The Board denied an effective date prior to January 29, 2024, for the award of service connection for heart disabilities as secondary to hypertension.
The deciding factor: The earliest effective date is tied to the date when service connection for the underlying condition (hypertension) was established, which is January 29, 2024.
- Claimed conditions
- myocardial infarction, coronary artery disease, valvular heart disease, heart block, cardiomyopathy, hypertensive heart disease with AICD implant
- How they argued it
- Secondary to another service-connected condition
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- June 23, 2025
- Citation
- A25054072
What this means for you
A denial is a starting point, not the end of the road. You can see why this claim fell short — and, if you are still inside the one-year window, the appeal lanes that may remain open to you.
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.
- Granted
The Veteran is granted a 100 percent rating for valvular heart disease based on MET testing showing that at a workload of 3 METs or less, the condition results in fatigue and breathlessness.
- Granted
The Board granted service connection for obstructive sleep apnea, diabetes mellitus, type II, left eye diabetic retinopathy, left foot diabetic peripheral neuropathy, right foot diabetic peripheral neuropathy, and coronary artery disease, as well as the Veteran's cause of death.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board remands the claim for service connection for coronary artery disease to correct duty to assist errors, as there are no adequate medical opinions of record.
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