Citation Nr: 21022265
Decision Date: 04/15/21	Archive Date: 04/15/21

DOCKET NO. 16-47 820
DATE: April 15, 2021

REMANDED

Entitlement to an initial disability rating in excess of 20 percent for service-connected diabetes mellitus is remanded.

REASONS FOR REMAND

The Veteran served on active duty from June 1969 to December 1970.

The Board denied the above claim in August 2019. In October 2020, pursuant to a Joint Motion to Remand (JMR), the United States Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims (CAVC or the Court) vacated that decision and returned the matter to the Board. 

The JMR found that there were unobtained private treatment records, noting that various documents in the evidence of record contained references to a private doctor who treated the Veteran regularly at six-month intervals for diabetes mellitus. At the time of the JMR, private treatment records were dated up to May 2015, but not for the four years between May 2015 and August 2019. 

After the JMR, the Veteran submitted private treatment records dated from September 2017 to April 2020. These documents contain references to private treatment which occurred in the latter half of 2015, 2016, and earlier in 2017. Therefore, private treatment records from approximately June 2015 to August 2017 exist and still have not been obtained.

The matters are REMANDED for the following action:

Ask the Veteran to complete a VA Form 21-4142 for all private treatment records and attempt to obtain these records.

 

 

H. N. SCHWARTZ

Veterans Law Judge

Board of Veterans’ Appeals

Attorney for the Board	P. Yoffe, 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 This decision is not precedential and does not establish VA policies or interpretations of general applicability. 38 C.F.R. § 20.1303.