The Veteran's claims for an increased rating for degenerative disc disease, lumbar spine and service connection for actinic keratosis are being remanded due to the need for additional evidence and clarification of medical opinions.
The deciding factor: The VA examiner needs to provide a clear opinion on whether the Veteran's actinic keratosis is related to his active duty service, including exposure to heat and sun in a desert environment.
- Claimed conditions
- Degenerative disc disease, lumbar spine, Actinic keratosis
- How they argued it
- Not specified
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- January 17, 2024
- Citation
- 24002451
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,432 · Granted: 29% (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 24002451.
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 has decided to remand the Veteran's claim of service connection for degenerative disc disease, lumbar spine (claimed as back injury) due to inadequate VA examination and failure to comply with prior remand directives.
- Dismissed
The Veteran's appeal for a higher rating for degenerative disc disease, lumbar spine was dismissed due to concurrent election of review options.
- Granted
The Veteran's service connection claims for degenerative disc disease, lumbar spine, with muscle spasms; right elbow pain; and bilateral lower extremity radiculopathy/ sciatica as secondary to the back disability have all been granted.
- Granted
The Veteran's claims for service connection for arterioslerotic heart disease, hypertension, diabetes mellitus type II, chloracne, dermatitis, folliculitis, actinic keratosis, and dyshydrosis have been granted.,Service connection is established for the Veteran's arterioslerotic heart disease to include status post coronary artery bypass graft from July 25, 2011. The hypertension, diabetes mellitus type II, and chloracne claims are also granted under presumptive service connection due to herbicide exposure.
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