The Board has remanded the Veteran's claims for service connection for left foot and right foot disabilities due to insufficient evidence in the previous VA examination. The Veteran is required to provide updated medical records and authorize their release, and a new VA examination will be scheduled.
The deciding factor: A recent Federal Circuit case held that pain alone can serve as a functional impairment and therefore qualify as a disability for VA compensation purposes. As such, the Board finds the previous VA examination inadequate due to its failure to consider the Veteran's statements of pain and other symptoms in light of this precedent.
- Claimed conditions
- Left Foot Disability, Right Foot Disability
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- September 23, 2023
- Citation
- 23052992
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 23052992.
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 has denied service connection for the claimed conditions as there is no persuasive evidence of current diagnoses or in-service incurrence or aggravation.
- Granted
The Board has granted service connection for a right foot disability, finding that the evidence is at least approximately evenly balanced as to whether the Veteran's post-service disability was incurred in service.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the claims for service connection for right foot, hip, and knee disabilities due to a pre-decisional duty to assist error in not obtaining opinions on causation or aggravation.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Veteran's service connection claims for erectile dysfunction and voiding dysfunction have been denied due to the lack of evidence linking these conditions to his in-service exposure.,The remaining service connection claims (for bilateral feet, ankles, hip, wrist, cervical spine, upper extremity radiculopathy, psychiatric disorder, GERD, sleep apnea, and hypertension) are remanded for further development.
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