OWCP Ignores Mandate for Open Gov't

President Obama has called for more transparency in government and has required all Departments to execute this concept. Unfortunately, OWCP has not gotten the message. They continue a decade-long pattern of pretending to serve injured workers, while focusing all of their energy upon pleasing employing agencies.

For example, OWCP has added Skype links to “facilitate” calling key personnel such as Regional Directors and top National Office Administrators, but if you search for such key personnel, you do not find any of their names in Skype. Other DOL agencies are issuing frequent accessible news releases, but not OWCP. Other DOL organizations have had live video recorded chats, but not OWCP. OWCP’s presentation of their “Strategic Plan” held on March 25, 2010, was not video-taped for public viewing nor were there any outside participants other than some former OWCP employees who now work for other government agencies. This continues a pattern of OWCP mistakenly viewing its “customer” as the employing agency, and ignoring the plight of the injured worker.

2010 COLA

OWCP has published the 2010 annual cost-of-living adjustments (COLA):

• Pay Rates: The new maximum compensation rate based on the salary of a GS-15, step 10, is now $129,517 per year. The minimum compensation rate is the salary of a GS-2, Step 1 or $20,017 per year. The weekly minimum is $288.71 and the maximum is $1,868.03. Thus a newly calculated payment as of January 18, 2010 for 28 days would be $1,154.83 for the minimum and $7,472.13 for the maximum. In death cases, the monthly pay is a minimum of $1,668.08 and a maximum of $8,094.81.

• Cost-of-Living Adjustments for March 1, 2010 based on the “Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers” (CPI-W) is 3.4 percent. The increase is applicable where disability or death occurred before March 1, 2009. The maximum compensation rates are $7,472.13 per four weeks or 1,868.03 per week after rounding to the nearest $1.00 monthly or the nearest $.25 weekly. By contrast, for SSA beneficiaries there is no cost of living adjustment for 12/01/2009–11/30/2010.

• Debts: The interest charge on overpayments has also been changed to 1.0 percent for January 1, 2010 through December 31, 2010. This compares to a rate of 3% last year. The rate will be reviewed again on July 1, 2010 to determine if the Treasury has changed the rate.

• Mileage: Effective January 1, 2010 the reimbursement for use of privately owned automobiles necessary for medical treatment has been reduced to $.50 per mile compared to $.55 last year.

Change in Mental Health Law May Help With Claims for Emotional Conditions

The Wellstone-Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act, effective on January 1, 2010, ends health insurance benefits inequity between mental health/substance use disorders and medical/surgical benefits for group health plans with more than 50 employees.

How does this apply to federal workers? If you have an emotional condition caused or exacerbated by your job, or if you develop a psychiatric condition as a result of your physical injury, this Act may make mental health treatment more affordable. Later, if you file a workers' compensation claim, your treatment records provide the evidence necessary to establish the existence of your work-related condition. Without treatment records, it is virtually impossible to support a claim. Once a claim is approved, OWCP is responsible for paying for your past as well as future work-related treatment.

Note: In a federal workers' compensation claim, OWCP will only consider reports from “physicians” including psychiatrists or Ph.D. level Clinical Psychologists. Other providers such as social workers, Master’s degree level psychologists and spiritual counselors are not considered “physicians” in a federal workers' compensation claim, and their reports cannot be used to establish a claim.

Open Season Is Here

If you need to change you health insurance enrollment, you can download or print-out all of the information you need at http://www.opm.gov/insure/

Remember, open season runs November 9 - December 14, 2009

Federal regulations require an annual Open Season to be held each year from the Monday of the second full workweek in November through the Monday of the second full workweek in December. You can find more information about the annual Open Season dates in the FEHB Handbook.

You must submit your Open Season enrollment change before midnight, Eastern Standard Time, on the last day of Open Season to be considered timely filed. Open Season enrollment changes take effect the first day of your first full pay period in January of the following year. You can find more information in the FEHB Handbook.

from http://www.opm.gov/insure/federal_employ/index.asp?AnswerId=76

OWCP Requests for Medical Reports

Periodically, OWCP sends letters to claimants requesting a current physician’s report and a completed OWCP-5 form as part of their annual review process. Note that OWCP’s letter may include a list of accepted medical conditions, but it NEVER includes a copy of the Statement of Accepted Facts (SOAF). This is unfortunate because a physician's report is frequently worthless if it does not incorporate the SOAF.

If you receive such a letter, be sure to tell your physician that his/her report needs to include an accurate discussion of the history of your work injury as found in the Statement of Accepted Facts (SOAF); otherwise, OWCP can choose to disregard it.

If you don't have a copy of the SOAF to share with your physician, you should request a copy in writing (not by telephone) from OWCP.

VA Employees May be Owed Back Pay

FEDERALDAILY.COM reports that a recent court decision may award back pay to some VA health care workers (see complete news release below). If you end up receiving back pay as a result of this court decision, you may also be owed an adjustment from OWCP if your pay rate on your OWCP case should have included this pay.

Court Decision Would Award Back Pay to Some VA Health Care Workers
Current and former health care employees at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) who worked nights and weekends may be eligible for up to $10,000 each in back pay under a recent federal court ruling. The case affects VA health care employees who either currently or formerly worked at VA on Saturdays or at night after 6 p.m. from September 1995 up until the present. The U. S. Court of Federal Claims ruled that VA should have paid these employees the customary weekend premium pay of 25 percent or night premium pay of 10 percent whenever they took paid leave instead of working their weekend or evening shifts. Under the court ruling, all claims must be filed by Feb. 9, 2010. The court is still working out ways to calculate the back pay and interest in each individual claim, according to an Oct. 16 statement posted online by the National Federation of Federal Employees. The case is Quimby v. United States, No. 02-101C. The judge in the case said that current and former VA employees should not call the U.S. Clerk's office because all the necessary explanations are contained on the Web site www.VAbackpay.com, according to a statement by the American Federation of Government Employees. Those who may qualify for an award in the case include registered nurses, nurse anesthetists, licensed practical nurses, licensed vocational nurses, pharmacists, licensed physical therapists, occupational therapists, respiratory therapists and employees in over two dozen other specialized health care positions. -Federal Daily

To see more, go to:
www.afge.org/index.cfm?fuse=content&contentID=2042 or
www.nffe.org/ht/display/ArticleDetails/i/16112

OWCP Whistleblower!!

Here's an interesting story
http://www.propublica.org/feature/plan-to-pay-sick-nuclear-workers-unfairly-rejects-many-doctor-says-731

The Energy program is run by the same people in charge of the FECA program. Perhaps we are finally going to see things start to crack open and some accountability for the bad acts of those running this program.

The entire OWCP focus is on massaging statistics to make the program look good. There is NO focus on providing quality work.