The Board has remanded the Veteran's claims for service connection due to insufficient opinions regarding his claimed disabilities, particularly those related to his neck and back conditions. The VA must provide additional medical opinions addressing these issues.
The deciding factor: The VA needs to obtain adequate addendum opinions from an examiner to determine if the Veteran’s current degenerative disc disease of the thoracolumbar spine and degenerative joint disease of the cervical spine are at least as likely as not related to service, and whether his feet disability is related to or caused by service.
- Claimed conditions
- Degenerative disc disease of the thoracolumbar spine, Degenerative joint disease of the cervical spine (claimed as neck condition), Feet disability
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- November 19, 2019
- Citation
- 19187003
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,604 · Granted: 65% (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 19187003.
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.
- Granted
The Veteran's back disability is rated at 40 percent prior to January 13, 2022. Effective March 18, 2020, the Veteran is granted TDIU.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has determined that new and relevant evidence has been received for the Veteran's claims of service connection for degenerative disc disease of the thoracolumbar spine and obstructive sleep apnea. As a result, these claims are being remanded to allow for further review.
- Granted
The Veteran is granted entitlement to Chapter 33 educational assistance benefits at the 100 percent rate due to his service-connected back disability and discharge from active duty.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has denied the Veteran's claim for an initial rating in excess of 20 percent for his lumbar spine disability. The Court granted a JMPR, which required the Board to address pain on passive range of motion and nonweight-bearing testing. The case is now remanded due to inadequate examination documentation.
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