Citation Nr: 21005541 Decision Date: 02/01/21 Archive Date: 02/01/21 DOCKET NO. 18-29 287 DATE: February 1, 2021 REMANDED Entitlement to service connection for hypertension is remanded. REASONS FOR REMAND The Veteran served on active duty with the United States Navy from December 1963 to December 1985. This matter comes before the Board of Veterans’ Appeals (Board) on appeal from a June 2017 rating decision issued by a Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Regional Office (RO). The Veteran testified before the undersigned Veterans Law Judge (VLJ) at a hearing in January 2020. This case was previously before the Board in April 2020, when it was remanded for development. The case has been returned to the Board for further appellate review. A November 2020 rating decision granted entitlement to service connection for erectile dysfunction. This action represents a total grant of the benefit sought on appeal with respect to this issue, and it is no longer before the Board. See Grantham v. Brown, 114 F.3d 1156, 1159 (Fed. Cir. 1997). Entitlement to service connection for hypertension is remanded. The prior Board remand directed the RO to obtain an opinion considering whether any conceded herbicide exposure during service caused or is otherwise related to the current diagnosis of hypertension, as the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (NAS) concluded in 2018 in ‘Veterans and Agent Orange: Update 11’ there is “sufficient evidence” of an association between herbicide exposure and hypertension. VA has since conceded herbicide exposure, in June 2020. The October 2020 VA examiner opined the Veteran’s hypertension did not have its onset in service, but did not address any causal or other relationship between the herbicide exposure and current hypertension. Instead, the examiner only noted that hypertension is not on the current list of diseases subject to presumptive service connection. This opinion is inadequate and does not fulfill the Board’s remand directive. See Stegall v. West, 11 Vet. App. 268, 271 (1998) (remand by Board confers upon claimant, as a matter of law, the right to compliance with remand order). Therefore, a remand is necessary to obtain an opinion addressing the relationship between the Veteran’s herbicide exposure and his current hypertension, particularly in light of the 2018 NAS study. The matter is REMANDED for the following action: Forward the claims file to an appropriate clinician to determine whether the Veteran’s hypertension is related to his military service. Following review of the claims file, the examiner should opine whether it is at least as likely as not (50 percent or greater probability) that the hypertension began in or is otherwise caused by the Veteran’s active service, including exposure to herbicides. The examiner must specifically address the Veteran’s presumed exposure to herbicides in light of the 2018 NAS conclusion in ‘Veterans and Agent Orange: Update 11’ that there is “sufficient evidence” of an association between herbicide exposure and hypertension. The examiner should address any other pertinent evidence of record. All findings must be reported in detail and all opinions must be accompanied by a clear rationale. If any of the above issues cannot be resolved without resorting to speculation, then a detailed medical explanation as to why this is so must be provided. M. HYLAND Veterans Law Judge Board of Veterans’ Appeals Attorney for the Board K. Josey, 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.