The Board has found that there are missing relevant documents from the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) and remanded for the AOJ to reconstruct the record and associate all pertinent records with the electronic claims file.
The deciding factor: Due process requires the AOJ to ensure a copy of the pre-decisional evidence is available for review in connection with the appeal, including missing documents from VHA related to clothing allowance claims.
- Claimed conditions
- bilateral knee braces, steroid cream
- How they argued it
- Not specified
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- December 2, 2022
- Citation
- A22024489
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 A22024489.
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.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Veteran's clothing allowance claim for 2020 is remanded due to missing relevant documents from the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) including prior clothing allowance decisions, notice of disagreements, substantive appeals, and medical assessments conducted by VHA evaluators. The AOJ needs to reconstruct the record.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the Veteran's claims for clothing allowances for back and bilateral knee braces for 2012 due to missing documentation from his previous approvals in 2008, 2009, and 2011. The VAMC is required to obtain these records.
- Denied
The Veteran's knee braces, wrist splints, and shoe inserts do not qualify for an annual clothing allowance as they are considered 'softgood orthotic[s]' that do not tend to wear or tear clothing.
- Denied
The Board denied clothing allowances for bilateral knee braces and trixaicin/capsaicin, clotrimazole, and thera-gesic creams in the 2015 calendar year due to lack of evidence showing that these items cause wear and tear on the Veteran's clothing.
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