The Veteran's appeal for a higher initial rating for his right index finger disability remains in appellate status and the case is being remanded due to lack of substantial compliance with prior remand directives.
The deciding factor: The July 2022 VA examination report did not provide sufficient information on symptoms and functional impairment attributable solely to the Veteran's right index finger fracture as opposed to arthritis and cervical radiculopathy.
- Claimed conditions
- right index finger fracture, arthritis of the bilateral hands
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- November 9, 2022
- Citation
- 22062930
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 22062930.
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 service connection for arthritis of the bilateral hands, left shoulder disability, and right shoulder disability as there was no evidence to support a current disability or a relationship to service.
- Partly granted
The Board granted service connection for right knee osteoarthritis, finding it was aggravated by the Veteran's service-connected muscle spasm disorder due to meningitis. The issue of entitlement to service connection for arthritis of the bilateral hands is remanded.
- Partly granted
The Board denied service connection for bilateral hand arthritis and remanded claims for acute sinusitis, a bilateral knee disability, a bilateral ankle disability, headaches, right index finger fracture, and loss of focus or speech deficit.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board remands the claims for increased ratings and earlier effective dates for various joint conditions, cervical spine arthritis, lumbosacral spine arthritis, and radiculopathy of the upper extremities to obtain additional medical opinions.
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