mellitus and associated neuropathy affecting the upper and lower extremities are denied.,The Board has determined that additional development is needed in order to properly adjudicate the Veteran's claims for hypertension and skin disability.
The deciding factor: The effective dates for the awards of service connection cannot be earlier than July 30, 2013, as there was no prior claim filed before this date.,Additional development is needed to properly assess the severity of the Veteran's diabetes mellitus and determine if his hypertension and skin disability are secondary to his service-connected diabetes mellitus.
- Claimed conditions
- diabetes mellitus, neuropathy of the left upper extremity, neuropathy of the right upper extremity, neuropathy of the left lower extremity, neuropathy of the right lower extremity
- How they argued it
- Secondary to another service-connected condition
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- July 10, 2019
- Citation
- 19153538
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,669 · Granted: 23% (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 19153538.
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 diabetes mellitus, prostate cancer, visual impairment, hypertension, and erectile dysfunction due to lack of exposure to herbicide agents during service. The Veteran's claims were not granted.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Veteran's claims for service connection on the merits are being remanded due to new evidence and development needs. The maximum disability rating for tinnitus has already been assigned.
- Denied
The Board denied service connection for diabetes mellitus, prostate cancer, ischemic heart disease, right lower extremity peripheral artery disease, left lower extremity peripheral artery disease, and hypertension as the evidence did not establish an in-service event or exposure to herbicide agents.
- Granted
The Board has granted service connection for the Veteran's bilateral lower and upper extremity neuropathies, finding that they are related to his in-service herbicide exposure (Agent Orange).
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