Citation Nr: 21028420
Decision Date: 05/11/21	Archive Date: 05/11/21

DOCKET NO. 18-14 931
DATE: May 11, 2021

REMANDED

Entitlement to service connection for a neck disability, to include as secondary to service-connected back disability, is remanded.

Entitlement to a temporary total evaluation following December 2016 neck surgery is remanded.

REASONS FOR REMAND

The Veteran served on active duty from August 1973 to July 1976.

This matter comes before the Board of Veterans' Appeals (Board) on appeal from a July 2017 rating decision issued by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) regional office.  The matter was most recently remanded in June 2020 and has returned to the Board for further adjudication.

The claims must be remanded again because the July 2020 VA addendum opinion is inadequate as to secondary service connection. The examiner used an incorrect standard for aggravation and did not provide any rationale as to the causation question.  The claim must be remanded for an adequate opinion.  Stegall, 11Vet. App. at 271.  

The claim for a temporary total rating is remanded because it is inextricably intertwined with the service connection claim.

The matters are REMANDED for the following action:

1. Forward copies of all pertinent records to an appropriate examiner to determine the likely etiology of diagnosed neck disability.  Based on a review of the record, the examiner must answer the following:   

Is it at least as likely as not that any diagnosed neck disability is (i) caused by or (ii) aggravated by (defined as any increase in disability) the Veteran's service-connected back disability?  Why or why not?  In offering the opinion, the examiner must consider if there is any increase in severity of the nonservice-connected disease or injury that is proximately due to or the result of a service-connected disease or injury, such as the service connected back disability.  

In providing the opinion, the examiner should specifically consider and discuss as necessary records related to his December 2016 neck surgery as well as the Veteran's testimony that neurosurgery informed or implied that the Veteran's neck disability is related to his back disability.

2. Confirm that the VA medical opinion provided comports with this remand, specifically that the standard for the secondary aggravation opinion is any increase in disability, not the standard of beyond the natural progression as noted on the examination form itself. If not, get an addendum.

3. After the above development, and any additionally indicated development, has been completed, readjudicate the issues on appeal, including the inextricably intertwined issue of temporary total rating. 

 

M.E. Larkin

Veterans Law Judge

Board of Veterans' Appeals

Attorney for the Board	T. Jarman, 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.