The Board has determined that there was a duty to assist error and remands the case for further development, including obtaining an opinion regarding whether the Veteran's current hemorrhoid disorder is aggravated by service.
The deciding factor: The Board found that VA failed to obtain an adequate VA medical opinion addressing the etiology of the Veteran's claimed hemorrhoid disorder due to a duty to assist error.
- Claimed conditions
- hemorrhoid
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- March 11, 2026
- Citation
- A26021926
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 A26021926.
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 dismissed the appeals for service connection for headaches, PTSD, bilateral hearing loss, sleep apnea, and a compensable rating for hemorrhoids due to untimely Notice of Disagreement (NOD).
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board remands the matters of an initial compensable rating for hemorrhoid and service connection for a scar, to include as secondary to the Veteran's service-connected hemorrhoid disability due to inadequate VA examination and missing medical records.
- Partly granted
The Board granted eligibility for the direct payment of fees to the appellant from past due benefits awarded in the portion of a July 2023 rating decision assigning an earlier effective date for the grant of service connection for tinnitus, but denied such eligibility for higher ratings for left knee, left shoulder, right wrist and hemorrhoid disabilities.
- Denied
The Veteran's claim for special monthly compensation (SMC) at the housebound rate prior to May 28, 2019 was denied as he did not meet the criteria of being permanently and substantially confined to his immediate premises due to service-connected disabilities.
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