Data story · September 28, 2026

Why the Board sends more secondary claims back

The Board of Veterans' Appeals remands secondary service connection claims more often than direct ones, and aggravation is the gap that shows up again and again in its reasons.

From 2018 to 2026, the Board of Veterans' Appeals remanded 58.1% of the secondary service connection issues it decided. For direct claims, it remanded 46.0%. A remand sends the issue back to VA for more development, such as a new exam, a medical opinion or more records, before the Board decides it.

The gap held every year, though remands have fallen for both since their peak.

Share of issues the Board remanded, by year
0%20%40%60%201820192020202120222023202420252026Secondary claims, 2018: 54.2%Secondary claims, 2019: 60.9%Secondary claims, 2020: 60.3%Secondary claims, 2021: 59.8%Secondary claims, 2022: 62.7%Secondary claims, 2023: 61.3%Secondary claims, 2024: 57.7%Secondary claims, 2025: 51.2%Secondary claims, 2026: 46.4%Direct claims, 2018: 49.3%Direct claims, 2019: 49.0%Direct claims, 2020: 45.4%Direct claims, 2021: 45.9%Direct claims, 2022: 49.5%Direct claims, 2023: 49.0%Direct claims, 2024: 44.2%Direct claims, 2025: 40.0%Direct claims, 2026: 37.7%
46.4% Secondary claims
37.7% Direct claims

Decided condition issues. 2026 is a partial year.

In 2022, the Board remanded 62.7% of secondary issues. In 2026 so far, it remanded 46.4%. Direct claims fell from 49.5% to 37.7% over the same years.

Aggravation is the recurring gap

Secondary service connection has two routes under 38 CFR 3.310: the service-connected disability caused the condition, or it made the condition worse (aggravation, 38 CFR 3.310(b)). When the evidence raises aggravation, the opinion needs to address it, not only causation.

In a random sample of 3,042 remanded secondary issues with a stated reason, 27.0% of the reasons mentioned aggravation. In a sample of 10,045 remanded direct issues, only 3.0% did.

What the remand reasons mention
Secondary claimsDirect claims

Aggravation

27.0%
3.0%

Inadequate exam or opinion

35.0%
29.1%

Share of remands with a stated reason, in a 2% random sample of remanded issues.

An inadequate exam or opinion was also a common reason in both groups: 35.0% of secondary remands and 29.1% of direct remands.

For representatives

  • Before the Board, check whether the VA opinion answers both questions: did the service-connected disability cause the condition, and did it aggravate it? An opinion that addresses only causation is a common reason for remand.
  • If the record already has a private opinion, check that it also addresses aggravation.

The reasons come from short summaries that AI extracted from each decision, matched by keyword, so they show how often a topic comes up, not a legal finding in each case. The trend counts decided condition issues, and 2026 is a partial year.

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About the data

bva-explorer-db (read-only). Trend: bva_case_filters_v2, counts of decided issues. Reasons: a repeatable 2% random sample of bva_cases_v2 remand rows (TABLESAMPLE SYSTEM (2) REPEATABLE (42)), matched against the AI-extracted rationale. Queried September 28, 2026. Every figure in this story is computed from the query results, and the AI-extracted data can contain errors.