The Board has remanded the Veteran's claims for service connection for OSA, increased ratings for lumbosacral disc disease and left knee disabilities due to new evidence and development of records.
The deciding factor: The VA examiner must address whether the Veteran’s current OSA is directly related to active service and if it is caused or aggravated by his service-connected GERD and orthopedic disabilities.
- Claimed conditions
- Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA), Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD), Disabilities of the bilateral knees, bilateral hips, and lumbosacral spine
- How they argued it
- Secondary to another service-connected condition
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- October 11, 2019
- Citation
- 19178214
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,592 · Granted: 19% (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 19178214.
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 remanded the claims of entitlement to service connection for vertigo and obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) due to a pre-decisional duty to assist error. The Veteran's hearing loss is not rated higher than 10 percent.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has determined that the claims for service connection for OSA and insomnia must be remanded due to inadequate VA examinations and opinions, as well as a failure to obtain TERA opinions on all relevant exposures.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has decided to remand the Veteran's claims for an initial rating in excess of 50 percent for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and a separate rating for chronic pulmonary embolism due to inadequate VA examinations.
- Granted
The Veteran's acquired psychiatric disorder is granted a 70% rating, effective July 15, 2024. The Veteran's GERD remains at a 10% rating.
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