The Veteran's claims for service connection for a right foot condition, back condition, and acquired psychiatric disorder have been reopened. The cases are now remanded to the RO for further development.,Service connection is denied for bilateral hearing loss.
The deciding factor: New evidence received since previous decisions does not establish a link between current conditions and service or a service-connected disability.
- Claimed conditions
- Right Foot Condition, Back Condition, Acquired Psychiatric Disorder (to include anxiety, depression, and PTSD)
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- December 14, 2020
- Citation
- 20078729
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 20078729.
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 August 1996 rating decision denied service connection for a back condition due to the claim being considered not well-grounded, as there was no current disability and no evidence of in-service injury or disease.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has found a pre-decisional duty-to-assist error in the VA examination for service connection of the back condition and requires an addendum opinion to address whether it is at least as likely as not that the Veteran's back disability began in service or was caused by any incident of service.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has decided to remand the case due to a duty-to-assist error in obtaining medical opinions regarding whether the Veteran's right foot condition is caused or aggravated by his service-connected right fourth toe disability.
- Granted
The Board has granted service connection for bilateral foot conditions, finding that the Veteran experienced symptoms of right and left foot pain during service which have persisted since then.
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