Citation Nr: 18148148
Decision Date: 11/06/18	Archive Date: 11/06/18

DOCKET NO. 10-22 876A
DATE:	November 6, 2018
REMANDED
Entitlement to service connection for hepatitis C is remanded.
REASONS FOR REMAND
The Veteran served on active duty from May 1969 to January 1972, with service in the Republic of Vietnam.
The claim was reopened and remanded by the Board in October 2014 and remanded again in March 2016.  In July 2017, a medical opinion was prepared by the Veterans Health Administration at the request of the Board.  In November 2017, the Board denied the claim.  Thereafter, the Veteran appealed the decision denying service connection for hepatis C to the United States Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims (Court).  In a Joint Motion for Partial Remand (JMR), the Secretary of VA and the Veteran (the parties) moved the Court to vacate the November 2017 decision, which was granted in an August 2018 Order.  
Entitlement to service connection for hepatitis C is remanded.
Although the Board regrets the additional delay, the JMR determined that the Board relied on an inadequate medical opinion and that the June 2017 VA opinion did not substantially comply with the Board’s March 2016 remand instructions.  As such, in light of the findings of the JMR, the Board finds that another VA examination with opinion is necessary. 
 The matter is REMANDED for the following action:
Schedule the Veteran for an examination by an appropriate clinician to determine the nature and etiology of his hepatitis C.  The examiner must opine whether it is at least as likely as not that the Veteran’s hepatitis C had its onset during service or is otherwise related to service, to include his in-service diagnosis of viral hepatitis and/or any in-service risk factors (i.e., high risk sexual activity, heroin use).
In rendering such opinion, the examiner should include a discussion of the February 2010 private provider’s opinion in which it was suggested that the Veteran had chronic hepatitis C that may be related to his military service as well as the medical treatise referenced by the Veteran’s representative in February 2016: “Clinical manifestations... of acute hepatitis C in adults,” available at http://www.uptodate.com/contents/clinical -
 
manifestations-diagnosis-and-treatment-of-acute-hepatitis-c-in-adults, in which it was stated that acute manifestations of hepatitis C may also present with jaundice, dark urine, and elevated bilirubin levels.

 
L. M. BARNARD
Veterans Law Judge
Board of Veterans’ Appeals
ATTORNEY FOR THE BOARD	J.N. Moats