The Board has remanded the Veteran's claims of service connection for right and left shoulder disabilities due to insufficient medical opinions regarding their onset during or relation to service.
The deciding factor: The VA examiner’s opinions were inadequate as they did not consider the Veteran's contentions, his military occupational specialty, and the lack of a clear diagnosis in service records.
- Claimed conditions
- Right Shoulder Impingement Syndrome, Left Shoulder Impingement Syndrome, Status Post Arthroscopy of the Left Shoulder with Arthroscopic Rotator Cuff Debridement, Partial Synovectomy, Arthroscopic Subacromial Decompression, and Acromioplasty
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- December 23, 2020
- Citation
- 20080913
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 an initial rating higher than 30 percent for adjustment disorder with depressed mood and remanded the claims for left and right shoulder impingement syndrome.
- Denied
The Board denied an increased initial rating for the Veteran's service-connected psychiatric disability and remanded claims for increased ratings for bilateral shoulder impingement syndrome.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board remands the issues of increased ratings for right and left shoulder disabilities for additional development, including readjudication with all relevant evidence.
- Denied
The Board denied the Veteran's claim for service connection for a right shoulder disorder, finding that it was not shown as chronic in service and did not manifest to a compensable degree within the applicable presumptive period. The preponderance of evidence is against finding a medical nexus between the Veteran’s right shoulder disorder and an in-service injury or disease.
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