The Board remands the claims for service connection for various knee and hip conditions due to a pre-decisional duty to assist error in not obtaining relevant federal records.
The deciding factor: Remand is required to obtain the Veteran's federal records from Indian Health Service, as they were identified before the April 2019 rating decision was issued and the examiner relied on them in issuing his opinion.
- Claimed conditions
- Osteoarthritis of the left knee, Instability of the left knee, Osteoarthritis of the right knee, Instability of the right knee, Osteoarthritis of the right hip
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- January 9, 2024
- Citation
- A24001012
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 increased ratings and TDIU due to a lack of adequate medical evidence regarding the severity and manifestations of the Veteran's right knee disabilities from February 2015 to the present.
- Remanded (sent back)
The claims for higher initial ratings for degenerative arthritis of the lumbar spine, osteoarthritis of the right and left knees, and left ankle strain are remanded due to inadequate VA compensation examination reports.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board remands the claims for additional development, including obtaining a new VA examination to address the inadequacies of previous examinations and obtain any relevant private treatment records.
- Denied
The Board denied the veteran's claims for increased ratings and service connection, as well as a TDIU.
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