The Board remands the appeal to correct a pre-decisional duty to assist error and to obtain an opinion on whether sleep apnea (OSA) is secondary to the Veteran's service-connected depressive disability.
The deciding factor: Remand required due to a duty to assist error before the July 2021 rating decision, necessitating an examination or medical opinion regarding the etiology of OSA in relation to the service-connected depressive disorder.
- Claimed conditions
- sleep apnea (OSA)
- How they argued it
- Secondary to another service-connected condition
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- November 4, 2024
- Citation
- A24071671
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.
- Granted
The Board granted an effective date of July 9, 2020 for the grant of service connection for sleep apnea (OSA), but no earlier.
- Denied
The Board denied the veteran's claims for increased ratings and service connection for various conditions, including lumbosacral strain, tinnitus, right knee disability, chronic fatigue syndrome, gastroesophageal reflux disease, bilateral hearing loss, sciatica and lumbar radiculopathy, sleep apnea, and benign paroxysmal positional vertigo.
- Dismissed
The Veteran has withdrawn his appeal for service connection for sleep apnea (OSA), and the Board has dismissed this issue.
- Partly granted
The Board granted service connection for sleep apnea (OSA) and denied a rating in excess of 70 percent for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), while dismissing appeals for service connection for limitation of motion of the ankle, hypertension, tinnitus, and insomnia.
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