The Board remands the claims for higher initial ratings for a left middle finger disability with arthritis and arthritis of the right hand due to an inadequate VA examination.
The deciding factor: The April 2017 VA examination is found to be inadequate as it failed to comply with the requirements of Correia or Sharp, and therefore a remand is required to obtain an adequate medical examination and retrospective opinion regarding what, if any, additional loss the appellant experiences during flare-ups or after repeated use over time for his left middle finger disability and arthritis of the right hand.
- Claimed conditions
- arthritis of the right hand, left middle finger disability with arthritis
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- November 18, 2025
- Citation
- A25100218
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 785 · Granted: 27% (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 A25100218.
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 Board has dismissed the Veteran's appeals for service connection and increased rating claims due to a concurrent election under the Appeals Modernization Act (AMA). The issues were docketed in error as the AOJ was still reviewing them.
- Dismissed
The veteran withdrew all pending appeals, and the Board has no jurisdiction to review these issues.
- Denied
The Board denied service connection for various conditions, including arthritis of the entire skeletal system (other than cervical spine, right shoulder, bilateral hands, and left foot), a left knee condition (other than arthritis), and other specific joints. The claims were not granted.
- Denied
The Board denied the Veteran's claim for service connection for right hand disability, claimed as arthritis, due to a lack of evidence showing a current disability during or approximate to the filing of the claim.
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