Daniel Blubaugh sought an earlier effective date for a PTSD rating that had been made effective July 25, 2008. His PTSD claim had been denied in 1989 and again in 1993 after VA reopened the claim and associated his DA Form 20 with the file. When he later reopened the claim in 2008, he submitted new medical evidence showing a PTSD diagnosis and evidence of a definitive stressor, and VA granted service connection effective the date of that claim. Blubaugh argued that 38 C.F.R. § 3.156(c) required reconsideration based on the later-associated service record and supported an earlier effective date. The Federal Circuit rejected that reading, explaining that § 3.156(c)(1) requires reconsideration when VA receives relevant service department records, but the effective-date provisions in subsections (c)(3) and (c)(4) apply only when the award is based all or in part on those records. Because VA had already reopened and reconsidered the claim in 1993 after receiving the DA Form 20, and because the 2008 grant rested on new medical and stressor evidence rather than the service record, the regulation did not support an earlier effective date. The court affirmed.

When VA has already reconsidered a claim in light of newly associated service department records and denied the claim on the merits, 38 C.F.R. § 3.156(c) does not require another retroactive effective-date adjustment unless the eventual award is based all or in part on those records.

A veteran cannot obtain an earlier effective date under § 3.156(c) merely because a relevant service record was once added to the file; the record must actually drive the later award.

Blubaugh clarifies the boundary between reconsideration and retroactive effective-date relief under § 3.156(c). It is important in reopened-claim strategy because it prevents claimants from using a previously considered service record to reach back when the eventual grant was driven by new evidence instead.

Improper Interpretation of Regulation [Regulatory Interpretation Error]

A veteran’s claim is reopened after a previously missing service personnel record is found. VA reviews the record and still denies the claim. Years later, the veteran submits new medical nexus evidence and is granted service connection. Under Blubaugh, the veteran generally cannot use § 3.156(c) to obtain an effective date tied to the earlier claim if the award was not based on the service record.

Use this case to argue against retroactive relief under § 3.156(c) where VA already considered the newly obtained service records in an earlier merits decision, and to defend an effective date fixed to the later reopened claim when the grant depended on new medical evidence.

38 C.F.R. § 3.156(c), 38 C.F.R. § 3.400(r), 38 U.S.C. § 5110(a)