Citation Nr: 20041655 Decision Date: 06/18/20 Archive Date: 06/18/20 DOCKET NO. 13-06 372 DATE: June 18, 2020 REMANDED Entitlement to service connection for hypertension is remanded. REASONS FOR REMAND The Veteran served in the Marines from November 1954 to August 1956. This matter comes before the Board of Veterans’ Appeals (Board) on appeal from a November 2009 rating decision of a Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Regional Office (RO). This claim was last before the Board in August 2018 where it was remanded for additional development. This appeal has been advanced on the Board’s docket pursuant to 38 C.F.R. § 20.900(c); 38 U.S.C. § 7107(a)(2). 1. Entitlement to service connection for hypertension is remanded. The Veteran is seeking entitlement to service connection for hypertension which he contends is either secondary to his service-connected diabetes mellitus, or caused by his in-service herbicide exposure. The Board finds that additional opinion is needed prior to adjudication of this claim. In accordance with prior remand instructions, a VA examination was obtained in November 2019. The examiner was instructed to determine whether it is at least as likely as not that the hypertension was caused by exposure to herbicide agents, including Agent Orange, during service; and, if not caused by the herbicide agent exposure, whether it is it at least as likely as not that the Veteran’s hypertension was worsened beyond natural progression (aggravated) by his service-connected diabetes mellitus. However, the examiner did not provide an opinion or rationale, but simply stated “hypertension is not an herbicide presumptive condition.” Therefore, the Board finds the examiner’s herbicide exposure opinion to be incomplete. As such, additional opinion is warranted in order to comply with the terms of the Board’s prior remand instructions. See Stegall v. West, 11 Vet. App. 268 (1998) (a remand by the Board confers on the appellant, as a matter of law, the right to compliance with the remand orders). The matters are REMANDED for the following action: 1. Obtain updated VA treatment records and associate them with the claims file. 2. Send the claims file to an appropriate examiner to obtain an addendum opinion with respect to the Veteran’s hypertension claim. The claims file must be reviewed by the examiner. If a new examination is deemed necessary to respond to the request, one should be scheduled. Following review of the claims file, the examiner should provide an opinion as to whether it is at least as likely as not (50 percent probability or greater) that the hypertension was caused by exposure to herbicide agents, including Agent Orange, during service? The examiner should explain why or why not. While the examiner is free to cite to studies by the National Institute of Health or any medical treatises in rendering the opinion, the examiner's rationale cannot rely solely on the fact that VA has not included hypertension in the list of presumptive conditions. In other words, the Board needs an opinion as to the likelihood that this Veteran's hypertension, without regard to the conditions VA recognizes as being due to Agent Orange, is nevertheless at least as likely as not related to his exposure to herbicide agents in Vietnam. 3. If the claim remains denied, issue a supplemental statement of the case. K. A. BANFIELD Veterans Law Judge Board of Veterans’ Appeals Attorney for the Board G. N. Wilson, Associate Counsel 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.