Citation Nr: 0000706 Decision Date: 01/10/00 Archive Date: 01/19/00 DOCKET NO. 98-20 882 ) DATE ) ) On appeal from the Department of Veterans Affairs Regional Office in St. Petersburg, Florida THE ISSUE Entitlement to special monthly compensation by reason of being housebound. REPRESENTATION Appellant represented by: Disabled American Veterans ATTORNEY FOR THE BOARD A. P. Simpson, Associate Counsel REMAND The appellant served on active duty from March 1961 to March 1964. This case comes before the Board of Veterans' Appeals (the Board) on appeal from a November 1998 rating decision of the St. Petersburg, Florida, Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Regional Office (RO). In that decision, the RO denied special monthly compensation on account of need for aid and attendance or by reason of being housebound. The appellant has appealed only the denial of special monthly compensation by reason of being housebound. The appellant claims that he is virtually confined to his house because of severe agoraphobia stemming from his service-connected post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) with panic attacks. The Board finds that a medical opinion is necessary to determine if the appellant's allegation is substantiated. The record further reflects that potentially relevant medical records have not been obtained by the RO. For example, the appellant receives medical treatment at Peace River Center. Therefore, the RO should make arrangements to obtain these records on remand, as the duty to assist involves obtaining relevant medical reports where indicated by the facts and circumstances of the individual case. See Murphy v. Derwinski, 1 Vet. App. 78 (1990); Littke v. Derwinski, 1 Vet. App. 90 (1990). Accordingly, the case is hereby REMANDED to the RO for the following action: 1. Request that the appellant provide a list of those (VA and private medical providers) who have treated him for his service-connected PTSD since 1997, and obtain all records of any treatment reported by the appellant that are not already in the claims file. The Board is particularly interested in treatment records from Peace River Center. If requests for any private treatment records are not successful, tell the appellant and his representative so that he will have an opportunity to obtain and submit the records himself, in keeping with his responsibility to submit evidence in support of his claim. 38 CFR § 3.159(c). 2. Schedule the appellant to undergo a VA psychiatric evaluation. The examiner should be given a copy of this remand and the appellant's entire claims folder. The examiner should be requested to review the appellant's medical history prior to conducting the examination and state that this has been accomplished. All necessary tests should be conducted and the examiner should review the results of any testing prior to completion of the report. The VA examiner is asked to state whether the appellant is permanently housebound by reason of the service-connected disability. Specifically, is the appellant substantially confined as a direct result of service-connected PTSD with panic attacks to his dwelling and the immediate premises and is it reasonably certain that the disability and resultant confinement will continue throughout his lifetime? The examiner must provide a comprehensive report including complete rationales for all opinions and conclusions reached, citing the objective medical findings leading to the examiner's conclusions. If further testing or examination by other specialists is determined to be warranted in order to evaluate the condition at issue, such testing or examination is to be accomplished prior to completion of the examination report. 3. Review the claims folder and ensure that all of the foregoing development actions have been conducted and completed in full. If any development is incomplete, appropriate corrective action is to be implemented. Specific attention is directed to the examination report. If the requested examination does not include fully detailed descriptions of pathology and all test reports, special studies or adequate responses to the specific opinions requested, the report must be returned for corrective action. 38 C.F.R. § 4.2 (1999); see also Stegall v. West, 11 Vet. App. 268 (1998). 4. Readjudicate the appellant's claim, with consideration of any additional evidence developed upon remand. If the decision remains adverse to the appellant, provide him and his representative a supplemental statement of the case and allow an appropriate period for response. The case should be returned to the Board after compliance with all requisite appellate procedures. The appellant has the right to submit additional evidence and argument on the matter or matters the Board has remanded to the regional office. Kutscherousky v. West, 12 Vet. App. 369 (1999). This claim must be afforded expeditious treatment by the RO. The law requires that all claims that are remanded by the Board of Veterans' Appeals or by the United States Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims for additional development or other appropriate action must be handled in an expeditious manner. See The Veterans' Benefits Improvements Act of 1994, Pub. L. No. 103-446, § 302, 108 Stat. 4645, 4658 (1994), 38 U.S.C.A. § 5101 (West Supp. 1999) (Historical and Statutory Notes). In addition, VBA's Adjudication Procedure Manual, M21-1, Part IV, directs the ROs to provide expeditious handling of all cases that have been remanded by the Board and the Court. See M21-1, Part IV, paras. 8.44- 8.45 and 38.02-38.03. P.M. DILORENZO Acting Member, Board of Veterans' Appeals Under 38 U.S.C.A. § 7252 (West 1991 & Supp. 1999), only a decision of the Board of Veterans' Appeals is appealable to the United States Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims. This remand is in the nature of a preliminary order and does not constitute a decision of the Board on the merits of your appeal. 38 C.F.R. § 20.1100(b) (1999).