The Board has decided to remand two issues: the Veteran's claim for service connection for a back condition and his claim for an increased rating for bilateral hearing loss. The VA will need to obtain all relevant medical records, including those from Cheyenne VAMC, and schedule the Veteran for examinations to determine the nature and etiology of his claimed conditions.
The deciding factor: The Board found that additional development was necessary due to incomplete medical records and inadequate examination opinions regarding the Veteran's service connection claim and hearing loss rating.
- Claimed conditions
- Degenerative disc disease with spondylosis and multilevel and compression deformity (back condition)
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- October 7, 2021
- Citation
- 21062329
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,820 · 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 21062329.
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 Veteran's claim for service connection for a back condition was denied as the evidence did not support a finding that his current back condition had its onset during active duty or is otherwise related to an in-service injury.,For the period prior to March 2, 2021, the Veteran's bilateral hearing loss was rated at 20 percent (Level VII for the left ear and Level III for the right ear).
- Denied
The Board denied the veteran's claims for increased ratings for his service-connected lumbar myositis, psychoneurosis and conversion hysteria, residuals of shrapnel wounds of the left thigh and pelvis with retained foreign bodies and scars, and residuals of shell fragment wounds of the right thigh and left leg. The veteran was also denied entitlement to a total disability rating based on individual unemployability due to service-connected disabilities.
- Denied
The Board denied the Veteran's claim for an initial evaluation in excess of 10 percent for his service-connected coronary artery disease, finding that the evidence did not support a higher rating based on the severity of his condition.
- Denied
The Veteran's service-connected musculoligamentous strain, right knee, is currently rated at 10 percent and the Board finds that a higher rating is not warranted.
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