Citation Nr: 21004683
Decision Date: 01/27/21	Archive Date: 01/27/21

DOCKET NO. 09-41 178
DATE: January 27, 2021

REMANDED

Service connection for hypertension, including as due to herbicide agent exposure or as secondary to the service-connected diabetes mellitus, is remanded.

REASONS FOR REMAND

The Veteran served on active duty in the United States Army from June 1968 to June 1970. 

The Veteran passed away on January 28, 2016. The Veteran’s widow is the appellant in this matter as the request for substitution in the claim was granted in August 2018. 

This matter is on appeal from an April 2009 rating decision issued by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Regional Office (RO) in Montgomery, Alabama, which denied service connection for hypertension. A notice of disagreement was filed in May 2009 and a statement of the case was issued in September 2009. The Veteran filed a substantive appeal (VA Form 9) in October 2009. A VA examination with opinion was rendered on secondary service connection in January 2016. A supplemental statement of the case (SSOC) was issued in February 2016. 

This matter was previously before the Board in October 2018 and was denied. The Veteran appealed the October 2018 Board decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims (CAVC).    

A September 2019 Order by CAVC adopted a Joint Motion for Remand (JMR) filed by the parties. The parties agreed that the Board did not address the National Academy of Sciences’ (NAS) Veterans and Agent Orange 2012 Update, in which the NAS concluded that “there is limited suggestive evidence to support an association between exposure to the herbicides including Agent Orange and the diagnosis of  chronic hypertension.”

In February 2020, the Board remanded the claim in order to obtain a VA examination addendum opinion to address the NAS Veterans and Agent Orange 2012 Update. The VA examination addendum opinion was rendered in November 2020. In November 2020 a SSOC was issued.

Service Connection for Hypertension, Including as Due to Herbicide Agent Exposure or the Service-Connected Diabetes Mellitus is Remanded.

Upon review of the record, the January 2016 VA examination opinion addressing secondary service connection (38 C.F.R. § 3.310) only addressed proximate causation and did not opine whether the hypertension is worsened in severity by (aggravation by) the service-connected diabetes mellitus. Accordingly, the Board finds that an addendum opinion will help address whether the hypertension is aggravated by (worsened in severity beyond a normal progression by) the service-connected diabetes mellitus. 

 The matter is REMANDED for the following action:

Obtain a VA examination addendum opinion. The VA examiner should review the evidence associated with the record. A rationale for the opinion and a discussion of the facts and medical principles involved should be provided. The VA examiner should offer the following opinion:

Is it at least as likely as not (i.e., probability of 50 percent or more) that the hypertension is aggravated by (worsened in severity beyond a normal progression by) the service-connected diabetes mellitus?

 

 

J. PARKER

Veterans Law Judge

Board of Veterans’ Appeals

Attorney for the Board	D. Costantino, 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.