The Board remands the claims for service connection for bilateral knee and hip arthritis and neck arthritis to correct duty-to-assist errors, including obtaining a proper VA examination.
The deciding factor: The December 2022 VA examinations are found inadequate due to misinterpretation of facts and lack of a degenerative arthritis examination. A remand is necessary to verify the Veteran's periods of active duty for training or inactive duty for training and to ensure complete service records are obtained.
- Claimed conditions
- left knee arthritis, right knee arthritis, left hip arthritis, right hip arthritis, neck arthritis
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- October 15, 2024
- Citation
- A24065475
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 various conditions, including prostate cancer and related disabilities, urinary incontinence, sleep apnea, hypertension, varicose veins, lumbar spine disability, hip arthritis, shoulder arthritis, ankle arthritis, knee strain, knee replacement, and hand arthritis. The only condition granted was a 10 percent rating for a fracture of the right proximal first metacarpal.
- Denied
The Board denied the veteran's claims for increased ratings and service connection, finding that the evidence did not support higher ratings or service connection for the claimed conditions.
- Partly granted
The Board granted service connection for right knee strain, left hip strain, right hip arthritis, and lumbar spine degenerative disc disease as secondary to the Veteran's service-connected chronic iliotibial band syndrome of the left knee. The appeal was denied for service connection for right ear hearing loss.
- Partly granted
The Board granted service connection for right hip arthritis and a TDIU as of June 8, 2020, while denying increased ratings for sciatica, left hip arthritis, and bilateral hearing loss.
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