Breaking OWCP with Chris & Gini

(Chats 5-1-19) Secrets of the Claims Examiner: Expert Strategies for Approval

• Chris & Gini Helms

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0:00 | 1:14:42

Chris and Gini discuss the internal "reprogramming" of their new expert staff to help listeners understand what CEs look for in a narrative. The episode covers the "Five Pillars of a Narrative Report," the rules for travel reimbursement, and a checklist for protecting your job using the CA-17 instead of FMLA.

Key Takeaways & Show Notes

1. The Five Pillars of a Winning Narrative Report

Chris explains that because every injury is unique, there is no "template," but every successful report must include:

  • Detailed Job Description: Beyond just a job title; it must list physical demands (e.g., "walking 10 miles," "lifting 70 lbs").
  • Detailed Injury Description: A step-by-step account of the incident (e.g., "stepped into a hole while exiting the LLV").
  • Direct Link (Causation): A clear explanation of how the specific job duties caused the specific medical condition.
  • Medical Rationale: The doctor's professional reasoning connecting the diagnosis to the mechanics of the injury.
  • Specific Diagnosis: A valid medical diagnosis (not just "pain").

2. Travel Reimbursement (Form OWCP-957)

  • Round Trip Rule: You are entitled to reimbursement for travel to doctors and physical therapy for up to 100 miles round trip.

  • Pre-Authorization: If you must travel more than 100 miles, you must get pre-approval from your Claims Examiner.
  • Documentation: Use Google Maps to verify mileage and submit the form for every three trips.

3. Protecting Your Job: CA-17 vs. FMLA

Chris provides a strategy for "preserving" FMLA:

  • If your claim is accepted, your CA-17 (Duty Status Report) protects your job because management must follow medical restrictions.
  • Preserve FMLA: Save your FMLA hours for non-work-related illnesses or family emergencies. Use the CA-17 as your primary job protection for work injuries.
  • The "Shall" Requirement: Management is legally required to fill out Side A of the CA-17 before the doctor fills out Side B.

4. Fighting Back Against "Accident Write-Ups"

If management attempts to put an "accident write-up" in your file:

  • This is often a tactic to claim willful misconduct.
  • Action: Immediately contact your union and file a grievance. Use your right to a copy of the front and back of your CA-1/CA-2 to see exactly what management wrote in the "supervisor" portions.



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Wednesday Night OWCP Chats with Chris & Gini

SPEAKER_00

Welcome back to the Breaking O WCP podcast. Join Chris and Jeannie as they bring you expert advice on the Federal Workers Com guiding you step by step to get back to work the right way. Let's break down the barriers and get you the help you deserve.

SPEAKER_01

Hey everyone, welcome to Wednesday night OWCP chat. Only Chris Helms. Yeah. He has to play this freaking song. Anyways, we know that it's not directly nine o'clock. We're trying out this new program because Chris hates doing Wednesday night OWCB chats alone. We're just created.

SPEAKER_02

I mean, I have an audience, but it's better when I have some entertainment on my dry show.

SPEAKER_01

On his dry show. Let's see. It's not coming up on Facebook.

SPEAKER_02

What the hell?

SPEAKER_01

Oh, here it is. I got it.

SPEAKER_02

Oh, okay. User error.

SPEAKER_01

Okay, Chris can't see his is my head in there.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, you're fine. Not anymore. You were good before.

SPEAKER_01

I'm good now.

SPEAKER_02

No, your chin's gone.

SPEAKER_01

My chin is gone?

SPEAKER_02

Go back where you were when you started.

SPEAKER_01

Hold on. Let me see. I don't want my chin gone.

SPEAKER_02

Stay right there.

SPEAKER_01

All right, we're getting a bunch of people saying hello. Nancy, Maureen, hello. Hello, Kim, Jackie, Lisa, Mike. So yeah, we're trying out this new program to see if it's gonna work when Chris is in. Good evening, Tom. Laura, hello. I'm on Facebook. Chris, Mike said, watch your language. Yeah, so we're trying out this new program. So if worse comes to worse, everyone, we will end it and then we'll go on our Chris will just hop on his phone.

SPEAKER_00

But first of all, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

I feel like I'm not in the camera, am I?

SPEAKER_02

Go ahead. Oh man, that's so perfect. Look at that.

SPEAKER_01

Lanise, Heather, Regina, Lisa, Kim, hello everyone. Again, welcome to Wednesday night OWCP chats. We are actually trying this new program out, new program. So we'll be able to do this because unfortunately, Facebook business page, like we have our Wednesday night OWCP chats, doesn't allow us to invite a friend. And I don't know why.

SPEAKER_02

And all of you have seen me do this by myself and those game shows where you need a lifeline. I definitely need a lifeline. And Jeannie's that, so it's a better that she's on.

SPEAKER_01

And his lifeline. And we try to make this really entertaining and educational as well. As you can see, we have a banner at the bottom. If those of you that are asking us for our phone number, it's on the bottom. So we put that up there today. Chris, he's always thinking of something. We have a lot of awesome news to tell everyone, as well as due QA. So we'd like you guys to go ahead. Yes, you are, but sometimes Chris fades in and out. I know. Chris, you got to stay still.

unknown

Yes.

SPEAKER_02

Well, sometimes I fade in and out. That's just how it goes.

SPEAKER_01

Chris is going through a little storm in Texas, maybe another tornado. The Wizard of Oz is happening in Texas today.

SPEAKER_02

So we're at the south portion of Tornado Alley, and we get storms. It's happening. So just bear with me.

SPEAKER_01

We'd like everybody to do. You guys read my post a few weeks back that I want every federal employee nationwide to like our page and follow us so we could have more and more. I think we're at like 1400 followers, which is really awesome. Tammy, hello, Tammy. Tammy, Chris. Hi, Sue. Hi, Mike. So yeah, go ahead and share this page and uh and like it and have your friends tag your friends at the bottom. Give us some hearts and let us know that you're here. Let us know where you're watching us from. And first off, I'd like to start off with one of the big things we're gonna be doing this weekend. Chris is flying in. Everybody that's with the NALC, I know within your city and state, you guys do something for the muscular dystrophy. So what we normally do, we team up with our local NALC, which is also our state president lives in the area at Brunch 2008. We're gonna be out there on Sunday with Al, yeah, on Sunday, May 5th. So we're gonna do cinco de mayo there and then after. We like everybody that's in the NALC in brunch 2008 and Tampa, wherever, come on out, donate. We are gonna be donating three different kinds of beer and we're gonna have some jello shots. I'm gonna probably ride around in the cart and collect more money. And we're gonna be giving away three$100 gift cards. We're not gonna say which ones they are, we're just gonna wait for you guys to show up. They're not gonna suck. What'd you say?

SPEAKER_02

They're not gonna suck. Those are gonna be good, good gift cards.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, they are. California, North Carolina, Pennsylvania. Hello, everyone. Welcome. Yeah, so we're really looking forward to the MDA. This is our third year doing it. Year one, we raised$10,000. Year two, we raised last year, we raised$8,000, and we're hoping to exceed that this year. So everybody in Brunch 2008 and the surrounding areas, I know there's gonna be a couple people from other cities coming in. We can't wait to meet you guys. Don't forget to stop at our little station. We don't know where we're gonna be sitting yet, but we'll be there with all the drinks as we go.

SPEAKER_02

The second half of your golf course, you're screwed.

SPEAKER_01

I'm making the like the best jello shots. So make sure you guys come out. We got Chicago, Kentucky, Georgia, Ohio, Texas, South Carolina, West Virginia. Hello, everyone. So today we're doing a QA. You ask and we answer. Go ahead, start getting your questions, anything OWCP related. And we want you guys to understand that stuff that happens within the post office, we really can't control and we don't know the answers as far as what your job descriptions and stuff like that. We really don't know, and we can't give you an accurate answer. We don't want to give you an answer that's not true or a lie. So we just we'll stick to the OWCP questions. And at the end, we have a couple big announcements that we'd like everyone to know what's going on. And as Chris is talking about all this other stuff and answering questions, I'll interrupt if I need to.

SPEAKER_02

And we have, let's see, don't even interrupt if you don't need to, I guarantee it.

SPEAKER_01

Fair Hope, Alabama, Spring Hill, Florida. And at the end, I'll also tell you all of our locations and where we're gonna be in the month of May and some more exciting stuff. So take it away, Chris.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, so before I get started and bring your questions, so far there's no questions, there's a lot of check-ins, and that's good. But before the questions come in, I want to tell everybody that uh as a company, Federal Injury Centers has made a couple of interesting changes that are gonna benefit federal employees. It to this point, there's been just a couple of us that are, I would say, OWCP experts outside of the doctors. And in the last week, we hired two people that are case managers for federal injury centers. Their purpose is to get all timely filed, legitimate claims accepted. So those of you that know me and know our motto is no more deny claims. And so what we're trying to say is look, if it's timely filed three years and it's a legit claim, you didn't do it on the weekend when you weren't at work, then let's get those accepted. In the south, we've got Jennifer, who is a 10-year veteran and DOL. I've known her for a very long time. We're lucky to have her. There's no questions, she doesn't know the answers to, and uh, she knows what a really good narrative report looks like. So she's gonna be working on these to get these claims accepted. And in the north, we actually hired someone who's a former claims examiner. And her name is Cammie, and I hope she'll forgive me for all the times I call claims examiners fourth graders because she's not one, and she actually understands the ins and outs of what they're doing, and what are the I don't want to say secrets, but secrets to what claims examiners are looking for. So if we hired her, she's also got a background at the VA. Don't hold that against her VA employees. She acknowledges that she might need a little reprogramming wink, and so we'll definitely handle that. But seriously, we've hired a couple of people whose hearts are in the right place that are all about getting timely filed legitimate claims accepted. So we're super excited about having these new people with us because it's a big country, there's 2.8 million federal employees, and Tom and I need some help. And so we did that, and uh, we're looking forward to getting even more claims accepted. In the last three years, the doctors we're associated with got over a thousand claims accepted. In the next three years, I want it to be multiples of that, and so that's what we're working on. So tell your friends, tell your coworkers if you want your claim accepted, federal interest centers is where you go. You can go other places, there's other doctors. I don't recommend any of them, but I recommend ours. We're doing what we can, our part, to help you get your claims accepted, and we're super excited about it. So, with that said, what questions do we have?

SPEAKER_01

We have Javon said, Hey, Chris and Jeannie, I called John in Boston and on Monday. I have an appointment to see the doctor there on site. So things are looking good for me. Thank you for being there and helping so many postal workers. You're so welcome, Javon.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, you're very welcome. And do us a favor, and in fact, do your coworkers a favor. We'd like you and everybody else watching this to take a minute to share this video and to just at least tell a lot of people would undershoot this and say, tell somebody, tell three people that you know to watch this right now. Yeah, really, the number of viewers should triple right now. If you care about your coworkers and if any of them are your friends, they should be watching this. So tell people to watch it, make them do it. This is really important. There's not a week that goes by that we don't do this in some form or fashion. This somebody comes to us crying saying, Gosh, I wish I would have known this already. Nobody ever told me this stuff. And it's your responsibility to tell the people to watch this. Here's what we get out of it we get to help people, and you get to participate in helping people by telling people. So take a second right now and share it with three people. Just do that now, and uh we're gonna keep talking. But we want to maximize the number of people that see this. There are 2.8 million federal employees. So everybody's got their work cut out. Get started, share, get the sharing done. Okay, tell a friend.

SPEAKER_01

Okay, so let's start with our questions. They're coming in here. You guys be patient so I can go through them because Chris is not seeing them. All right, so Jackie says, I was told my CA2 was an accident write-up and going in my file. Question mark. How do I take that?

SPEAKER_02

Jackie, take that straight to your union and fight back. What they're saying, if it goes in your file, is that it was willful misconduct or intent to injure yourself or something else. This is typically bogus. So take it to your union and fight back, file a grievance, do whatever it takes. But for sure, fill out your CA1 form or CA2, whatever it is. I'm not sure. It sounds like a one, and uh get copies of the whole thing. But don't let them push you around. That's really important. So if they push you, push back. Go to your union, who is probably very powerful, and file agreements.

SPEAKER_01

Jackie, hopefully, we answered your question. Tom says a member I represent filed a CA2 for CTS, waiting three weeks for approval to get surgery. Surgeon states he knows how to deal with OWCP.

SPEAKER_02

That doesn't sound like a question, but my answer is awesome because most surgeons don't. So if your surgeon knows how to handle OWCP, definitely stick with that doctor. But make sure that the doctor that understands OWCP knows how to write good narrative reports. Because it doesn't matter that you can prove that you have carpal tunnel syndrome, and it doesn't matter that you can prove that you're a federal employee. What matters is it can prove that as a result of your federal employment, you develop carpal tunnel syndrome. And your doctor is the only person who can write that narrative report explaining it. If the doctor can't do that, the claim will never get accepted and it'll be paid for out of your pocket. So make sure that's covered.

SPEAKER_01

Kim Davis. Hey Kim, how are you? So Kim was one of our first ones, and we're really excited for her because she got her case accepted about what two weeks ago. So we're really excited for Kim. Kim says, How can we get our case on e-comp? I have an account, but it says I can't submit a CA7, also says I have no case.

SPEAKER_02

All right, so call your claims examiner, Kim, and ask your claims examiner why it says you have no case. For e-comp, if you have a nine-digit case number and you know your date of birth, and you know your date of injury, and you know your name, then you can get on e-comp. My gut feeling is all that stuff, Kim. I know one of those things right now because I know your name is Kim. You probably know the rest. And so call your claims examiner and ask why e-comp is not working for you because I'm not an injured employee and I can e-comp anything I want anytime for anybody if I have that information. And so if you're having a problem with it, feel free to give us a call and I'll walk you through e-comp to get you uh to be able to upload your CA7s. But with that said, your CA7 has to go to your supervisor to fill out page two, and the supervisor then has five days to turn that into the claims examiner, five work days. And be sure that's happening regardless of the e-comp. And I'm uh I'm really proud of you for trying to e-comp it, but make sure your supervisor has it to send it in and be sure you've got the supported documentation so you get paid.

SPEAKER_01

All right. Oh, you're welcome, Kim. Let's see. Next question. Oh, wait, hold on, Kim. Okay, Lenise Harris. I just found out that you could be reimbursed for travel to doctor's visits. Can you submit now? And does that include physical therapy?

SPEAKER_02

It does. Listen, you're allowed a travel reimbursement up to a hundred miles round trip. And so if you're having to go more than a hundred miles, you should get that pre-authorized through your case manager or claims examiner. Sorry, claims examiner. Call them up, tell them what the deal is, and ask them to pre-authorize it. If it's a hundred miles or less round trip, then you fill out an OWCP 957, which is a travel reimbursement form. Attach the uh like a Google map printout of where you left from to go there and uh turn that in. Each OWCP 957 has a place for three days of travel. So after you exceed, once you hit three days, get another form and just turn them in like that.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, Kim Marie says, You've helped so many people that I've sent your way. You're so welcome, Kim.

SPEAKER_02

We appreciate that, but more than anything, and a lot of people, it's funny, they say we want to send a lot of people to you. Well, the truth is we want to help a lot of people, so we really appreciate you participating in that because oftentimes without you, your coworkers are never gonna get the help because they don't know about us yet, they haven't come across us like you have, and we appreciate just the opportunity to help a lot of people. So thank you.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, okay. So there's a lot of you been texting me and messaging me on everything, asking about us to give you a sample narrative report. And we're gonna have Chris explain why we can't do that.

SPEAKER_02

So here's the deal with a sample narrative report. I could tell you this, and everybody that cares about sample narrative reports, get a pen and paper and write this down. I can tell you that a narrative report has to include the following five things, and it may if it's more or less whatever, but I think it's five. You need to be able to explain your job description. What do you do all day? And not just I deliver the mail, but what does that take? I walk 10 miles and lift up to 70 pounds and have to climb up and down the stairs and so on and so forth. You have to put your physical demands. Then you have to be able to describe in great detail how the injury happened. I stepped out of my LLV into a hole and twisted my knee, and I fell to the ground and felt pain and so on and so forth. And then you've got to explain how your job was a direct link to that injury. That was tricky, but it's got to be done. And then there's a medical narrative portion, which is like blood pressure and other medical stuff. I'm not a doctor, but some other medical stuff. And then to finish it up, you've got to be able to summarize it and in causation explain the link between the job and the injury and then include a valid specific diagnosis. It's not easy. If it was easy, all the doctors would be doing it and all the claims would be accepted. But as from listening to me, only one out of 19 federal employees has an accepted claim. It's not easy. But those are the basics of what it takes to get a claim accepted. But it's hard to give you an example of a narrative because every injury is different. Like I like using postal employees, sorry, letter cares, but you guys get hurt more often than everybody else. But I like using this example, and I hate that it actually happens, but the dog bite. Look, it's not just like a cartoon in a newspaper, and dog bites a real thing, but every dog bite I've ever heard of had different details, and so there's no standard dog bite narrative because they're all different. What if you had to jump over a fence or swerve left and right? Or what if it was a pit bull versus a chihuahua? And if you're running from a chihuahua, we got other issues that I probably can't put to a narrative.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

So we gotta read your narratives. If anybody would like to send them, I'll let you know what's wrong with it.

SPEAKER_01

So here's a here's it's not a question, but a really sweet message. It's from Shannon. I know I've been messaging Shannon back and forth because she was very lost in this whole OWCP world. She says, I'm on my way home now from their Clearwater office in Clearwater, Florida. These people are awesome, and I believe because of them, I'm headed in the right direction after almost three months. They're the only ones that's had that's been willing to help me all this time, and today is the only day I've gotten relief. So thank everyone. Thankful for everyone more than they know. You're so welcome, Shannon. I knew you were in the office because I got a message that you were there, so that's good.

SPEAKER_02

And thanks for saying that. And the number one thing for us is just helping as many people as we can. Shannon, we're glad we can help you. And uh really like from the bottom of my heart, glad we can help. Hey, Jeannie, before you ask the next question, let me just say this. What's up, Natasha?

SPEAKER_01

Natasha's on there, yeah. How come I didn't see her? Oh, hey, she didn't say hi to us, she said hi to Kim.

SPEAKER_02

Hi Kim too, but I want to give a special message to Natasha.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, we did say hi. Hold on.

SPEAKER_02

Let's double it. You know what I'm talking about. Anyways, uh, what else we got?

SPEAKER_01

Okay, so we have Tracy says, How can I get copies of my CA one? I asked my postmaster, my work comp lady, and my claims examiner.

SPEAKER_02

I'm so glad you asked, Tracy. Let me tell you the answer to this. This is for everybody. So, what you're gonna do is get your phone. Everybody, just take your phone. You have it in front of you right now. I want you to go to the Google Play Store or to the app store. And uh, when you get there, I want you to get the Twitter app. No, yes, don't look at the score. Twitter. Get the Twitter app. I'm gonna tell you in advance that I agree with you, Twitter's dumb. Don't follow anybody else, don't leave it alone otherwise, set it for notifications, and then walk away from it. But you need the Twitter app and you need to follow me at the at sign Fed Enjury Center. At Fed Entry Center, follow me there. Here's why, because there's a law for that. And the law says that you have to get copies of your CA1 and CA2, and that the supervisor shall give you the front and back of pay of the CA1 or two along with the receipt of notice or notice of receipt. If you had that law, would it help you get your CA1 from your supervisor? I think so. Because a supervisor that says I'm not gonna give it to you, I don't want to give it to you, I don't know how to give it to you. If you show them the law from the code of federal regulations that says they have to, wouldn't that be helpful? So, how do you get that law? I'm glad you asked. Go to Twitter and follow me at Fed Injury Center. I'm posting stuff like that on there, just like quick hits, and you can take it to your supervisor and say, hey, but what about this law? And I promise you, most people don't want to break the law. And so just show them, then you can get it. But with that said, the law says you can have copies of everything, don't take no for an answer.

SPEAKER_01

All right, let's see. Good evening, Nancy. Yes. Oh, Kim, you said I spent I have all that info, spent the whole day in the library doing forms. Hey, Kim, if you need our help, you have my cell phone number, call me, and Chris and I will get on the phone with you.

SPEAKER_02

So you spent a whole day looking at this stuff. I could have saved you a whole day. Yeah, don't do that.

SPEAKER_01

I just bring booster to give us a call when you're ready to fill this out. So we we walk you through the right way. So you call us tomorrow or whenever we'll help you.

SPEAKER_02

Don't spend a whole day doing this stuff. I did that already. I'll just give you the shortcuts.

SPEAKER_01

Hey Andrew. Hey Melissa. Oh, I n Natasha said hey guys. Heather, how can I get the medication that the OWCP doctor put me on covered by my OWCP claim?

unknown

So

SPEAKER_02

If your uh claim is accepted already, it just should be. If it's not, you need to get your claim accepted. If you're having a hard time getting medications approved, you need to take the medications that you want that your doctor's trying to prescribe to you and call your claims examiner and find out what the heck's going on and ask them to approve it.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, yeah. Just take. I know if you save the receipt, if you purchased it out of your own pocket, you save the receipt once you get your claim number, you take it over. I personally would go to Walgreens or CVS because they take OWCP. I personally ask because I go there and I ask because I'm like, hey, how do you guys do this? And they said they have to have the claim number because that's their billing. Just like when you guys have a member number and a group number on Blue Cross Bush Shield or Aetna. So they need that approved claim number.

SPEAKER_02

So you got to give them your nine-digit claim number. So you got to have that first. But I wouldn't go to a pharmacy that doesn't take your OWCP claim number.

SPEAKER_01

Right.

SPEAKER_02

You have a choice of pharmacy just like you have a choice of doctor. And so my advice to you is don't pay money out of your pocket.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, don't. Unless you have to, but make sure you go and get that reimbursed back to you.

SPEAKER_02

100%.

SPEAKER_01

Thank you so much. A good friend of mine, she supports by watching. Sue.

SPEAKER_02

Excuse me. So Regina Meadows says she shared her three. Is it ever your three? Thank you, Regina. Look, it's not for me, it's for your coworkers. Please share this. Have don't take no for an answer. Have somebody get on and listen. This is helpful information. If someone gets hurt, they have no idea what to do. And we're helping. We're helping for free. Take advantage of this, please. Thank you, Regina.

SPEAKER_01

Uh Sue, I know you keep saying that you've been trying to get in touch with Chris. You have to let me know when you can actually talk. Chris is going to be in Dallas tomorrow, Thursday, and Friday. Saturday, he's traveling, coming to Florida. So you have two days to get in touch with him. So message me your number or message Chris your number, and he will we'll make sure we call you tomorrow or Friday. You got to tell it's a good time to call because we're both you we're in the middle of doing stuff for this NALC golf tournament. So I'll be in and out. But message us for sure. And we're sorry we haven't been able to get in touch with you.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, let me tell you this too. Sorry, let me say this. It's very important. I keep mentioning there's 2.8 million federal employees. I'm one guy. I'm really trying my best. I want to help as much as I can. If you don't get a hold of me, get a hold of Jeannie. Sorry, Jeannie. I know you get more calls than I do. But the other thing that I do that a lot of you don't know is I'm also helping manage doctors' offices and I'm consulting with doctors, so they do a good job when you call them and need help. And I find myself to be pretty busy from time to time, but I want to help. I really want to help. I'm passionate about helping. And so don't give up. If I don't answer, just keep calling. If I don't respond to a text, keep texting, send me funny emojis, whatever it takes, and then get a hold of Jeannie too, whatever it takes. And lots of times she can get me on the phone. She knows where I'm at, what I'm doing. So if I haven't helped you yet, I apologize. I want to. So keep trying, please. I really want to help. And that's why we hired these case managers too, because I'm one guy and there's 2.8 million of you. And so I'm trying to get some people that really know their stuff. I won't hire people that don't know things, and I hired experts. So we're really trying to help. We're passionately interested in helping you.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, PM Boston, I appreciate y'all's knowledge so much. It has helped me a lot. And he said Chris spent over an hour with him on the phone. And I remember that too. So you're so welcome. We'll do whatever we can and answer your questions over the phone. And it I've been on the phone for an hour and 45 minutes with certain people. And look, we understand that you guys have no one to talk to this about. And it's so stressful for you guys. So now with the two case managers on team, they're very compassionate, just as we are, and they know just as much as we do. So when I tell you, okay, the case manager, Jennifer, or huh? What was that? Oh, great. They will call you and they will answer your question. So now we have more people on the team to help you. Kristen said, Dr. Cameron, Dr. Rosh Mwala, and all the guys in Clearwater are so great and so helpful. Yes, they are.

SPEAKER_02

Let me respond to that. Listen, we're in the Clearwater area. That's Clearwater, Tampa, St. Pete, and the surrounding areas. If you're in Florida and you're not getting a claim accepted, chances are you're in the wrong part of Florida. It's worth a drive. The pain of the drive, no matter if it's two hours or six hours, is better than the pain of a denied claim. And we never charge anybody out of your own pocket. So it never costs you any money ever. Nobody ever pays a penny. And get your claims accepted. We're here. And Dr. Camerman and Rashamola are their like consummate professionals. And Dr. Camerman is the first doctor I ever trained. So he's been doing OWCP as an MD longer than any doctor that I know. If you're in Florida and want a claim accepted, there's one place I would go. That was a shameless plug, but it's a it's the way it is. You want your claim accepted. Stop going to the other places.

SPEAKER_01

So Heather says on exact diagnosis, what if it's being held up by an MRI? I was originally diagnosed with a grade three sprain with soft tissue injury, had an x-ray on the initial visit. The OWCP doctor said I did break a bone by my toes, and there is a tendon and ligament damage, but they don't know which one due to not being able to get an MRI. Had an approval, but wasn't able to get it during the time frame. So waiting on a new approval.

SPEAKER_02

That's a bummer. On the areas that we work in, the MR places work with us and understand this because we teach them. And they'll do the MRI and not charge you out of your own pocket, which means you get your MRI. And then when your claim's accepted or your diagnosis is approved, they get paid. That's what they like about it. They know if they do the MRI, our doctor can use that to write a narrative. The claim gets accepted. Everyone gets paid, but most importantly, you get your claim accepted. You get your diagnosis approved. And so you want to uh talk to your doctor and say, Doc, surely you've got a friend with an MRI or who has an MRI place, talk to them about helping us. Tell them that you need them to do our images so that you can get our claims accepted. Then everybody's everybody benefits, but most importantly, you benefit. And a lot of people don't connect the dots in that, but that's uh standard procedure for us. In Clural, we have two offices that do that, two MRI that just get it. They're like, oh, so all we got to do is push the button and take the MRI, you'll take this the info and write a great narrative. Yeah, it's exactly right. We're all on the same side of the table on this deal.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I know there's a lot of you hopping on right now. Tonight we're doing QA, and we said this at the beginning. Stay till the very end. We have some exciting news, and we're gonna start telling you guys weekly where we're gonna be for the months, what states and what we have planned coming up.

SPEAKER_02

And share, share. Well, we should tell them throughout. Those of you just jumping on, share this with somebody, tell somebody to jump on. This is not a sales presentation, this is an educational presentation. You need this information. If you think you have it already, you don't, I promise you. And if you think somebody already taught it, they did it wrong. So you need to be listening to us and put people on this and have them let make sure that your coworkers, your friends, are gaining from this knowledge.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Diane says, I met the four requirements, but not the fifth and casual relationship. My doctor said she filled out all the forms and gave a short narrative. She said there is nothing more she can do. Now, what do I do?

SPEAKER_02

Have your doctor write a referral to another doctor who's not a coward and who will write the right report. The causal relationship is the most critical part of a narrative report. And if your doctor wrote a short report, there's no such thing as a short report that gets a claim accepted. Our doctors write five or six-page narrative reports, and causation, the causal relationship, is the most critical part of the report. So if your doctor won't do it, get a referral to somebody who will. That's the best I can tell you. Or go back and don't take no for an answer. And I'm a huge advocate of don't take no for an answer. Ever. I never do.

SPEAKER_01

Lori says, on tail end of one of my claims for my knee and ankle surgery two years ago, still on limited duty, recently rolled other ankle and had to file a new CA1. Now I have two cases open. How should the wage reimbursement be done? Continue filling out a CA7A on the first case or COP on the second case?

SPEAKER_02

So the problem is you can't be double paid. So it you just have to pick a case and get paid on it. So whichever one is accepted, I'd get paid on that one for sure. But you can't be paid twice. And so if you're now the exception, you can't be paid twice for the same day. So let's say you're at the doctor on Monday for the left ankle and on the doctor on Tuesday for the right ankle, then you can get paid for both. But generally speaking, if you're at the doctor for both conditions, both claims on the same at the same time, you're only going to get paid once. So pick one. But pick the one that's approved if one of them's not. Get paid on the approved one. Let's see. Just real quick while you're reading that, Jeannie. Uh website, federal injurycenters.com. There's a red button called videos. And you can go on there for anybody that doesn't know how to fill out a CA7 or 7A. Tom, our partner Tom, has made a very detailed video on how to fill that out. It goes through every box. It's only like 18 minutes, but it'll be a really good 18 minutes considering it'll get you paid for your whole week. So take the time that you need to watch that video and take notes. But we've gone out of our way to show you how to get paid using that form. We hope that helps.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, Kim said 78 viewers. You guys are making so many people aware of their rights. So glad we hooked up. So when you guys are on this page on Wednesday night OWCP chats, you see that number. Once we sign off and we look back, like when we're live, because I'm sharing it and you guys are sharing it, we normally have over 2,000, 3,000 views. This is why we keep telling you guys to share because everybody that's on their Facebook gets to see this. So yeah, we're really excited and we love helping you guys.

SPEAKER_02

Jerry, or even 20,000 views, there are 2.8 million federal employees. So can all of you just take a second and share? Just get everybody involved in this. The most, the biggest reason why only one out of 19 federal employees hasn't accepted claim is because they don't know this information. Just knowing the information would make the claim's acceptance rate go way up because people would know how to initiate a claim. Help your coworkers out and have them watch this video, please.

SPEAKER_01

Jerry wants to know how long does it normally take to get results from a second opinion doctor?

SPEAKER_02

Unfortunately, they don't have a time frame. A second opinion doctor can take their time, but they can go fast. Their thing is to write a narrative report that hoses your case because the claims examiner requested it. When DOO is requesting a second opinion doctor, they're trying to close the case, get you back to work. But you want to make sure that your doctor, your treating physician, sends a narrative to that doctor or a CA20 to that doctor to let them know what's going on so they have your side of the story for lack of better words. Not that it's a story, but you get the point. But there's no time frame, they can take as much time as they need, to be honest with you. But what I would do is no matter what happens, keep following your treating doctor's orders, period.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Robert says if you're on work comp, can you use a sick leave the day before or the day after the holiday in order to get holiday pay, or is that authorized?

SPEAKER_02

But it has nothing to do with so in workers' comp, you can only be paid for workers' comp on time that you're away from work because of your injury. If the day before a holiday is not because of your injury, then you can use the sick time, but you're not going to be able to get it back. The day after a holiday, you can use vacation time, but you can't have it back. The only way you can have it back is if you're going to the doctor before you're off of work because of your injury. But at that point, and your claims are accepted, you're probably taking LWAP anyways and preserving your sick and annual time for when you're sick or you want to go to vacation. And in which case, at that point, you would get repaid for your LWAP.

SPEAKER_01

So I'm locked up in here doing this live, and my doggy is definitely scratching the door to try to come in to be on live. Gizmo. Okay.

SPEAKER_02

Robert also says, but you can bring him in.

SPEAKER_01

I will in a minute. Robert asks, can an M can MMI be written by the treating doctor or the doctor who did the orthopedic or the orthopedic surgeon that did the operation?

SPEAKER_02

The GF, Robert. Either of those doctors can do it. If you requested it, it's no problem. They can do it.

SPEAKER_01

Oh boy.

SPEAKER_02

He's really not that heavy.

SPEAKER_01

No, I'm just not feeling well.

SPEAKER_02

Oh, Gizmo. He doesn't look like a new anymore.

SPEAKER_01

Look at all these people on there. You see that? Do you see everyone? Okay. So Lisa Schultz said, What about FMLA? Is that automatically filed, or are you responsible for filing it?

SPEAKER_02

You've got to go do that yourself. You've got to get the FMLA paperwork off the internet and take it to your doctor and have them fill it out. But if you have an accepted claim and you need to be off of work, your CA 17 covers you. Your duty status report is the CA 17. And if you've got an accepted claim and you have a duty status report on file, you don't have to use your FMLA, which is great because FMLA is not infinite. You have 120, some agencies have 240 days, but it's not the whole year. So preserve it when you can and with an accepted claim, take use your CA 17 for time off.

SPEAKER_01

Robert says, if you have an approved case, do you need to file FMLA?

SPEAKER_02

No. If you have an approved case and you have to be off of work because of your injury, you file a CA 17.

SPEAKER_01

All right. And Kim says, as a rule carrier on evaluated routes, how do we go to the doctor's appointments? I was going on my day off since I wasn't approved yet. Now that I'm approved, how do I schedule appointments and document time? My manager says I can't go on my work day. Will OWCP pay me for my time off if it's my day off?

SPEAKER_02

So your manager is wrong or your manager is lying to you. Let's go with wrong. Let's not call your manager a liar. Let's just say your manager is not clear on the rules. You are allowed to spend up to four hours of your workday at the doctor's office at physical therapy. So you can spend up to four hours of your workday getting better. And so what you need to do is give your supervisor ample notice. The way we do it is when you go to the doctor the first time, the doctor schedules all of your appointments, gives you a printout of all your appointments, and says, take it to your supervisor. That way they can't say they didn't have notice. Give them notice. Be sure you give a copy of that to your union, let them know you're doing it, you're gonna need time off. And if your supervisor prevents you from doing it, prevents you from getting better. Follow grievance. What if your doctor is only open nine to five Monday through Thursday? I can tell you, many of them are. If you work nine to five, you're never going to the doctor. And so the law allows for you to get better. That means the supervisor can't prevent you from going to the doctor. So you would clock out, you would take a CA7A and a 7A, and you would fill out LWAP, leave without pay, and account for your time.

SPEAKER_01

Gizmo's getting so many comments more than OWCP comments. I swear to God.

SPEAKER_02

Hey, while the dog's here, share. We might say something else useful. He's not gonna say anything useful, I guarantee it. He's not gonna use words at all. He won't even bark.

SPEAKER_01

He sees daddy on the computer. He knows the voice. Thank you for all the cute comics about Gizmo. He's a he's our baby. Danielle wants to know. Huh?

SPEAKER_02

Moving on.

SPEAKER_01

Danielle wants to know is it correct that for every 40 hours of LWAP for your injury that the post office can take your leave?

SPEAKER_02

No. No. On an accepted claim, LWAP is your time. The end. That's the end. Your leave, your second annual leave is yours. Your LWAP is your time away from work due to an injury that you didn't ask for. No, believe me, no, they can't take it.

SPEAKER_01

Tom says, any suggestions on the best days and times to contact your claims examiner?

SPEAKER_02

Monday through Sunday, any a.m. to any p.m. Leave a message if we don't answer.

SPEAKER_01

Okay. Lisa, you said how does that work with the CA 17? Well, how does what work with the CA 17? Do you remember, Chris?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, hey, uh, let me just explain the CA 17. At the bottom right corner, the form it says CA17. That's how you know you have a 17. The form is called a duty status report. You get that from your supervisor, and your supervisor fills out side A because side A says supervisor. I always ask what comes first, A or B, A. The supervisor fills out A, the physician fills out B. Physician has a hard time filling out side B without A being filled out. So you get it from your supervisor, you take it to your doctor. Your doctor fills out their part, they fax it to Department of Labor, to your claims examiner, they fax it to your supervisor, and they give you two copies: one for you to hand to your supervisor and one for you to keep for yourself. This form allows the doctor to restrict your duties, to take you off of work, to remove restrictions, and to send you back to work. So you get that from your supervisor. If your supervisor refuses to give it to you, you go to federal injurycenters.com, you click on the red forms tab, and you print one yourself, take it to your doctor, and ask your doctor in site A to write with a Sharpie. Supervisor refuse to fill it out. See how many more times that happens.

SPEAKER_01

Okay, Marcos says, I do know we are responsible to file FMLA, but what did you mean preserve it? I have an approved case.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, so Marcos, the cool thing is with an approved case, your doctor can take you off of work and protect your job using a form CA17 duty status report. If you're taken off of work medically by your doctor, you don't need to use FMLA because they have to follow doctor's orders, they meaning the agency, the supervisor. FMLA is important, but it protects your job as well. But OWCP has built in a form into the process that protects your job, and that's a CA 17. If your claim is accepted, your CA 17 takes you off of work and protects your job. I hope that helps, Marcos.

SPEAKER_01

Vivi, I hope I'm saying your name right. She says, I filed a claim, was denied, so because I couldn't return to work, so they fired me. They just approved my case after it was appealed. So what do I do?

SPEAKER_02

Okay. Vivi, I hope you are a union member. If you're not, go sign up today, tomorrow, like first thing, before you do anything else, go sign up, pay your dues. And if they require you to pay your dues for the since January, pay them all. If they say pay your dues for the last 10 years, consider paying all those as well. Your union's gonna get your job back, and all the days that you've been off are gonna get your time back. You're gonna get your job back and you're gonna get paid. But you need a union to help you. So hopefully you're already there. And if you're a union member, go to your president and tell them, I was fired because of a work injury, my claim's accepted. Okay, the people that we know that have been fired because of a work injury, and then their claim is accepted, they got their job back and they got paid for all their lost time. So, what do you do next? Go to the union, tell them what happened. And congratulations for getting your claim accepted. You should get your job back. Yeah, a lot of love buttons there. Me too. In fact, let me give you some.

SPEAKER_01

You're such a ding-dong. I see it. Lisa says, I'm working, I'm working in a limited, restricted duty 32 hours a week. They make me use sick or annual if I need a day off for my issue, and I make my appointments on my days off.

SPEAKER_02

Is your claim accepted? If it is, you should not be using your sick and annual leave. You should be using a CA7 and using LWAP. You can do a thing called leave buyback. It's a CA7B. All forms that I tell you about are on our website, federal injurycenters.com. So don't worry about how you find them. Just go to our website and print them. But you can do leave buyback to get your time back.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. And Kim Davis says, so do they have to get someone to cover your route route while you're at the doctor?

SPEAKER_02

Oh, yeah, this is my favorite part. That's their problem. What's next?

SPEAKER_01

Kim, Kim, did you hear that? So that's on the post office to find somebody else.

SPEAKER_02

Look, you didn't ask to get hurt. You didn't wake up and say, I hope I get hurt today. This would be awesome. Look, you're injured. When you have to be away from work, it's management's job to cover your shift, not your job. It's your job to get better so future shifts don't have to be covered. The faster you get better, the sooner they have to stop. Covering your shifts. Don't worry about that.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, Jerry, what question didn't Chris understand? Which question? Because I know there's two of you going back and forth that he said the wrong answer. So if you can please post it again. Christopher Helms. Okay. Kristen says, Do I need to fill out FMLA papers while my case is pending acceptance?

SPEAKER_02

Now then I would. You don't have an accepted claim, and you would like to protect your job, and an FMLA will protect your job.

SPEAKER_01

I've taken sick days for all my appointments for an accepted claim. Can I get those back? I'm a role carrier.

SPEAKER_02

Yes, it's a fill out a CA7, potentially a 7A, but definitely a 7B. All of those forms are on my website, federal injurycenters.com.

SPEAKER_01

Okay, let's see. Donna says if you're out on LWAP and DOL is paying you, you are not there to earn your AL and SL. I don't know what AL and SL is.

SPEAKER_02

So you're not accruing time because you're not working. At that point, the priority is getting better. And not on disability.

SPEAKER_01

Nancy says, Chris, USPS does take AL for every 80 hours of L WAP we are given. A L at the beginning of the year.

SPEAKER_02

So I'm going to be sitting with Al on a Sunday talking about this stuff. So I'll ask him what happens within your agency is not. Look, I'm an OWCP expert. I am not a USPS expert or an AFGE or an NALC. I'd like to be. But what the agency does to you outside of OWCP, while it pisses me off to no end, there's some things that you got to get with your union and fight. And thankfully, I'm going to be with Al, who's, as far as I'm concerned, at the top of the union food chain. And I've got some questions to ask him. I'm going to ask him about that this weekend.

SPEAKER_01

Did you say fruit train?

SPEAKER_02

Food chain.

SPEAKER_01

You didn't say food before. I thought, what fruit train is Al on?

SPEAKER_02

No, he's not on a fruit train. We don't do that.

SPEAKER_01

Donna says, if you are approved, you don't need FMLA. Save that in case you need it for a sickness. Correct.

SPEAKER_02

That's entirely right. Because your CA17 protects you.

SPEAKER_01

Okay. So Jerry says we lose a day of annual for every 10 days of LWAP. This annual is advanced to us at the beginning of the year before we earn it.

SPEAKER_02

We'll see about that.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, see, we don't know these particular questions, but we're going to find out now that you guys are asking.

SPEAKER_02

The CA810, the manual for injured employees. And you can't find it in the OWCP guidelines. It's not in the Code of Federal Regulations. This is agency stuff. What I've learned other agency stuff to help, and this will be one of the next things I learned. I'm happy to help with it. It's just unfortunately not OWCP. For any of you out there that think that you've just stumped Chris, you haven't.

SPEAKER_01

Holly says, Do you need a new CA 17 every time you go to the doctor or an OWCP 5C form?

SPEAKER_02

All right. So the OWCP 5C is like a status update for management. You don't need that unless they ask for it. The CA17 is a medical documentation, and so it needs to be updated when it needs to be updated medically. It does not need to be done every time you see the doctor. But a lot of supervisors ask for that. But it's just such a waste of the doctor's time and it's a waste of their time. It's a waste of your time because you've got to wait for it to get filled out. And if nothing changed on the CA 17, there's no reason to fill out a new one. Doctors know that a CA 17 is a form of medical necessity. It's filled out when it's medically necessary to do so. But if your supervisor asks for it, your doctor should just do it because they'll make waves.

unknown

Okay.

SPEAKER_02

But if you're expecting your supervisor to be educated on this process, you have very high expectations.

SPEAKER_01

So Kendra's asking, she said that she's been calling her caseworker for the last two weeks twice a day, and the caseworker hasn't returned any of her calls. Is there another number I can call and talk to someone or her supervisor or get some answer? My claim is approved, but I've not received a payment in two months.

SPEAKER_02

Okay, so there's a lot going on there. So a caseworker is like a nurse case manager, a claim examiner is a claims examiner. The claims examiner pays your time off, the case manager assists with getting you better and back to work. If your case manager is not responding to you, write a letter to your claims examiner requesting that they remove your case manager from your case, give you a new one or no new one at all. A case manager that doesn't respond doesn't belong in your case, so you can remove them without a penalty to you. So just request that they be removed and say why. If you're not getting paid, you're probably not attaching the correct documentation to your CA7. But if you're not getting paid, you should be getting a letter in the mail from the claim examiner explaining why your payment has been denied. So look for denial letters from DOL. If you haven't seen those, call your claim examiner every day, twice a day, whatever it takes, and find out why. Via Squeaky Will. But they're supposed to send you something in writing if they don't pay you to explain to you why so you can fix it.

SPEAKER_01

Okay. Donna's saying, I never do my appointments on my day off. I've always I'm there for several hours. I'm not wasting my day off sitting at the doctor's office. Absolutely. Don't waste your time. Go. Once your case is approved, go during your work hours. You have four hours. Do that.

SPEAKER_02

And Kendra said it's her claims or claims examiners. Kendra, if you don't get a hold of the claims examiner, call in and ask for a supervisor. If you don't get the supervisor, ask for the district manager and keep calling as often as you can. Get somebody on the phone. What your complaint is not uncommon. I hear it all the time. Again, 2.8 million federal employees. I'll bet you there's not. The fractional number of claims examiners is probably ridiculous. There's probably not nearly enough of them.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, so Robert says as employees that return to work with a lower grade position has gotten worse regarding medical conditions and needs other surgeries. Does a CA 17 reapply for the post-op surgery or change in medical status?

SPEAKER_02

A CA 17 applies anytime the doctor says so. If the doctor needs to restrict your duties or take you off of work, they use a CA 17 regardless of the reason. That's their only remedy for helping you at work. So it doesn't matter what the reason is. If the doctor thinks it's medically necessary to fill one out, they should do that. And your supervisor has to accept it.

SPEAKER_01

Heather's saying I have to take a CA 17 every time I go to the doctor per my supervisor and postmaster.

SPEAKER_02

Your supervisor and postmaster need to read something about OWCP because they don't understand. So ask your doctor if, hey, if nothing changed, doc, would it be appropriate? This is a question. Ask your doctor this question. Hey, doc, would it be appropriate for you to copy the last CA 17 and just put a new date on it? If nothing changed, what's the point? Nothing changed. The doctor, if it's a hassle for them, can just copy the old one and put a new date if they intend for nothing to change. It doesn't what's the difference between copying it and making a new one with all that stuff on the new one? If they change the date, it's fine.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, Debbie says, sorry. Debbie says, once you have a permanent restriction and received a scheduled award, how often do you have to see a doctor to update the permanent restrictions? I was told once permanent that it's that it is, unless you need to see a doctor.

SPEAKER_02

But there's no rules on that. Nothing I'm aware of that you know you have to go to any interval. You should go when they ask you to. Maybe your doctor will want you to come in at some interval.

SPEAKER_01

Teresa says, I thought a CA 17 has to be filed, filled out every 30 days. If nothing has changed, do I have to? This involves me driving to Indianapolis from Michigan if I have to.

SPEAKER_02

Your doctor can fill one out and fax it in with or without you there. Just so you know. It's the doctor's discretion. If they think nothing has changed, nothing's changed. So you need to talk to your doctor and find out how they want to handle it.

SPEAKER_01

Regina, I know you you asked a question and you want us to help. Can you do me a favor and send that question to my messenger, like on my messenger on our what Wednesday night OWCP chat's message, and we're going to answer that personally for you. Let's see. I have not, Kendra says, I have not received anything about reasons why I have not got paid. She approves all my medical.

SPEAKER_02

So if you're not getting paid, Kendra, it's because okay, these are the possibilities that are out there. A, you're not filling out your CA7 correctly. B, your supervisor isn't sending your CA7 into DOL. I would want to know if that was happening. If they don't send it in five days or ever, you're not going to get paid. C, there's documentation that needs to be attached to it. For example, a documentation that you're at the doctor's office to show that you were there. A CA 17, if the doctor took you off of work, a CA20, because for whatever reason they require this ridiculous form, a CA20. And so find out what's missing. But if you're not sending in documentation with your CA7, they'll never pay you. And that might be why you know what you've sent in. So you can think to yourself, did I send anything in? If not, there's for that's for sure the reason. So get your documentation and resend it.

SPEAKER_01

Karen says, I just found out my manager didn't fax my CA2 in that I submitted on March 22nd and have been since have since been put out pending termination for attendance. What should I do? Since I am out, I have no access to anything.

SPEAKER_02

Okay, so you're gonna do the following three things.

SPEAKER_01

Listen up, uh Karen.

SPEAKER_02

One, file agreements like tomorrow, first thing in the morning, file agreements. Two, get with your union and uh file an EEO complaint. They want to fire you because they didn't do their job. Okay, you might have an EEO. Three, I want you to contact OSHA. On OSHA's website, they have 10 things that are the employees' rights. Number six is you have a right to report your injuries. So I want you to call OSHA 1-800-321-OSHA, and I want you to ask the following question. It's not you're not making an accusation, you're not even at this point filing a complaint. You're asking 1-800-321-OSHA. Here's the question Is it a violation that my supervisor did not turn in my work injury documentation? Is it? Because number six says I have a right to record an injury. My supervisor didn't turn it in. And now they want to fire me. No. So do those three things, please. Do those three things. And after your grievance is done, you might want to consider you and your union getting together and filing a labor violation because don't get pushed around anymore.

SPEAKER_01

Kendra, we have some videos, I think it was like two weeks ago. What I'll do is I'll tag you on it where we went over a bunch of laws specifically when you're trying to file your CA1 and your CA2. So I'll go ahead and tag that with the rules. Make sure you pay attention to the rules. I listed them and Chris repeated them. So write them down and make sure. And I just put the number of everyone down there if you're considering calling OSHA on anything, which you should. And Chris always says, ask. Just ask them a question. And if it's a valid question, then you do your complaint with them. So the phone number again, I posted below 1-800-321-OSHA.

SPEAKER_02

And again, we're not calling making accusations. You don't have to be worried. You're not, you can't get in trouble for calling OSHA. They have whistleblower protection. Nothing bad can happen to you. But if enough people call and ask, is this a violation? These things are going to stop. Your supervisor is by law with the code of federal regulations, they are by law required to turn your CA2 into DOL within 10 days of it being completed. 10 days. March. Anyways, follow file some complaints and violations. Ask, is this a violation?

SPEAKER_01

Octavia, you said your manager lied to you about your OWCP case was closed. Unless they put the post office address in your information when you filled out your CA1 or CA2, that letter has to come to you, not the post office. And if you are closed or denied. Yeah, I've asked a specific question to a state president. It has to come to you, not the postmaster doesn't know, the supervisors don't know, unless they're calling, giving your information and saying that they're you, and that's wrong.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. All indications of your case status are mailed to you by claim by the claims examiner. It'll come to you. If you haven't gotten it in the mail, it didn't happen.

SPEAKER_01

Okay, we're gonna answer just a couple more questions and we're gonna end our stuff with some things that we wanted to tell you. Cheryl says, What is a case manager and how do I file, find out who that is? My claims examiner never called me back.

SPEAKER_02

So a case manager from Department of Labor is added to your claim, added to your case based on maybe they think you've been out of work for too long. Some of them have bad intentions, some of them have good intentions, some of them are not educated on their jobs, so you have to know who you're dealing with. If you're dealing with someone that's not working in your best interest, you can write to have them removed. But a nurse case manager is there to just be a bridge between you, your doctor, and the claims examiner just to help you get back to work. And getting back to work is your that should be your priority. Nobody wants to end up on disability. And so when your claims examiner is doing the right job helping, or yeah, case manager is doing the right job helping you get back to work and putting your interest as number one, keep that person because that one's gold. But that's the job of the case manager.

SPEAKER_01

Uh Kim says, Kim, I'm gonna combine your question with Lisa. Kim wants to know how is a schedule award paid? Is it a loved sum or an increments? And then Lisa wants to know when and why you should request a schedule award.

SPEAKER_02

All right, so a schedule award is done when your doctor, your treating physician says that you're a maximum medical improvement, which is MMI. And then you have a diagnosis that warrants a schedule award. Not all of them do. At that point, when you're at MMI, maximum medical improvement, your doctor will do an impairment rating based on the sixth edition to permanent impairment, not the fifth. And then you'll attach that impairment rating report to your CA7. You'll select letter D for schedule award and turn that in. How do you know? It's because your doctor put you there. You don't know until your doctor says, hey, this is as good as you're ever gonna get. And so now you're eligible. What was the first part of that question, Janie? Did I cover that?

SPEAKER_01

Hold on, let me see. Kim says, How is a schedule award paid?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, so generally monthly, but it's based on weeks of pay, but they typically pay it monthly.

SPEAKER_01

Okay, I'm gonna answer two more questions, and then those of you that want us to answer anything else, please continue commenting even when we're done with the video because Chris and I will go over the questions afterwards and answer anything else. Wendy, I really want to get to your uh to your question. They said they gave me a job offer but was against my restrictions, so I turned it down. Now the USPS wants OWCP to cut me off when it was clearly against restrictions. Can they cut me off of my pay?

SPEAKER_02

All right, so you need to take that immediately to your union president and have them help you. Just so you know, Sunday when I'm sitting with Al, the number one thing I'm gonna be talking about is modified job offers, limited duty offers, and how that works because it's outside of OWCP, it's right inside of the union, right inside the agency. But I get so many questions about it that I want to be able to answer it expertly. And so next week, plan on me having a really good message to you about limited job offers and those things because I understand it's a huge thing, and we got to figure out how to handle that using your union to push back on management that might have bad intentions.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I wanted to, I know you guys have a lot more questions coming in again. Go ahead and continue putting your questions down. We are definitely going to answer because there were the remainder of the questions tonight. If it's anything personal, just you can message us right on the Wednesday night chats. But I want to tell Marcos Valdez, he says, Love the valuable legal content. How can we promote our endeavors to help us in our offices? If you need to let us know where you're at, Chris, when we go out doing these boosters and these state conventions and these union meetings, we come in there and we educate, but we educate very heavily to the stewards so you guys could help and advocate for other employees and be your own little OWCP advocate. Two weeks ago, we were in Alabama and we had a classroom about 30, 30 stewards and some local presidents, and we did a three-day training on everything. It didn't need to take three days, but we split it up. And when we left, everyone in that room was a mini OWCP expert. And I'll tell you, they have all followed Chris's rules until today. We Chris got pictures about they posted the CA 10, how to get connected with us. We will come out and help if, but we have to be invited by your presidents. I see a lot, sorry, I see a lot of questions coming. And again, we're gonna answer the remainder of the questions, so you can keep having your questions come in. Yeah, Octavia says you guys should come to Austin.

SPEAKER_02

That's about three hours from where I'm at right now. And I'd be happy to do it, Octavia, but we need to be invited by your union. Without union presidents, I don't have an audience, and I like to speak to big audiences. If you can get your union president to contact Jeannie at the phone number that you see coming across the bottom of the screen, we'd be more than happy to schedule that in. But fortunately, Jeannie's gonna talk about what we've got coming up, and so it's gonna be hard to put other meetings and conventions in, but we're definitely open to it. We love doing it.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, so everybody, I know you guys are asking us a lot to put clinics and get doctors in your area because you guys trust us and our doctors, and trust me, it's not an easy situation. There's so much behind what we have to do. It looks like it's easy because once it gets going and the doctors in place and the therapy is in place, it's easy, yes. But it takes months to get the staff from the doctor down to the front desk receptionist trained, and it's not a one-day training. Chris is training like from a month ahead before we even step into the office. So we are working on getting other locations. We I know Chris mentioned it last week. Hunts, is it Huntsville, Alabama? We are definitely getting that done by October. So Huntsville, Alabama, we are coming. We have so many requests from that, from Department of Defense, VA and role carriers. So we are definitely coming this year. But uh we Marcos, I have Marcos, I have something to tell you in a minute. I'll answer that. But we are working on it.

SPEAKER_02

And on Huntsville, a couple of weeks ago, when I was in the office with Dr. Donovan Harper in Birmingham, he and I had this conversation. I said, Look, shake my hand. And we did that. And I said, look, right now, let's agree, we're gonna open up in Huntsville. And he said, Absolutely, that's happening. We're definitely doing it. There's a lot of help needed out there with the bases, like 11,000 federal employees on the base, not to mention all the rural carriers and the other AFGE and the other postal employees. So we're definitely coming there, like as soon as humanly possible.

SPEAKER_01

I see Cleveland, Tennessee, South Carolina, South Carolina. Listen, we know almost every major city needs a doctor, needs our help. And we are trying, we are trying so hard to do the right thing. Again, it's not easy for us to just throw in a doctor, it takes months to get all this in. So please understand that, and we are working on it.

SPEAKER_02

Uh so Marcos mentioned Chicago, so you'll talk about that in a second. Cynthia asked for Houston. Cynthia, I trained a doctor named Dr. An. She's spectacular. She writes some of the best narratives. She's in Houston. Let us know if you need help there and we'll let you know how to contact her.

SPEAKER_01

I will go ahead at the end as well. I'll post where we have all of our clinics for federal injury centers and all the clinics that Chris has trained. There is a doctor that he trained. We were just there last week in Indianapolis, Dr. Terry Toll. We don't have anything in Michigan, but a lot of people from Michigan are driving into Indianapolis only because they know they're getting their cases accepted.

SPEAKER_02

That drive is way better than a deny claim. Take it.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, Columbus, Ohio. We're thinking about it. We're working on things slowly.

SPEAKER_02

People out there, let me say this. There's somebody in Columbus that's trying to do this, and I don't know them personally, but listen, our deal is no more denied claims. So be just be very careful. Be very careful.

SPEAKER_01

And uh, before I get into the last two things, we just want to I see all the thank yous. So you guys are so welcome. And the only way we can help you guys is if you guys continue to watch us every week, take notes. I know Chris emailed a bunch of you guys a packet that you guys asked for. Pay attention to that. And again, those of you that have seen the previous Wednesday night lives and you look at it and you want that packet, give us your email. Personal, your personal stuff, give us a call, message us. We're definitely gonna help you. I will list all Our locations, and I'm gonna go ahead and list all the other doctors that are in some of these areas you guys are asking for. Marcos, Indiana, Illinois. So let me uh go with what we're doing this month. So those of you that were at the beginning on Sunday, hold on.

SPEAKER_02

Before you do this, right now, share. Right now, just go on, share this, tell somebody to watch. There are gonna be people in areas that need this information. And Jeannie's about to talk about the places we're gonna be live. Please share this right now. We should start seeing the viewers multiply. This is really important. If you know you're here watching this now, which we appreciate it, but we love doing this live. I like being in a room with hundreds of people and being able to do it live with the interaction. So Jeannie's about to talk about the places we're gonna be over the next couple of months live. So please just share this. Share. Go ahead.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, so here's my little book. I'm gonna this book is only for DOL stuff. So this was March, this was April, and this is May. So we're it's not like we're not busy. So Sunday we are gonna be in Tarpon Springs helping out and contributing our time and sponsoring and donations for the MDA golf tournament. This is our third year involving our team, and uh, we plan to raise a lot of money. The first year we did 10,000, last year we did 8,000. This year we'd like to go over 10,000 since we did.

SPEAKER_02

Actually, come out and play golf and come find us in the eighth or ninth hole or wherever.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, come out and you can talk to us there as well. So we're gonna have a few brewski's and some jello shots made by me. And for each jello shot and drink, we're gonna I have a little bucket. You're gonna donate cash, and uh, hopefully you get a little sloshed and you put 20s and hundreds and dumping it in.

SPEAKER_02

Get Uber though, just in case.

SPEAKER_01

No dream, yeah. So that's where we're gonna be on Sunday. Dr. Camerman, for those of you guys that are in our Clearwater office, Dr. Cameron, Dr. Rajamwala, Andrew, Chris, and I we're all gonna be there.

SPEAKER_02

They're gonna be a lot of fun with Al. We're gonna have so much fun. This is one of the funnest groups to hang out with. We're gonna have a blast.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. So for the month of May, we are going to be doing on May 16th in the morning, we are doing the tri-state convention with the mail handlers. So that's May 16th, 9 to 11 a.m. Now get this. We get on a plane at four o'clock to be in Chicago to be with the APW that night for dinner. And then Chris is speaking at the APWU meeting Friday, the 17th. And I know a lot of you on here are not with the APW, but I'm letting you guys know that's where we're gonna be. And night the 19th, I if I make it on time back home, Fort Myers APW has invited me to come out and do a mini education. So I might be attending that. And for the month of June, we're still being asked to attend stuff. So the month of June, I spoke to Sam Mays today. They're having their rule carrier convention on June 8th through the 11th. So he's trying to work it so we could be there to be at that convention and do the education. And June 20th through the 22nd, you guys know for our Florida crew, we're gonna be in Daytona. Yeah, and we love Natasha, so we never say no. We always say yes to her. Yeah, so we'll be in Daytona for the state and our LCA convention.

SPEAKER_02

I need a room overlooking the beach. That's one of the most beautiful places I've been to.

SPEAKER_01

He did that last year.

SPEAKER_02

And maybe I'll do some teaching while I'm there.

SPEAKER_01

And June 27th through the 29th, we're gonna be in Kentucky for the APW meeting. We have more stuff on the calendar, but those are just the things that are like solid in black and white in our calendar that where we're gonna be. And yeah, I know, Kim Daytona, I know. It's really fun there. This one particular place is beautiful, and it's so much fun with the role carriers there. We have so much fun with them. We're playing.

SPEAKER_02

I'll teach as long as Natasha asked me to teach. But after that, that's right, Natasha.

SPEAKER_00

That's right, you know where you're gonna find me, put me on a beach, I'm happy to go.

SPEAKER_02

Keep going.

SPEAKER_01

The live will resume in a moment. Okay, and practice up on your cornhole, Natasha says where you will.

SPEAKER_02

That's right.

SPEAKER_01

Okay, so our last big announcement, and I've been like trying to get Chris to do this. Why does it say the live will resume in a moment? Okay, I've been we've been trying to get this done, and I've really wanted it because it's gonna be so beneficial for you guys. We are coming out, and I know I mentioned you to you guys in January sometime. We are coming out with a federal injuries app on Apple and on Android, and that should be ready to go maybe June, no, no later than June or so. So we're looking forward. So when we are at the union meetings, you guys could follow along on forums. Everything will be on their locations, tap a button, you'll be able to get me once you get into some sort of injury. We're also gonna have, or you can those people that you know that don't have social media and Facebook Live, they'll be able to see us live on the app and we'll explain how all of that will work. And all the forms will be printable.

SPEAKER_02

Don't forget what Tom wants. So, what we're gonna put on there is we're gonna make sure that there's a timer. It's the CA16 timer. Remember that, Janie?

SPEAKER_01

Yes.

SPEAKER_02

CA16 timer. When you request it, you put your timer button and it starts counting. They have four hours to give it to you. Four hours and one minute, it's gonna give you a uh message that says, Would you like to file agreements?

SPEAKER_01

Yes.

SPEAKER_02

So we'd like to follow greatness.

SPEAKER_01

Um, we're really excited, yes, on the app. Thank you guys for being so supportive. Yeah, so the app is gonna come out again, it's gonna be on Android, it's gonna be on iPhone. So we're really super excited. And as soon as it comes out, we will go live that day when we are ready to launch the app so everybody gets the app. So, again, we want to thank everybody once again for hopping on our weekly OWCP chats. Don't forget to share, follow, comment, and we'll answer the remaining of the questions. Tell everybody, yeah. I know, Chris, they you're cutting in and out. Tell everyone about us. Again, Chris says there's 2.8 million federal employees and we only have 1400 following. We would like 14 million, not 14 million, yeah, 3 million following. I don't know where I got that from, but uh make sure everybody hops on weekly. We look forward to seeing those of you that are in the areas that we're gonna be at soon, especially in the next couple weeks, the things that are upcoming. Don't forget those of you that live in the Tampa Bay Clearwater area, we're really looking forward to seeing you guys again at the MDA golf tournament on Sunday. Come and bring your checks and cash to donate to MDA for a really good cause. It's to send these kids that have muscular dystrophy on a little field trip, and it's for the kids. So think of it as an amazing cause for these little guys to go on a little field trip and have some fun. Again, we will go ahead and answer the remaining of the questions at the end, and I will go ahead and post all of our locations and doctors that Chris has trained, and that's it. So the ones that I post of locations and doctors Chris has trained, that's all we have. We don't have any more. We want to say thank you again, and everyone have a great night, and we will see you next Wednesday at 9 p.m. Eastern. Bye.