The Board has remanded the case for further development and consideration of service connection for sleep apnea, as well as clarification on whether the Veteran's current degenerative disc disease (DDD) lumbar spine and bilateral leg condition are related to her active service.
The deciding factor: The July 2016 VA examination opinion is inadequate for decision-making purposes regarding causation and aggravation of sleep apnea. The examiner did not provide an opinion as to whether the Veteran's sleep apnea is directly related to her active service or aggravated by her service-connected gastroesophageal reflux disease and hypertension.
- Claimed conditions
- Degenerative disc disease (DDD), lumbar spine, Bilateral leg condition
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- January 16, 2020
- Citation
- 20004167
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 940 · Granted: 21% (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 20004167.
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.
- Partly granted
The Board denied service connection for bilateral hearing loss, a bilateral leg condition, and left lower extremity radiculopathy but granted service connection for right hip osteoarthritis as secondary to the Veteran's service-connected back disability.
- Granted
The Board granted service connection for a lumbosacral strain, diabetes as secondary to PTSD, and GERD as secondary to PTSD. The Veteran was also granted a 50 percent disability rating for PTSD effective December 3, 2020.
- Denied
The Board has determined that the Veteran's peripheral artery disease (PAD)/peripheral vascular disease (PVD) is not causally or etiologically related to his service, and it is not caused or aggravated by his service-connected coronary artery disease (CAD). Therefore, the claim for service connection is denied.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Veteran's claims for higher initial ratings for his low back and left foot disabilities are being remanded due to the need for new VA examinations, as well as consideration of recently amended rating criteria.
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