Citation Nr: 21009690
Decision Date: 02/23/21	Archive Date: 02/23/21

DOCKET NO. 11-20 759
DATE: February 23, 2021

REMANDED

Entitlement to service connection for hypertension, to include as secondary to service-connected anemia is remanded.

REASONS FOR REMAND

The Veteran served on active duty in the United States Army from June 1972 to May 1975, from December 1981 to October 1988, and again from December 1988 to May 1989.  

This matter comes before the Board of Veterans’ Appeals (Board) on appeal from an August 2009 rating decision of the Department of Veterans’ Affairs (VA) Regional Office (RO) in Montgomery, Alabama.  In that decision, the RO denied the Veteran’s service connection claim for hypertension.  

This appeal was most recently before the Board in November 2019, at which time the claim was denied on the merits.  The Veteran timely appealed the denial to the United States Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims (the Court).  In August 2020, the parties filed a Joint Motion for Remand (JMR) requesting that the Board’s November 2019 decision be vacated and remanded.  Specifically, the parties agreed that the July 2019 VA examination, upon which the Board denial was based, did not adequately address the issue of whether the Veteran’s hypertension was aggravated by his service-connected anemia.  The Court granted the parties’ motion by way of a September 2020 Order. 

Accordingly, remand is required to obtain an addendum opinion regarding whether the Veteran’s hypertension was aggravated by his service-connected anemia.  

The matters are REMANDED for the following action:

Obtain an addendum opinion from an appropriate clinician regarding whether it is at least as likely as not that the Veteran’s service-connected anemia results in any additional functional impairment associated with hypertension (e.g., a medically discernible increase in blood pressure readings or hypertensive symptoms, even if temporary, above the degree associated with that expected from his baseline hypertension alone). The examiner is requested to discuss whether the service-connected anemia is medically capable of aggravating hypertension and, if so, whether the Veteran’s hypertension has been aggravated based on the particular facts of this case. The need for further in-person examination is left to the discretion of the examiner.  

 

 

T. MAINELLI

Veterans Law Judge

Board of Veterans’ Appeals

Attorney for the Board	C. Orie, 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.