Citation Nr: 21068873
Decision Date: 11/15/21	Archive Date: 11/15/21

DOCKET NO. 18-33 536
DATE:  November 15, 2021

REMANDED

Entitlement to a rating greater than 30 percent for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is remanded.

REASONS FOR REMAND

The Veteran served on active duty from August 1966 to April 1969.

This matter comes to the Board of Veterans' Appeals (Board) on appeal from an April 2017 rating decision of the Department of Veterans Affairs VA) Regional Office (RO). In December 2019, the Veteran testified before the undersigned Veterans Law Judge (VLJ) at a Board hearing held at the RO. A transcript of the hearing is of record.

In June 2016, the Veteran testified at a Board hearing in Washington, D.C., before a different VLJ on the issue of entitlement to service connection for a skin condition, to include as due to herbicide exposure and/or secondary to PTSD. This issue is under a separate docket, is currently pending, and will be the subject of a separate Board decision.

During the pendency of this appeal the agency of original jurisdiction (AOJ), in May 2021, granted service connection for attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) on the theory of aggravation and combined this disability with the Veteran's service-connected PTSD. The AOJ explained that it was not going to evaluate the Veteran's psychiatric disability at that time since the Board had jurisdiction over the issue. However, in rendering the May 2021 decision, the AOJ relied, in part, on findings from a VA contract psychiatric evaluation that was performed in March 2020 which was after the April 2018 Statement of the Case. See 38 C.F.R. §19.29.

Thus, to afford due process to the Veteran, this matter must be remanded to the AOJ for consideration of a rating greater than 30 percent for the Veteran's newly expanded psychiatric disability and all the pertinent evidence of record, to specifically include the evidence added to the record since the April 2018 Statement of the Case, including the March 2020 VA contract psychiatric examination report. The AOJ should thereafter issue the Veteran a Supplemental Statement of the Case (SSOC). 38 C.F.R. § 19.31. 

The matter is therefore REMANDED for the following action:

Review the issue on appeal for a rating greater than 30 percent for service-connected PTSD with ADHD based on the entirety of the evidence, to specifically include the March 2020 VA examination report received after the issuance of the April 2018 SOC and any additional pertinent evidence and issue the Veteran a SSOC.

 

 

Kristin Haddock

Veterans Law Judge

Board of Veterans' Appeals

Attorney for the Board	A. Shawkey, 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.