The Veteran's claim for service connection for reactive polycythemia was denied as the condition clearly and unmistakably existed prior to his service and did not worsen during service.,Service connection for bilateral hearing loss was granted with an effective date of May 14, 2016. The Veteran is seeking a prior effective date.,The claim for tinnitus was denied as there is no legal basis for a rating higher than the maximum schedular rating (10%).,Service connection for bilateral pes planus was granted with an effective date of May 14, 2016. The Veteran seeks an earlier effective date.,The claim for initial compensable disability rating for bilateral hearing loss is denied as there is no legal basis for a higher rating than the maximum schedular rating (0%).,The claim for initial compensable disability rating for tinnitus on an extraschedular basis is remanded due to disagreement with the 10% rating.

The deciding factor: Service connection cannot be granted as reactive polycythemia clearly and unmistakably existed prior to service and did not worsen during service.,The effective date for bilateral hearing loss was assigned based on when the claim was received, which is May 14, 2016. The Veteran seeks a prior effective date but no evidence supporting such has been provided.,There is no legal basis to assign a higher rating than the maximum schedular rating (10%) for tinnitus as it already represents the highest possible rating under applicable criteria.,Service connection was granted with an effective date of May 14, 2016. The Veteran seeks an earlier effective date but no evidence supporting such has been provided.,The claim for initial compensable disability rating for bilateral hearing loss is denied as there is no legal basis to assign a higher rating than the maximum schedular rating (0%).,The claim for initial compensable disability rating for tinnitus on an extraschedular basis is remanded due to disagreement with the 10% rating.

Claimed conditions

Reactive Polycythemia, Bilateral Hearing Loss, Tinnitus

How they argued it

Direct service connection

Exposure basis

None

Rating assigned

None in this decision

Decision date

October 7, 2019

Citation

19177313

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 19177313.