The Board remands the claims for service connection for right and left shoulder disabilities to obtain an adequate VA medical opinion regarding whether these conditions are at least as likely as not aggravated by the Veteran's service-connected neck disability.
The deciding factor: The September 2024 PA's opinion is incomplete, failing to address aggravation of the shoulder disabilities by the service-connected neck disability.
- Claimed conditions
- Degenerative changes of the right shoulder, Left shoulder degenerative joint disease
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- October 17, 2025
- Citation
- A25089567
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,044 · Granted: 21% (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 A25089567.
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 has granted readjudication of the claims for service connection for various disabilities, including back, TMJ, right hip pain, left hip pain, right shoulder degenerative joint disease with rotator cuff calcific tendinitis, and left shoulder degenerative joint disease. The claims are remanded for further review.
- Granted
The Veteran is granted a TDIU for the period from April 2, 2016, to November 1, 2022, due to his service-connected back disability.
- Partly granted
The Board denied increased ratings for the Veteran's degenerative disc disease at L4-5 and L5-S1, right shoulder condition, right elbow conditions, left knee osteoarthritis with meniscal tear, postmenopausal acne, and surgical scars of the lower back and right elbow. However, a 60 percent rating was granted for hypothyroidism prior to July 8, 2024, and TDIU from July 30, 2013.
- Denied
The Board denied the Veteran's claims for service connection for various conditions due to lack of new and relevant evidence.
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