The Veteran's claim for an earlier effective date for the award of service connection for balance impairment due to Parkinson's disease is denied because it would require terminating his minimum compensable rating for Parkinson's and establishing new effective dates for other residuals, which are already final.
The deciding factor: The structure of the rating schedule for Parkinson's disease forecloses an earlier effective date than the date that resulted in separate ratings for both this condition and other residuals assigned at the same time that his minimum compensable rating was terminated.
- Claimed conditions
- balance impairment due to Parkinson's disease
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- 30%
- Decision date
- December 12, 2019
- Citation
- 19193574
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,350 · Granted: 26% (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 19193574.
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What you can do next
Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
- Denied
The Board denied the veteran's request for an effective date prior to May 31, 2017, for service connection of various symptoms related to Parkinson's disease.
- Denied
The Veteran's initial ratings for various conditions associated with Parkinson's disease were denied, including dysphagia, LLE and RLE bradykinesia, LUE and RUE bradykinesia and tremors, constipation, loss of automatic movements (left and right), speech changes (left and right), balance impairment, and stooped posture. The Veteran's service-connected conditions were rated based on their severity as determined by the applicable rating criteria.
- Granted
The Veteran's service-connected disabilities, including Parkinson's disease and related tremors, have rendered him unable to secure or follow a substantially gainful occupation since January 22, 2018.
- Granted
The Veteran is granted higher levels of SMC based on anatomical loss of both feet, need for aid and attendance due to service-connected disabilities other than bilateral knee amputation, and additional disabilities rated at 50 percent or more. The highest level of SMC awarded is SMC-N.
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