The Board has decided to remand the case for further development due to a lack of private treatment records from Methodist Community Hospital, which may contain information about the onset and continuity of the upper/lower back disorder during service.
The deciding factor: Further development is needed as there are potential private treatment records that could show an upper/lower back disorder present in service with continuous symptoms after discharge.
- Claimed conditions
- upper/lower back disorder
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- December 9, 2019
- Citation
- 19192196
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,200 · Granted: 43% (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 19192196.
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
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