Citation Nr: 20007284 Decision Date: 01/28/20 Archive Date: 01/28/20 DOCKET NO. 14-29 185A DATE: January 28, 2020 REMANDED Entitlement to a compensable rating for dextro-deviation of nasal septum, status post trauma, is remanded. REASONS FOR REMAND The Veteran served in the United States Army from August 1982 until his honorable discharge in May 1992. This matter comes before the Board of Veterans’ Appeals (Board) on appeal from a March 2014 rating decision by the Roanoke, Virginia Regional Office (RO) of the United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). In a May 2018 decision, the Board denied the Veteran’s claim for entitlement to a compensable rating for dextro-deviation of nasal septum. The Veteran subsequently appealed the Board’s decision to the United States Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims (Court). In a June 2019 Joint Motion Partial Remand (JMPR), the Court vacated the Board’s May 2018 decision and remanded the case to the Board for readjudication and to obtain an adequate VA examination. In an October 2019 submission, the Veteran requested that his case be held for the remainder of the 90-day period after the case had returned to the Board’s jurisdiction from the Court. Entitlement to a compensable rating for dextro-deviation of nasal septum, status post trauma is remanded. The June 2019 JMPR determined that the Board did not provide an adequate statement of reasons and bases for why a new VA examination was not needed after it found that a May 2017 VA examination was entitled to no probative weight in its May 2018 decision. The Board had found that the May 2017 VA examiner did not review the record, to include the Veteran’s pertinent medical history, and found that no probative weight was warranted. As explained in the June 2019 JMPR, the May 2017 VA examiner did not review the record to include the Veteran’s pertinent medical history. Such a review is necessary as the Veteran is also service connected for sinusitis and any functional impairments present must be differentiated. On remand, the Veteran should be asked to furnish, or to furnish an authorization to enable VA to obtain, any additional private treatment records from providers who treated his for his claimed disability. Finally, given the time that will pass during the processing of this remand, updated VA treatment records should be associated with the record. The matters are REMANDED for the following action: 1. The Veteran should be given an opportunity to identify any outstanding private or VA treatment records relevant to the claim on appeal. After obtaining any necessary authorization from the Veteran, all outstanding records, to include updated VA treatment records dated from March 2019 to the present, should be obtained. For private treatment records, make at least two (2) attempts to obtain records from any identified sources. If any such records are unavailable, inform the Veteran and afford him an opportunity to submit any copies in his possession. For federal records, all reasonable attempts should be made to obtain such records. If any records cannot be obtained after reasonable efforts have been made, issue a formal determination that such records do not exist or that further efforts to obtain such records would be futile, which should be documented in the claims file. The Veteran must be notified of the attempts made and why further attempts would be futile, and allowed the opportunity to provide such records, as provided in 38 U.S.C. § 5103A (b)(2) and 38 C.F.R. § 3.159(e). 2. Provide the Veteran with an appropriate examination to determine the severity of the service-connected dextro-deviation of nasal septum, status post trauma. The entire claims file must be made available to and be reviewed by the examiner. Any indicated tests and studies must be accomplished and all clinical findings must be reported in detail and correlated to a specific diagnosis. An explanation for all opinions expressed must be provided. The relevant Disability Benefits Questionnaire must be utilized. (Continued on the next page)   If the examiner determines that the severity of the Veteran’s service-connected dextro-deviation of nasal septum, status post trauma has changed (increase or decrease), they are requested to opine to the best of their ability on when the changes occurred. The examiner should discuss what symptoms are due to the Veteran’s service-connected dextro-deviation of nasal septum, status post trauma. If possible, those symptoms should be differentiated from symptoms that are due to the Veteran’s service-connected sinusitis. KRISTY L. ZADORA Acting Veterans Law Judge Board of Veterans’ Appeals Attorney for the Board G. Deemer The Board’s decision in this case is binding only with respect to the instant matter decided. This decision is not precedential, and does not establish VA policies or interpretations of general applicability. 38 C.F.R. § 20.1303.