APWU of Iowa   

If you are

injured

while at

work you need

to

check out

this

information.

http://home.att.net/~Local7027/OWCP.htm

APWU Human Relations

http://www.apwu.org/dept/human-rel/hr-injurycomp.htm

Federal Injury Compensation 

The Federal Employees’ Compensation Act (FECA) provides wage loss compensation and medical benefits to postal and federal employees who become injured or ill as a result of their duties.

For an overview of laws, regulations, and policies that affect injured postal and federal employees, click here.

 Workmans Compensation

non Federal

http://www.workerscompensation.com/

http://www.dol.gov/esa/owcp_org.htm

OWCP Claims Processing 101

(This article first appeared in the January/February 2008 issue of The American Postal Worker magazine.)

Suffering an injury at work can often be painful; getting a claim approved shouldn’t be. Understanding the basic claims process of the Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs is an employee’s best defense.

In order to obtain benefits when an injury occurs at work, notice must be submitted to OWCP. The three most common notices submitted by postal workers to initiate claims are: Traumatic Injury, Occupational Disease, and Recurrence of Disability.

The Right Form

If the condition is caused by a single event or a series of events in a single workday or shift, Form CA-1 should be filed. When a notice of such a Traumatic Injury is reported within seven days, the supervisor should provide the employee with Form CA-16 (“Authorization for Examination and/or Treatment”) within four hours of the request, even if the employer doubts the injury is work-related. The CA-16 guarantees payment for most non-invasive treatments, regardless of whether the claim is approved.

If the condition is caused by a series of events over a period of two or more workdays or shifts, the employee should file Form CA-2, which provides notice of an Occupational Disease. The length of time that a condition takes to manifest itself — not the diagnosis — determines which claim to file.

The most misunderstood claim is a Recurrence of Disability, which is defined as a worsening of an accepted medical condition without an intervening event. If an accepted medical condition is worsened by the work environment, it is not a recurrence, but is considered a new injury, in which case a new claim should be filed. Also, a recurrence can be claimed when the employer withdraws medically suitable work. Form CA-2a should be filed when a recurrence occurs.

The Five Requirements

Giving notice does not automatically entitle employees to Federal Employees’ Compensation Act (FECA) benefits. Five requirements must be satisfied to achieve claim approval.

For a claim to be considered timely, an employee has three years from the date of injury, or from the date that he or she became reasonably aware that a condition was causally related to work, to file.

As postal employees, we meet the second requirement, being a civilian employee.

In order to meet the third requirement, fact of injury, both the occurrence of an event (an accident or employment factor) and a resulting medical condition must be established. An event alone, such as a slip and fall or exposure, without a resulting medical condition does not meet the requirement. In cases of latent disability, employees have three years from the onset of the condition to file.

If the first three criteria have been accepted, the claims examiner must then determine whether the employee was in performance of duty when the injury occurred. Employees who are injured on USPS premises during working hours and are engaging in activity which is reasonably associated with employment are covered. This includes on premises use of restrooms, time spent on breaks or lunch or for personal acts for the employees’ comfort.

Coverage is also extended to employees who are on premises for a reasonable time before or after work hours, on official union time, in travel status, injured in parking facilities owned, controlled, or managed by the USPS, or off premises when the nature of the work requires it.

The final requirement, causal relationship, is often the most problematic documentation to obtain. Many doctors simply state that a condition is work-related rather than explaining the causal relationship between the injury and the workplace. Doctors must provide medical reasoning explaining how they came to their conclusions (e.g., how lifting a box caused a herniated disc, or how repetitive grasping caused carpal tunnel syndrome). The medical narrative must connect the dots.

Failure to satisfy all of these requirements often generates frustrating OWCP developmental letters and can result in denied claims or delays that create financial hardship for the employees and their families.

All of this can be avoided with a little understanding.