The Board has remanded the claims for osteoporosis/osteopenia and a bilateral foot disorder due to in-service rheumatic fever. The VA will provide new medical opinions regarding these claims.
The deciding factor: The VA needs to provide adequate medical opinions on whether the Veteran's conditions are related to service, including considering any superimposed disease or injury during service.
- Claimed conditions
- osteoporosis/osteopenia, bilateral foot disorder (pes cavus)
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- December 19, 2019
- Citation
- 19195536
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,569 · 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 19195536.
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 Board has decided to remand the case due to insufficient medical opinions regarding the Veteran's current bilateral foot disorders and their relation to service.
- Granted
The Veteran's osteoporosis/osteopenia is caused by his service-connected diabetes mellitus type II, and the Board has granted service connection for this condition on a secondary basis.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Veteran's appeal is being remanded due to the need for additional development, including obtaining private treatment records and scheduling a VA examination. The issues on appeal are related to initial ratings for hypothyroidism, osteoporosis/osteopenia, and anemia.
- Granted
The Board has found that the veteran's claim of entitlement to service connection for a bilateral foot disability is well grounded and grants this claim.
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