What 1,721 Board rulings show about private medical opinions
We read five runs of Board of Veterans’ Appeals decisions from 2022 to 2026 on five common conditions. Here’s what happened when a veteran’s own medical opinion was part of the review.
A private medical opinion is one a veteran gets from a clinician outside the VA. A nexus letter is one kind: a signed medical opinion that links a current condition to your service.
What we found
- 82%
of the rulings where the Board weighed a veteran’s private medical opinion were granted: 482 of 586.
- 55%
of the rulings where it didn’t were granted: 622 of 1,135.
That shows what happened in these 1,721 rulings. It doesn’t predict any one claim.
| Condition | Private opinion weighed | No private opinion |
|---|---|---|
| Sleep apnea | 94% granted (163 of 174) | 45% granted (76 of 168) |
| Knees | 77% granted (75 of 97) | 40% granted (68 of 171) |
| Low back | 77% granted (89 of 115) | 46% granted (85 of 185) |
| PTSD, depression, and other mental health | 77% granted (104 of 135) | 50% granted (132 of 265) |
| Tinnitus | 78% granted (51 of 65) | 75% granted (261 of 346) |
Tinnitus barely differs (78% and 75%). The Board often grants tinnitus on a veteran’s own account of ringing since service.
Of the 482 grants where the Board weighed a private opinion, it credited the opinion in 451, and the grant rested on it in 436.
The Board weighed a private opinion in 104 denials. In 96 of them, its reasons included how the letter was built: no real reasoning, or a history that was wrong, incomplete, or never checked against the records.
What this doesn’t mean
- It doesn’t predict your claim. It shows what happened in these cases.
- It doesn’t prove the private opinion caused the grant. Veterans who get one may already have stronger records.
- It’s a sample, not every decision. Most claims are decided by the VA’s regional offices and never reach the Board.
- These are not Anchorpoint results. None of these veterans were our clients.
How we counted
- We read about 10,000 Board decisions (9,986), all public on VA.gov. They come from five stretches of back-to-back decisions: late September to early November 2022, late October to mid-November 2023, late July 2024, June 2025, and late July 2026.
- We pulled every ruling that granted or denied service connection for sleep apnea, tinnitus, a low back condition, a knee condition, or a mental health condition. That came to 1,721 rulings. A ruling here means one condition decided in one decision.
- We left out cases sent back for more work, ratings, and dates, because they don’t decide whether the condition is linked to service.
- We read 1,235 rulings by hand: every denial, and every grant whose decision mentioned a private medical opinion anywhere. We counted only the 586 where the Board actually weighed one on that condition.
- An earlier version of this page used three of these stretches and showed 87% and 58%. Reading every denial found private opinions the first count missed, most of them in denials, so the numbers came down. The gap between the two groups held.
- We kept every decision number, so the count can be checked.
See what your records support
Our Nexus Check reads every page you send and cites the page for each finding, including pages that work against the claim. It’s free. If you request a letter, we draft it, and a licensed clinician reviews it, edits it and signs only what they support.
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We don’t file claims or contact the VA for you. You or your accredited representative decide how to submit your evidence.
Public Board of Veterans’ Appeals decisions. These veterans weren’t Anchorpoint clients. Every claim is decided on its own evidence.