The Board has remanded the claims for respiratory disorder and acquired psychiatric disorder due to duty-to-assist errors, specifically failing to provide VA examinations as scheduled. The Veteran did not attend the scheduled VA examinations in October 2019.
The deciding factor: The Veteran failed to appear for scheduled VA examinations which could have provided necessary medical opinions regarding his claims.
- Claimed conditions
- Respiratory Disorder, Acquired Psychiatric Disorder (Posttraumatic Stress Disorder)
- How they argued it
- Secondary to another service-connected condition
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- October 28, 2020
- Citation
- A20016156
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 A20016156.
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.
- Denied
The Board denied initial ratings in excess of the assigned percentages for OSA, hypertension, allergic rhinitis, and irritable colon syndrome. Service connection was also denied for chronic fatigue syndrome and a respiratory disorder.
- Denied
The Board denied an evaluation higher than 50 percent for PTSD and remanded the claim for service connection for a respiratory disorder.
- Partly granted
The veteran's claim for service connection for a traumatic brain injury (TBI) was granted. The claims for respiratory disorder and an earlier effective date for allergic rhinitis were remanded.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has granted service connection for Traumatic Brain Injury, but the issue of service connection for Acquired Psychiatric Disorder is remanded due to duty-to-assist errors.
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