The Board has determined that a remand is necessary to obtain an adequate examination and opinion regarding the etiology of the Veteran's lumbar spine condition due to inconsistencies within the February 2017 VA medical examination.
The deciding factor: The examination did not comply with Correia, Mitchell, and DeLuca requirements as it failed to conduct range of motion tests and address inconsistencies in the record regarding arthritis diagnosis.
- Claimed conditions
- Degenerative Disc Disease (DDD), Arthritis
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- October 17, 2019
- Citation
- 19178814
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,454 · 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 19178814.
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 Veteran's claim for service connection for Degenerative Disc Disease (DDD) is being remanded due to a failure to provide the Veteran with a VA examination in connection with her claim. The Board finds that this was a pre-decisional duty to assist error and requires rescheduling of the examination.
- Granted
The Veteran's degenerative disc disease is related to service and the Board has granted service connection for this condition.
- Granted
The Board has granted an effective date of August 7, 2023 for the grant of service connection for Degenerative Disc Disease and Intervertebral Disc Syndrome (also claimed as a back condition), and bilateral lower extremity sciatic neuropathy.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has decided to remand the case due to a duty-to-assist error in previous examinations, requiring additional information on right shoulder ROM measurements without medication effects.
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