The Veteran's claim for an earlier effective date prior to November 13, 2015 for the grant of service connection for tension headaches is denied.,The Veteran's claim for a rating in excess of 50 percent for tension headaches is denied as it is already at the maximum schedular rating.,The Veteran's claim for service connection for bilateral hip disorder is denied due to lack of evidence linking his current condition to active service.,The Veteran's nonservice-connected pension claim is remanded due to incomplete information regarding income and net worth.
The deciding factor: The effective date for the grant of service connection for tension headaches was determined to be November 13, 2015, as it was the earliest date entitlement arose.,A rating in excess of 50 percent is not warranted due to the maximum schedular rating already being assigned.,There is no evidence linking the Veteran's bilateral hip disorder to his active service.,The claim for nonservice-connected pension requires additional information regarding income and net worth.
- Claimed conditions
- tension headaches, bilateral hip disorder
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- October 8, 2019
- Citation
- 19177627
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,948 · Granted: 29% (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 19177627.
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.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has determined that additional development is needed for the claims on appeal, including obtaining any outstanding treatment records and scheduling VA examinations to assess the current severity of service-connected disabilities. The Veteran's representative also requested reevaluation of his service-connected disabilities.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the claims for a VA examination and medical opinion to determine if the Veteran's low back disorder and bilateral hip disorder are related to his service-connected Crohn's disease.
- Dismissed
The Veteran's appeals for service connection for asthma and a 10 percent rating based on multiple noncompensable service-connected disabilities were dismissed. The claim of entitlement to a compensable rating for eczema was denied, while the claim of entitlement to allergic rhinitis was not addressed as it pertained to different issues.
- Granted
The Board has granted the Veteran's claim for service connection for headaches as secondary to his service-connected sleep apnea, tinnitus, cervical spine disability, and GERD. The decision is based on a finding of relative equipoise between the conflicting opinions regarding causation.
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