Citation Nr: 18156545
Decision Date: 12/10/18	Archive Date: 12/10/18

DOCKET NO. 15-08 880A
DATE:	December 10, 2018
REMANDED
Entitlement to a disability rating greater than 10 percent for service-connected residuals of status post right wrist fracture (right wrist disability) is remanded.
REASONS FOR REMAND
The Veteran served on active duty from September 1965 to March 1969.
In May 2018, the Veteran submitted medical receipts for what appears to have been an early 2018 eye surgery.  The Board construes this as indication of the Veteran’s desire to file a claim for reimbursement or payment of private medical expenses. Effective March 24, 2015, VA adopted a standardized claims system. The Agency of Original Jurisdiction (AOJ) should provide the Veteran with a claim application form and invite him to submit a formal claim.
This appeal is remanded for the following additional development. 
•	Current VA examination: A new VA examination is needed to assess the current state of the Veteran’s service-connected right wrist disability.  The most recent VA examination of this condition was in October 2013.  He and his representative have made statements suggesting worsened symptomatology since then.  These statements and the passage of more than five years since the most recent VA examination warrant an updated evaluation of this disability.

•	VA outpatient treatment records: As the most recent VA outpatient treatment records in the file are from fall 2013, more than five years ago, the AOJ must associate all updated VA treatment records with the file.
The matter is REMANDED for the following action:
1. Obtain the Veteran’s VA treatment records from the North Florida / South Georgia VA Healthcare System and all associated outpatient clinics (to include the Jacksonville VA OPC) from October 2013 to the present.
2. Then, schedule a VA examination to address the current severity of his service-connected right wrist disability.  The examiner should address the Veteran’s representative’s contention that the Veteran has right wrist ankylosis (see November 2018 brief). If any findings are not possible without resort to mere speculation, then the examiner must explain why.
 
MICHELLE L. KANE
Veterans Law Judge
Board of Veterans’ Appeals
ATTORNEY FOR THE BOARD	R. Janofsky, Associate Counsel