Citation Nr: 18145769
Decision Date: 10/30/18	Archive Date: 10/30/18

DOCKET NO. 14-01 512
DATE:	October 30, 2018
REMANDED
Entitlement to service connection for a back disorder.
Entitlement to service connection for a left hip disorder.
Entitlement to service connection for a right hip disorder.
REASONS FOR REMAND
The Veteran served on active duty from October 2011 to March 2012. 
These matters come before the Board of Veterans' Appeals (Board) on appeal from a March 2016 rating decision by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Regional Office (RO) in St. Paul, Minnesota. 
The Veteran has contended that his back and hip disorders are secondary to his bilateral pes planus.  
In November 2017, the Board remanded these issues as they were intertwined with the issue of entitlement to service connection for bilateral pes planus, which was also being remanded.  In an August 2018 supplemental statement of the case, the RO continued the denial of service connection for back and right and left hip disorders, basing the decision on the finding that pes planus was not service-connected.  However, in a contemporaneous rating decision, the RO granted entitlement to service connection for pes planus.  
As service connection has been granted for bilateral pes planus, the Veteran’s claims for entitlement to service connection for back and right and left hip disorders as secondary to pes planus should be developed.
The record includes evidence of the Veteran’s reports that his hips pop and he has back pain.  
The Board finds that the Veteran should be provided with a VA examination to determine whether he has back or right or left hip disorders caused or aggravated by his service-connected pes planus.
The Board notes that, under the holding in the recent Federal Court decision of Saunders v. Wilkie, 886 F.3d 1356 (2018), an opinion must also be provided as to whether the Veteran has current back or right or left hip pain that causes functional impairment such that it may qualify as a disability in the event an underlying diagnosis is not provided. 
The matters are REMANDED for the following action:
Schedule the Veteran for an examination by an appropriate clinician to determine the nature and etiology of any back, right hip, or left hip disability.  For all disabilities diagnosed for the Veteran’s back, right hip, or left hip or, if there is no current diagnosis, but there is evidence of pain with limitation of motion or function of the back, right hip, or left hip, the examiner must opine whether it is at least as likely as not that the impairment is (1) related to an in-service injury, event, or disease, (2) proximately due to the Veteran’s service-connected pes planus, or (3) aggravated beyond its natural progression by the Veteran’s service-connected pes planus. 
 
L. B. CRYAN
Veterans Law Judge
Board of Veterans’ Appeals
ATTORNEY FOR THE BOARD	M. Harrigan Smith