Citation Nr: 18148506 Decision Date: 11/07/18 Archive Date: 11/07/18 DOCKET NO. 16-32 922 DATE: November 7, 2018 REMANDED Entitlement to a rating in excess of 60 percent for obstructive sleep apnea with constrictive bronchiolitis is remanded. Entitlement to a total disability rating based on individual unemployability (TDIU) is remanded. REASONS FOR REMAND The Veteran served on active duty from September 1987 to March 1988 and from February 2010 to July 2012. The Veteran has not been afforded a VA examination addressing his service-connected respiratory disorder since May 2015, more than three years ago. Given the vast number of symptoms he complained of during a subsequent February 2016 hearing, the Board is not satisfied that this VA examination is sufficiently contemporaneous for rating purposes, and a new VA examination must be conducted. 38 C.F.R. § 3.159(c)(4). Assertions made during the Veteran’s February 2016 hearing raise a claim for a total disability rating based on individual unemployability (TDIU). A claim for TDIU is part of an increased rating claim when such is raised explicitly by the Veteran or implicitly by the record. See Rice v. Shinseki, 22 Vet. App. 447 (2009). As such, the issue of entitlement to TDIU has been added above. The Veteran’s service-connected disabilities are listed in a May 2016 rating action. Given that he has a 60 percent rating for his respiratory disability, as detailed above, he meets the criteria for schedular consideration for TDIU under 38 C.F.R. § 4.16(a). To date, however, there has been no opinion rendered addressing the extent to which his service-connected disabilities, taken as a whole, affect his ability to secure or follow a substantially gainful occupation, as required by that regulation for a TDIU grant. This must be corrected on remand. Accordingly, the case is REMANDED for the following action: 1. Contact the Veteran (via a 38 C.F.R. § 3.159(b) letter, addressing the elements of the raised TDIU claim) in furtherance of obtaining all updated VA and/or private treatment records pertinent to the claims on appeal. Any records obtained as a consequence of the Veteran’s response to this letter must be added to the claims file. 2. The Veteran must next be afforded a VA respiratory examination addressing the symptoms and severity of his obstructive sleep apnea with constrictive bronchiolitis. The examiner must review the claims file, and is requested to: 1) utilize the most up-to-date Disability Benefits Questionnaires (DBQs) fully addressing both obstructive sleep apnea and constrictive bronchitis, and 2) provide findings corresponding to all information indicated in the DBQs. Specifically, pulmonary function testing must be conducted. The examiner is also requested to provide an opinion as to the effect of the Veteran’s service-connected disabilities, viewed together (and as listed in a May 2016 rating action) on his ability to secure and follow a substantially gainful occupation. All opinions must be supported by a rationale. A. C. MACKENZIE Veterans Law Judge Board of Veterans’ Appeals ATTORNEY FOR THE BOARD B. Banks, Associate Counsel