The Board has remanded the issue of service connection for a bilateral hip disability, as secondary to service-connected right knee tendonitis. The VA examiner's opinion is inadequate and did not substantially comply with the May 2021 remand instructions.
The deciding factor: The VA examiner failed to address all of the Veteran's bilateral hip diagnoses provided during the pendency of the appeal and relied solely on the lack of in-service treatment records, despite the fact that the Veteran's MOS was a Medical Specialist.
- Claimed conditions
- bilateral hip osteoarthritis, bilateral hip avascular necrosis
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- February 8, 2022
- Citation
- 22007238
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 22007238.
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 the Veteran's claim for service connection for bilateral hip osteoarthritis, finding that there was no direct evidence linking his current condition to his military service and concluding that any potential secondary relationship to his service-connected knee disability was not established.
- Partly granted
The Board denied higher ratings for left shoulder arthralgia and lumbar spine degenerative arthritis with DDD, granted service connection for right and left lower extremity radiculopathy as secondary to the lumbar spine disability, and remanded claims for increased ratings of other musculoskeletal conditions.
- Denied
The Board denied the claims for service connection for bilateral hip osteoarthritis and meralgia paresthetica, finding that there was no evidence to support a direct or secondary relationship between these conditions and the Veteran's active service.
- Granted
The Board granted service connection for multiple musculoskeletal disabilities, including cervical spine degenerative disc disease and bilateral joint osteoarthritis, based on in-service exposure to PCBs.
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