Citation Nr: 1343041	
Decision Date: 12/27/13    Archive Date: 01/07/14

DOCKET NO.  12-02 066	)	DATE
	)
	)

On appeal from the
Department of Veterans Affairs Regional Office in St. Petersburg, Florida


THE ISSUE

Entitlement to an increased rating for a psychiatric disability, currently rated 30 percent.  


REPRESENTATION

Appellant represented by:	Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States


ATTORNEY FOR THE BOARD

Kimberly A. Mitchell, Associate Counsel


INTRODUCTION

The Veteran served on active duty from September 1968 to April 1970.  

This matter comes to the Board of Veterans' Appeals (Board) on appeal from an April 2009 rating decision of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Regional Office (RO) in St. Petersburg, Florida.  

The appeal is REMANDED to the RO via the Appeals Management Center in Washington, D.C.  


REMAND

A review of the claims file reveals that a remand is necessary before a decision on the merits of the claim can be reached.  

The Veteran was last provided a VA examination to assess his psychiatric disability in October 2009, more than four years ago.  VA's duty to assist includes the conduct of a thorough and comprehensive medical examination.  Robinette v. Brown, 8 Vet. App. 69 (1995).  When available evidence is too old for an adequate rating of the Veteran's current condition, VA's duty to assist includes providing a new examination.  Weggenmann v. Brown, 5 Vet. App. 281 (1993).  The Veteran's last VA examination is stale.  According to statements from the Veteran, it appears that his service connected disability may have worsened since the date of the last examination.  In order to properly adjudicate the increased rating claim, another examination should be scheduled.  

Additionally, because there may be outstanding VA medical records that contain information pertinent to the Veteran's claim, an attempt to obtain any records should be made.  38 C.F.R. § 3.159(c)(2) (2013); Bell v. Derwinski, 2 Vet. App. 611 (1992).  

Accordingly, the case is REMANDED for the following action:

1.  Obtain any available VA outpatient treatment reports dated since October 2009 and associate them with the claims file.  If the Veteran identifies any other relevant medical records, those records should also be obtained.  

2.  After all available records have been associated with the claims file, schedule the Veteran for a VA mental disorders examination to evaluate the current severity of his service-connected psychiatric disability.  The examiner must review the claims file and must note that review in the report.  The examiner should provide and opinion as to the level of occupation and social impairment caused by the service-connected psychiatric disability.  The examiner should also note the symptoms of the psychiatric disability.

3.  Then, readjudicate the claim.  If action remains adverse to the Veteran, issue a supplemental statement of the case and allow the appropriate time for response.  Then return the case to the Board.  

The appellant has the right to submit additional evidence and argument on the matter the Board has remanded.  Kutscherousky v. West, 12 Vet. App. 369 (1999).

This claim must be afforded expeditious treatment.  The law requires that all claims that are remanded by the Board or the United States Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims for additional development or other appropriate action must be handled in an expeditious manner.  38 U.S.C.A. §§ 5109B, 7112 (West Supp. 2013).  



_________________________________________________
Harvey P. Roberts
Veterans Law Judge, Board of Veterans' Appeals

Under 38 U.S.C.A. § 7252 (West 2002), only a decision of the Board of Veterans' Appeals is appealable to the United States Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims.  This remand is in the nature of a preliminary order and does not constitute a decision of the Board on the merits of your appeal.  38 C.F.R. § 20.1100(b) (2013).