The Board has remanded the Veteran's claims for a separate and compensable disability rating for his bilateral diabetic retinopathy, pseudophakia of the right eye, and cataract of the left eye prior to March 24, 2022, as well as for a disability rating in excess of 10 percent from that date. The remand is due to incomplete opinions regarding the etiology of his visual field defects.
The deciding factor: The VA examiner did not provide sufficient information on the extent to which the Veteran's service-connected eye conditions are responsible for his documented visual field defects, and thus another addendum opinion is needed.
- Claimed conditions
- bilateral diabetic retinopathy, pseudophakia of the right eye, cataract of the left eye
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- January 9, 2023
- Citation
- 23001157
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,451 · Granted: 22% (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 23001157.
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 Board remands the claims for service connection for diabetes mellitus, type II (DMII), hypertension, peripheral vascular disease, bilateral diabetic retinopathy, and bilateral upper and lower diabetic peripheral neuropathy due to insufficient evidence regarding toxic exposures during military service.
- Denied
The Board denied the Veteran's claim for a compensable rating for his bilateral diabetic retinopathy based on visual acuity findings that did not meet the criteria for a compensable rating.
- Partly granted
The Board granted initial ratings of 40 percent for lumbosacral strain and 20 percent for right and left knee strains, while denying increased ratings for other conditions.
- Denied
The Board denied a separate compensable rating for bilateral diabetic retinopathy and remanded the claims for service connection for skin condition, chloracne, acne, soft tissue sarcoma (basal cell carcinoma) due to herbicide exposure.
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