Access to ACS and CQS is offline

The Office of Personnel Management hack has triggered another victim. OWCP claimants and their representatives and medical providers are no longer able to access the ACS web bill processing portal to look at the status of bills, authorizations, etc. The CQS portal is also gone. As it was explained to me, OWCP has locked down external log ins to their system due to the continuing concerns about hacking. This has sent OWCP back to the 1990s with all inquiries regarding the status of anything in the case reverting to telephone.

Presently there is no guidance as to how long this situation will continue. When trying to log in to the ACS portal you will get the following message:

Claimant Login

NOTICE Claimant access to ACS Web Bill Processing Portal has been temporarily taken offline . We are sorry for the inconvenience. In the interim, you may use the following information below for additional help. Bill information: In the meantime, claimants may obtain medical bill processing information related to their cases by calling the XEROX call center (844)-493-1966. Case information: Current federal employees may access their information via the National Financial Center (NFC) Employee Personal Page link. After logging into the Employee Page, the CQS link to access data can be found at the lower, left portion of the page. Claimants who are not serviced by NFC, or have separated from federal service and want to obtain information about their OWCP case such as case status, recent compensation payment, or status of their most recent CA7 Claim for Compensation, may do so by using OWCP's IVR phone system by calling their local district office.

Name Business Phone Business Address Boston District Office 1 (857) 264-4600 JFK Federal Building, Room E-260 New York District Office 1 (212) 863-0800 201 Varick Street, Room 740 Philadelphia District Office 1 (267) 687-4160 170 S. Independence Mall West Jacksonville District Office 1 (904) 366-0100 400 West Bay Street, Room 826 Cleveland District Office 1 (216) 902-5600 1240 East Ninth Street, Room 851 Chicago District Office 1 (312) 789-2800 230 South Dearborn Street, Eighth Floor Kansas City District Office 1 (816) 268-3040 2300 Main Street, Suite 1090 Denver District Office 1 (303) 202-2500 One Denver Federal Center, Bldg 53 San Francisco District Office 1 (415) 241-3300 90 Seventh St. Suite 15-100F Seattle District Office 1 (206) 470-3100 300 Fifth Avenue, Suite 1050 Dallas District Office 1 (214) 749-2320 525 South Griffin Street, Room 100 Washington District Office 1 (202) 513-6800 800 N. Capital Street, N.W., Room 800

Be sure to update your life insurance beneficiary(s)

I have many clients who unfortunately have serious disabling injuries that will prevent them from returning to work for the rest of their lives. In the madness that is living with a life altering injury and dealing with OWCP, people sometimes never get around to updating their life insurance beneficiary choice. Recently, a client passed away who had never updated his life insurance to list his wife of many years. Instead, his life insurance went to a cousin who had had little involvement with them for many years. The forms to select a beneficiary are available on the OPM website, complete the necessary form and follow the instructions for submitting the forms:
http://www.opm.gov/healthcare-insurance/life-insurance/designating-a-beneficiary/#url=Forms-for-Designations

New Director of OWCP

Leonard J. Howie, III, is the new director of OWCP replacing acting director Steinberg:

http://www.dol.gov/owcp/owcpdir.htm

FECA reform arises again, nothing here will benefit federal employees, just make an already harsh system worse...

And so it starts again. I would love to know what "federal managers" are actually pushing to eviscerate FECA benefits as opposed to private insurance companies taking a long view towards figuring out how to privatize and make money off of others' misfortune. As the Obama administration is on the record supporting the stripping of benefits from FECA, and with the changes in Congress in the last midterm elections, this could quickly gain traction. I will update as I learn more.

 

http://www.fedweek.com/federal-managers-daily-report/feca-proposals-repeated-2/

The federal workers compensation system administered by OWCP could certainly use some reform, but simply reducing the level of benefits and making it harder to receive benefits is not in the interest of federal employees, nor the unnamed "federal managers" who supposedly support this action, as opposed to private interests and their lobbying staffs who simply want to shrink the federal government any way possible.  

OWCP and reports from someone who is not considered a physician

In a federal workers compensation case, reports must be from a physician. A physician includes  a podiatrist for a foot condition, a psychologist who has a Ph.D., and a chiropractor ONLY for the condition of subluxation. The Employees Compensation Appeals Board has held that a report from a non-physician will be considered medical evidence if countersigned by a qualified physician. This is also found in the Procedure Manual, at Chapter 2.805.3a(1) (January 2013).

Why does OWCP claim not to have received my CA-1032 or other information?

When you send something to OWCP it is scanned to your file. The file contains both scanned documents and an index, or table of contents, that points to the documents received to your file. It is quite common for a CA-1032 or other document to be incorrectly indexed to your file. Your claims examiner will look at that index and not see that a CA-1032 form is listed and assume you did not return it. If you sent in the form and then get a letter saying your claim is going to be suspended because you did not return the form, you should call in and speak to the customer service representative or your claims examiner and ask them to look at the incoming documents scanned to your file around the time the "missing" document should have arrived, not just the index. Most likely it is there and was just not coded correctly when it was scanned.

Get SSA to "pay" your attorney fees in your workers compensation case

This is a topic I posted on about 2 years ago. If you are receiving a check from OWCP and are also entitled to Social Security Disability payments from SSA, you can get SSA to "pay" your attorney fees as an "excludable expense." This also applies to other expenses related to your workers compensation such as paying for medical reports.

SSA has a document available online explaining how to report your attorney fees paid in connection with receiving FECA wage loss benefits from OWCP. The attorney fees (and other qualifying expenses) will be used to reduce the offset amount. Please click on the link below to SSA POMS - DI 52150.050 - Excludable Expenses, and carefully follow SSA's instructions:

link updated 1/26/15: the url below is correct, if the link does not work, cut and paste the link in your browser.

https://secure.ssa.gov/poms.nsf/lnx/0452150050
If this link does not work, do a google search for the document number  "0452150050"