The Veteran's claim for payment of unauthorized medical expenses for treatment at a private facility is denied because the treatment was not for an emergency condition and VA facilities were feasibly available.
The deciding factor: A prudent layperson would not have expected that delay in seeking immediate medical attention would have been hazardous to his life or health due to the lack of significant symptoms.
- Claimed conditions
- Cough
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- October 31, 2019
- Citation
- 19182685
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 19182685.
What this means for you
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Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
- Granted
The Veteran's appeal for reimbursement of non-VA medical expenses incurred on August 1, 2014 at Northside Hospital is granted. The Board affords the benefit of doubt to the Veteran and finds that VA facilities were not feasibly available.
- Denied
The Veteran's COPD has not met the criteria for a compensable rating prior to January 6, 2022, and a rating in excess of 10 percent from that date.
- Denied
The Veteran's claim for reimbursement of unauthorized medical expenses incurred at Cape Coral Hospital on April 3, 2017 was denied because the treatment was not rendered in a medical emergency and VA facilities were feasibly available.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the Veteran's claims for service connection due to unclear diagnoses and conflicting opinions. The Veteran is seeking service connection for a respiratory condition, gastrointestinal disability, fatigue, and lightheadedness, all of which he contends are related to his Gulf War service.
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