The Board remands the claims for service connection for various conditions, including hearing loss and musculoskeletal disorders, due to inadequate medical examinations.
The deciding factor: The VA examination provided is deemed inadequate as it did not explain in the rationale any findings or reasons for the conclusion that the Veteran's speech discrimination scores were not appropriate for rating purposes. Additionally, the Board finds that a VA medical examination is required under McLendon v. Nicholson for each of these disabilities.
- Claimed conditions
- left ear hearing loss, right ear hearing loss, left shoulder disorder, right shoulder disorder, left wrist disorder, right wrist disorder, temporomandibular disorder with bruxism
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- April 21, 2025
- Citation
- A25036384
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.
- Dismissed
The appeal for a compensable rating for left ear hearing loss, service connection for right ear hearing loss, and bilateral vision condition was dismissed. Service connection for hypertension, congestive heart failure, and coronary artery disease was denied.
- Partly granted
The Board granted a 20 percent disability rating for left and right lower extremity radiculopathy from April 3, 2023 onward, but denied higher ratings prior to that date. Service connection was also granted for alcohol use disorder as secondary to PTSD with traumatic brain injury.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board remands the claim for service connection of left ear hearing loss due to a pre-decisional duty to assist error, as an addendum opinion is necessary to address evidence of in-service hearing loss and convert audiometric testing results from ASA to ISO-ANSI standards.
- Denied
The Board denied service connection for various conditions, including a head injury, headache disorder, erectile dysfunction, left earache disorder, chronic fatigue, right shoulder disorder, irritable bowel syndrome, right foot disorder, GERD, and left shoulder disorder, as the evidence did not support current diagnoses of these conditions.
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