(Chats 5-15-19) The Specialist Trap: Why Your Orthopedic Surgeon is Getting You Denied

Chris and Gini explain the "nearly impossible" challenge of changing doctors once a specialist is chosen and why an OWCP-trained doctor should always be your first call. They also discuss how to handle auto accidents in government vehicles (LLVs) and the strategy of using third-party lawsuits to secure extra compensation.

Key Takeaways & Show Notes

1. The Specialist Trap

One of the most common mistakes is going to an Orthopedic Surgeon or a Specialist as your first treating doctor.

• The Problem: Specialists are trained for surgery, not for writing the multi-page medical narratives required by the DOL.
• The Trap: Once you designate a specialist as your "Physician of Record," the DOL often denies requests to switch to a general practitioner or an OWCP specialist later, labeling it a "move to a lower level of care."
• The Solution: Choose an OWCP-trained treating doctor first. They will get the claim accepted and then refer you to a surgeon if medically necessary.

2. Auto Accidents & Third-Party Claims

For letter carriers and rural carriers who are hit by other drivers:

• Dual Filing: This is both an OWCP claim (CA-1) and a Personal Injury case.
• The 20/80 Rule: If you sue the at-fault driver and win a settlement, federal law generally allows you to keep 20% of the settlement (after expenses) as a "guaranteed share," while the other 80% is used to reimburse the DOL for medical bills they paid.
• Legal Tip: You need a lawyer who understands both personal injury and the "FECA" (Federal Employees' Compensation Act) lien process so you don't lose your settlement to the government.

3. Adhering to the CA-17 (Duty Status Report)

Chris introduces a new mantra: #FileAGrievance.

• If your doctor provides a CA-17 with restrictions (e.g., "4 hours of work" or "20 lb lifting limit") and management ignores it, it is a violation.
• The "As Tolerated" Warning: Never let a doctor write "as tolerated" on your restrictions. Management will interpret this as "full duty." Ensure your doctor lists specific, numbered limitations.

4. Reopening Closed Claims

A common myth is that once a case is closed, it's gone forever.

• The Reality: Claims can be reopened via a CA-2a (Notice of Recurrence) or by providing new medical evidence that the condition has worsened.
• Timeline: Reopening a claim typically takes 4 to 6 weeks for processing.

Actionable Advice

• Travel Reimbursement: If your case is accepted, use Form OWCP-957 to backdate and claim mileage for all doctor visits.
• Avoid Kaiser/Urgent Care: While good for emergencies, these facilities rarely have the administrative staff to handle the long-term paperwork required to keep a federal claim active.

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Wednesday Night OWCP Chats with Chris & Gini

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:21

Good evening.

SPEAKER_01 0:22

Hey everyone, welcome to Wednesday night OWCP chats with Chris and Jeannie.

SPEAKER_02 0:26

Live from the Hampton Inn.

SPEAKER_01 0:28

Yeah, so here's the situation. We were doing some errands. We were on our way home to get ready for our Wednesday night live, and my kids call me and tell me that the neighborhood, the power is out in the neighborhood. So we had to make a quick decision to come to a hotel and sit in the lobby. So we wanted to make sure that you guys understand we're so dedicated in doing this with you guys. Tonight we're going to talk about a few things. We're going to go over real quick about the when to file a CA1 versus when to file a CA2. We are also going to talk about federal personal injury accidents, what to do, who to call. Eric Blowers has just been really busy, but I am going to get him on sometime in June, and we're going to go from there. And also we are going to talk about when you guys get injured, what your first choice should be. Like you always hear you have to go to the ER, go to the orthopedic surgeon, go to the walk-in clinic. So Chris is going to explain all of that. So while you guys are all hopping on, don't forget to share this video and follow. And Chris always says, share it with three of your coworkers, even if they don't have any injuries, because you just never know when an injury is going to happen. And let's go.

SPEAKER_02 1:49

When to follow a CA1 versus a CA2. A CA1 is if an injury happens in a single shift.

unknown 1:55

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:55

A CA2 happens over two or more shifts. A very common CA2 condition is carpal tunnel syndrome. It develops over time versus a very common CA1 condition is a dog bite, lifting a box and filling a pop in your back, stepping out of your vehicle and twisting your ankle or your knee. Those things happen in a single shift, in a single instance. Those are CA1s. So when you're when you're injured, you want to report a claim, you have to go to your supervisor, HR, injury comp and tell them that you know you're hurt and you need to fill out either a CA1 or a CA2. There's not a CA3 or 4 or 5. Those are the only two, one or two. So one, it happened in one shift. Two, it happened in two or more shifts. It's easy to remember. And so you got to be sure you fill that out and get a copy of everything back, a complete copy of everything, including the notice of receipt. So that's how you report the injury, get the injury filed, and that's the difference between a CA1 and a CA2. It's so simple. The next topic, though, I want to spend some more time on is going to orthopedic surgeons or other specialists, or ERs, or urgent care, or for you VA employees, going to the VA doctor. One thing is really important. A lot of people lately have been coming to us saying we want to change treating doctors, or the patient, the injured person, wants to change treating doctors to our doctor. But they made the mistake of going to an orthopedic doctor first. They did that because some friend of theirs said you need to go to an orthopedic doctor, or the supervisor said you need an orthopedic doctor, or somebody, okay? Look, maybe you don't, but what you really need is an OWCP doctor. And I've never met an orthopedic doctor who knew how to get a claim accepted. So that's a problem for you. If you can't get claims accepted. So the other issue is once you choose that orthopedic doctor, that becomes your treating doctor, the doctor of record on your claim. And if you want to switch to another doctor, it's nearly impossible because they won't let you go from an orthopedic doctor, which is a specialist, to say a general practitioner. Because they say, why would you want to switch to a lower level doctor? As if one MD is different than another MD. It's nonsense. But it makes it really hard, nearly impossible, to switch doctors. So you got to be careful. Choose your doctor wisely. Don't instantly go to an orthopedic surgeon.

SPEAKER_03 4:19

Right.

SPEAKER_02 4:20

Just because you hurt yourself. Like I somebody the other day sprained their ankle. What in the world is an orthopedic surgeon going to do for a sprained ankle? They're going to say, get off of it and ice it and go to physical therapy. There's no surgery, because it's just a sprain. So you don't always need an orthopedic doctor. But the most important thing is once you choose a doctor, it's really hard to uncheose. It's hard to change. They make it look like it's easy. It's not. They usually say no.

SPEAKER_03 4:46

Right.

SPEAKER_02 4:47

So don't just go directly to an orthopedic surgeon or any specialist. They specialize and deny claims. Okay, you need a doctor that specializes in getting claims accepted. Okay. Now, ER doctors and urgent cares, same deal. They don't get claims accepted. They don't have time. They don't write narrative reports. You go to them when it's urgent, and you don't go back a second time. You go to an OWCP doctor. And VA doctors never get claims accepted because they're not trained in OWCP at all. World-class doctors, no training. When you're told you have to go there first, that's untrue. The law actually says that you have the right to choose your own doctor, that the supervisor has to tell you about that, and that they can't tell you to go to their doctor. So you choose your own doctor and choose wisely because it's really hard to change. And if you choose the wrong doctor, it's really easy to get denied claims. Those of you that know us and have experience this know how easy it is to get a denied claim. It almost is automatic. Pick your doctor wisely. So the next topic, what questions do we have on this? Are any questions coming up?

SPEAKER_01 5:48

Yeah, on the CA2, it says, How hard is it to get reimbursed for a CA2 for treatment I received before it was accepted?

SPEAKER_02 5:55

Yeah, once your claim is accepted, it's off it's not that hard actually. Any money you paid out of your pocket, fill out an OWCP 915 and attach your receipts. And you should be able to get that reimbursed for the money you paid out of your pocket. And a CA2 and a CA1 are exactly the same when it comes to treatment and when it comes to the forms. Once your claim is accepted, it all ends up working the same. Whether it's a one or a two, the process works exactly the same as soon as the claim's accepted.

SPEAKER_01 6:22

Yeah, I've worked in the hospital before, and so you guys understand it's an automatic on your discharge summaries if you go in there for anything. If it's something is sprained, if it's broken, if whatever, it automatically says to follow up with your orthopedic surgeon with your primary care. But you guys have to remember to differentiate that this is OWCP. This is not just a regular doctor that you're just gonna go your primary care doctor. 95% don't know how to do DOL or know how to write anything. And same with the ortho. So if you have an ortho that you like, keep them, but go to your treating DOL doctor first before going to the ortho. So the treating OWCP doctor will get your claim accepted, then you don't have to pay any of those crazy bills that the ortho sends you for $800, $1,000 for seeing him once to tell you he's nothing you can do with your sprained ankle. So make sure you guys remember that don't always assume that you go straight from the emergency room to an ortho. Now, if you did break something, please go to the ortho and call us, and we will get you into a if you break it, just rub some dirt on it.

SPEAKER_02 7:38

It'll be fine.

SPEAKER_01 7:39

Exactly. Wrap it with some string or something, but just make sure that you know where you're going and that you have a treating DOL doctor, not your primary care, not your favorite ortho, but a treating OWCP doctor because Chris said it is hard to change treating physicians.

SPEAKER_02 8:03

Nearly impossible. Read what Rachel said there.

SPEAKER_01 8:05

Okay, Rachel Morales says it's a freaking nightmare dealing with Kaiser and workman's comp. I honestly can't wait to go back to work.

SPEAKER_02 8:13

So the reason I wanted that one read is yeah, it probably is a nightmare dealing with Kaiser. I think that's an urgent care. And these urgent carers don't understand federal workers' comp. And it's just it's not their thing. You made a good point, you can't wait to go back to work. So I've been telling people, because and Rachel, you can attest to this, it's such a hassle being off work and trying to get paid while you're out. Because even with an accepted claim, and I don't know if your claim is accepted, but even with an accepted claim, you have to jump through hoops to get paid. You gotta fill out the CA7, attach documentation, make sure the forms filled out perfectly, and then get it into DOL and then wait. But if you go to work, all you have to do is clock in. And so this is gonna lead into another topic that we didn't say we were gonna talk about, but I'm going to, and it's on CA 17s and versus CA7. When you're off of work, you have to get paid with a CA7. But if you can go back to work with restrictions, you get paid by clocking in and then they have to pay you on time. And so a lot of people are saying that it's less hassle to just go to work, even if it's with restrictions. I would recommend just for the hassle factor, if it's safe to do so, make an attempt to go to work and uh and clock in, make them pay you so that you don't have to jump through hoops to get paid using a CA7. Before I mention the next topic, let's just deal with Corey's question. What about sick leave that that I use before surgery? Can I get that back? Yeah, it's called leave buyback, and it's a personal decision. Get a form CA7B, fill that out, and decide if that's worth it to you, Corey. You can definitely get your time back. Before we answer some more questions, let me deal with this one subject. So here's what's going on. Your doctors are writing CA 17s with restrictions, and you're saying I want to go back to work, and the doctor is sending you back to work. Maybe he's sending you back four hours, maybe it's for the full day with lifting restrictions or driving or walking restrictions. And the supervisors are not adhering to the restrictions. The doctor says you can only lift 20 pounds, but they've got you doing the same job you were doing before, which is 50 or 70 pounds. Or the doctor says you can work four hours, and the supervisor says, We only have two hours of work for you, so go home. So you don't get the other two hours, and you got to fill out a CA7, which is a hassle. We were talking to Alleghen in Florida, and here's what he said, file a grievance. Anytime they don't work with exactly adhere to your CA 17, file a grievance.

SPEAKER_03 10:34

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 10:34

If the doctor sends you to work and they send you home, file a grievance. Look, you got a doctor that's doing everything possible to get you back the way your manager wants you back. And if they don't cooperate with you, file a grievance. And so file a grievance every single time they don't adhere to that or they don't give you limited duty that works with your CA 17. So I wanted to tell you that because it was just told to us in the last couple of weeks. And I'm going to start teaching it on a regular basis. We're going to have shirts made called hashtag file aggrievance.

SPEAKER_01 11:03

Look for them.

SPEAKER_02 11:04

Yeah, we'll wear them when we do this so you'll remember because almost everything they do to you, you should file agreements, and this is one of them.

SPEAKER_01 11:10

I'm jumping around with some of these questions because I want to answer it. Rachel, you also said you had a broken foot in December, and now you're dealing with having surgeries denied. That's why I'm telling you, when you even if you have a broken foot, yes, please go see the ortho if something is broken. But make sure you find an OWCP treating physician to get your case accepted.

SPEAKER_02 11:33

One reason surgery could be denied is you have a broken foot. What if your diagnosis is sprained? It happens all the time. Yeah. So make sure your diagnosis is correct. If not, you have to get a diagnosis expansion, which is a narrative report your doctor has to write to add the correct diagnosis. If you've got a surgical condition that's approved, surgery is automatic. So if they're denying surgery and you have a fracture, your diagnosis is bad. So check that out.

SPEAKER_01 11:57

And Rachel, you can't your CA7s won't get accepted until your case is accepted. So if you can tell me what city and state you're in, tomorrow I can shoot you a link if I don't know one in the area and get you to a treating OWCP doctor. If you have to drive a little, it's going to be worth it if I send you to one that knows what's going on.

SPEAKER_02 12:20

Yeah, so you have to have an accepted claim and then you have to have an accepted diagnosis or accepted condition that would warrant a surgery.

SPEAKER_01 12:27

Heather, I have an accepted CA1 and the OWCP treating doctor is talking about sending me to an ortho. How much of a pain in the butt is it going to be? And do I have to have a new CA 17 every time I send it in with my CA7?

SPEAKER_02 12:40

You don't okay, so it's not going to be a pain in the butt to go to an ortho that you're referred to. That'll be a piece of cake.

SPEAKER_01 12:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:46

And you fill out new CA 17s as often as they need to be medically. If the same CA 17 works for several CA 7s, then just make copies and attach it.

SPEAKER_01 12:55

Yeah. Diane Neely, she said, when you call in to report your absence from work and get FMLA, the first questions they ask, was this an occupational disease? This confused me at the start, and I didn't know how to answer when first starting out with this tricky process.

SPEAKER_02 13:10

So that just means was this a CA2 claim? That's it. Is it a CA2? Occupational disease does not mean like you're ill. Carpal tunnel syndrome is an occupational disease, too. They're just saying, is it a CA2 versus is it a CA1?

SPEAKER_01 13:23

Yeah. So you guys, uh Jerry, before you end tonight, can you go through all the reasons again to use WordComp? Yes, I know that because I know you tagged me on a bunch of stuff today, Jerry, and I was gonna bring that up.

SPEAKER_02 13:34

Let's just do it now.

SPEAKER_01 13:35

Yeah, so just so you guys know, those of you are hopping on, we're actually at a hotel at the Hampton. That's why we're talking so that's why we're talking so soft. There's no gizmo or any kids here.

SPEAKER_02 13:45

They didn't make us buy a room, they just let us use the Wi-Fi for free. So shout out to Hampton.

SPEAKER_01 13:49

Yeah, shout out to Hampton in Oldsmar, Florida. We were out and my kids call me and tell me the power is out. I'm thinking why, but it happens to be our whole block, even the neighbors across the street, have power and we don't. So it's like our entire block has no power. We were so dedicated we rushed to the hotel to make sure that we came on Wednesday night live because I know there were some questions that Jerry, especially you, tagged me on that were very important that I wanted to address. So understand that we're dedicated. We are gonna do Facebook Live power or no power.

SPEAKER_02 14:20

Good thing she got her makeup done before the power went out, too. Look at this.

SPEAKER_01 14:23

Oh okay, and also we've been talking about CA1s versus CA2s. At the end, we're gonna be talking about personal injury when you guys get into you guys are federal employees, when you guys get into federal accidents and your LLVs, government vehicles, and and and we just went over why you should just be cautious about when the ER is set telling you go see an ortho and all that, just plus first.

SPEAKER_02 14:52

And that's important because I don't actually connect that dot. You go to the ER of the urgent care, okay, and they say that your next visit we're referring you to an orthopedic doctor, orthopedic surgeon. Yeah, don't do it.

SPEAKER_01 15:01

And make sure you guys are sharing this with three or more friends, having them hop on every week. We're trying to increase and reach the 2.8 million federal employees that are out there to help them and get everyone knowledgeable with all OWCP stuff. And one more thing. Hold on. Time out your one more thing.

SPEAKER_02 15:21

I didn't finish my last thought.

SPEAKER_01 15:22

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 15:22

So when the ER or urgent care, like she just like totally bumped in right in the middle of my sentence. My hair is when the ER or urgent care refers you to an orthopedic surgeon, like that's your next visit. Don't go unless it's an emergency. Yeah. Because that'll end up being your treating doctor, and it's nearly impossible to change from an orthopedic surgeon to any other doctor, and that doctor won't be able to get your claim accepted. You have to take these things in order, it's very important. So pick an OWCP doctor first, yeah, and then go to the orthopedic doctor. Yeah, critically important. Oh, go ahead. One more thing.

SPEAKER_01 15:54

One more thing before we continue. I want to see all of our people from Massachusetts on here. So if you're from the Massachusetts area, I want to see what city you're from in Massachusetts. You guys will be seeing more of Chris and I in Massachusetts coming up soon. So we're really excited. And you all know we've already had three, four clinics out there, but we're gonna be coming out there to do some heavy hellos and tell your union presidents to invite us out to meetings and to conventions and everything. You guys understand. I always tell you guys if you want us to come to your union meeting and educate, not anything else, just to educate you guys on the stuff that we train on. Tell your union president, have them message me, call me. You guys all have my number, we'll say it at the end. And we're looking forward to getting into more state conventions in the Massachusetts area. So deal with that real quick. Beth said, doctor released me to start carrying my route part-time as tolerated. HR and PM stated as tolerated is unacceptable.

SPEAKER_02 16:56

Beth, get a CA 17, take it to the doctor and say, fill this out. As tolerated doesn't mean anything in the OWCP world. Okay, so have them fill out a CA 17. That'll fix you up.

SPEAKER_01 17:07

Shannon, how long does it take for a claim to be reopened?

SPEAKER_02 17:10

It takes four to six weeks. They don't have to get it done in any special period, but it typically takes four to six weeks.

SPEAKER_01 17:17

Yes. Let's see, am I missing anything?

SPEAKER_02 17:20

Hey, but again, if you're from Massachusetts in here, your city and state, you know, what city in Massachusetts you're in, we want to see that. And again, tell your union presidents to invite us out to do some classes. We really want to do that. And we're going to, anyways. Eventually, everyone's going to eventually say yes. And just let's just get it over with and go ahead and say yes.

SPEAKER_01 17:39

And for those of you that are watching from Massachusetts, if you don't realize how much fun we are, ask everybody that's watching. We are so much fun.

SPEAKER_02 17:46

I'm not really that much fun, but she's really a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_01 17:49

But he does a great education. It was Marcos. You asked when we're going to be in Chicago. So we are actually pick it.

SPEAKER_02 17:56

Yes, it's either today or tomorrow. Which day do you think it is?

SPEAKER_01 18:00

So, Marcos, we are actually doing a tri-state mail handlers convention tomorrow morning at 9 in Tampa. So we're looking forward to meeting all the new mail handlers in our area in the Tampa area with state president Nick Mozar. And Chris will be doing an hour and a half or so education on all of this great stuff. And then we have a 425 flight to Naperville.

SPEAKER_02 18:27

We're going to go to Chicago Hare and then drive into Naperville.

SPEAKER_01 18:30

And then is it Naper? Naper. Whatever. And we're going to be doing the APW convention on Friday morning. Chris starts. Oh no, Friday afternoon at one o'clock. So those of you that are in APW, make sure that you guys are there. And those of you that are not, if you wanted to swing by Dr. Patron's office and come say hi, you're welcome to do that on Friday morning. And I will go ahead and post that after the video. Next topic, Christopher.

SPEAKER_02 18:59

So the next topic is when they get hurt and auto injuries. Yeah. Yeah, so check it out. Especially letter carriers, rural carriers, city carriers, everybody. You guys get in car wrecks all the time.

SPEAKER_03 19:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:09

Other idiot drivers hit you when you're just trying to deliver the mail. What happens is you're like, all right, so now what? Department of Labor wants you to actually pursue the third party, the driver that hit you, and their auto insurance. And so you can do that yourself. You don't have to have a lawyer to do it, but that doesn't really make much sense to me because I don't know any of the rules when it comes to what lawyers know. But they want you to do this, and what happens is you get a settlement, and 20% of the settlement after expenses goes to you. The other 80% goes back to DOL to cover bills, medical bills. And so when you get hurt in a car accident on the job, or you're injured by a third party, I'm gonna go into some of the third party claims, but mostly car accidents is what a third party claim is. If you get an injury like that while you're on the job, that's a DOL injury, it's OWCP, it's not just an auto accident, it's not just a personal injury, it's that too, but it's a federal workers' comp injury. And you file a CA1 you because you were hurt in a single incident, in a single shift, in a car wreck. So you file a CA1 claim, and on the back, you'll get a chance to check was this due to a third party, you'll say yes, and then you go to an OWCP doctor, get a lawyer, and sue the third party.

SPEAKER_03 20:24

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 20:25

The settlement, a portion of that is yours. So for sure, do it. If you don't sue the third party, you never get that cash. So get the cash. Like, really, it's just like free money, except that you had to be heard. But the problem is, personal injury lawyers, in any given state, most personal injury lawyers don't understand OWCP. Now, most OWCP lawyers understand personal injury because it's in their their interest to understand it because of the nature of your job. And so the best thing you do in that case is to contact the lawyer first. Actually, contact the doctor first, okay? But contact an OWCP lawyer first. Now you could Google this an OWCP lawyer, they don't have to be in your state, they just have to be good. Now, of course, we highly recommend Eric. And if you want to know how to get a hold of Eric, we can help you with that. But if you want to choose your own lawyer, we're 100% in favor of you exercising your choice. So you can go to Google and find plenty of others. There's maybe a handful or two nationwide that know what they're doing. We just like our guy because he's cool and inexpensive and definitely gets the job done.

SPEAKER_01 21:32

Yeah, Marcos, he said his union rep was not open to have welcome us. Hey, Marcos, you know what? Don't talk to your union rep.

SPEAKER_02 21:39

Yeah, go straight to the president.

SPEAKER_01 21:40

You have to go straight to the president, vice president, and if you want to give me a call next week, Monday, because we'll be busy uh starting tomorrow morning, so I won't be able to take too many calls. But give me a call Monday and I'll tell you how and what you can say to them. They think that we come in there and we're just trying to do marketing. But we're not. We're completely educating. Yeah, we're going to be able to do that. We don't do any marketing, no sales presentation. That's why we get this. Yeah.

unknown 22:10

Oh my God.

SPEAKER_02 22:11

Can't wear a jacket in here tonight. It's hot. It's like their AC is off, too.

SPEAKER_01 22:16

Oh my God. So, Marcos, call me on Monday, okay? And uh Danielle, I know everybody tells us about New Jersey and New York. We're trying again, like we tell everybody every week, there's only so much we could do, and it doesn't take overnight to get a doctor there. There's a lot that goes into it to get a doctor. So we're working on things slowly. But uh, if you need help, give me a call and I'll walk you through the DOL ACS website and we'll see what we could find for you.

SPEAKER_02 22:43

So, Marcos, Naperville, thank you very much. Let me tell you something.

SPEAKER_01 22:46

Napber Naper Naperville.

SPEAKER_02 22:48

So here's the deal. I want to say this too. A lot of times union leadership doesn't know what they're saying no to.

SPEAKER_03 22:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:55

And they just have no idea what it is we do, or they've heard like some horror stories from groups that came before us that we have no association with, or we don't even know them. And so they say maybe it's a scam, or we just don't want to get in trouble, but they don't know what they're saying no to. Yeah. Here's what they're saying no to nationwide, one out of 13 federal employees has an accepted claim. Let that set in for a second. One out of 13. And all of like half of people have some sort of condition, but only one out of 13 has an accepted claim. Some of the agencies are way worse than one out of 13. And so what they're saying no to is help getting claims accepted. That's what's that's what they're saying no to. And if they said yes, they'd be saying yes to help getting claims accepted, yes to education. A lot of union presidents can potentially have a line going out of their office for people that need help with an OWCP claim. When you say yes to us, you say yes to shrinking that line because people understand how to do it themselves. And deny claims suck. Like I don't know why anybody would tolerate it. And so when you know that letting me help you leads to accepted claims, once you know that, and if you still say no, I can't help you. I'm sorry, I can't help you. But if you understand what you're saying yes to, you would run to whatever wherever you're going to get me in. And uh, and so that's what we really need to be working on. So make sure people know what they're saying no to, because no really isn't reasonable. It's not a reasonable response. I'm doing it for free, and it's valuable information that you're not getting. But if you had it, you could avoid disability, you avoid bankruptcy, you avoid stress and anxiety, you avoid so many problems that should be avoidable. And all you gotta do is say yes. What's up, Ron Berg? Ron will tell you what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_01 24:36

Ron, you tell them to tell their presidents how we do our training and what it's all about. It's not about a sales presentation, it's about educating your members.

SPEAKER_02 24:46

Ron took a chance and he didn't know us and he invited us out, and he can tell you it wasn't a sales presentation, and it was free, and it was super valuable, and as people learned a lot. And we hope we can do it again, by the way, Ron. We really Ron and his group of rural carers.

SPEAKER_01 24:58

Uh Amy says, can you repeat the buyback process if management doesn't use your annual or sick instead of OWCP?

SPEAKER_02 25:05

If you use SIC and annual leave and your claim gets accepted, you need a CA7 and a CA7B. You can get all the forms that I mentioned on our website at federalentrycenters.com. Click on the red forms button, and you can print all these forms that you want. Okay, it's really easy. Print them out, fill them out, turn them into your supervisor.

SPEAKER_01 25:23

Phyllis says, What happens when FCE report says now or future to return to your regular route? How long does it take for a job offer to neck fusions?

SPEAKER_02 25:33

It takes as long as it takes them to do a job offer. I'm not sure what the time frame is on that. But any union presidents, by the way, that are on watching, and if you know the answer to that, please feel free and answer the question how long it takes to do a job offer. That's not an OWCP question, that's an agency slash union question. But I do my best mostly to learn the stuff that's not OWCP as well. So I'd be interested in that answer too, so I don't give you a wrong answer.

SPEAKER_01 25:57

All right, Miss Perkins says brakes went out in my LLV, hit a tree, broke a knee, hip, three places, three ribs, but no one called an ambulance. Took me in a truck, tried to get an attorney, no one would take it from Dallas area. Also, it's been three years. Is it too late?

SPEAKER_02 26:14

Wait, did you on that at any time in the last three years fill out a CA1? If you fill it out of CA1, it's not too late.

SPEAKER_01 26:22

Trina, let me know if you filled out a CA1 for this accident.

SPEAKER_02 26:25

In fact, Trina, give us a call.

SPEAKER_01 26:28

We know and we have an attorney that will take this.

SPEAKER_02 26:31

We have an attorney that'll take it, and we have a doctor's office that knows how to handle it in the DFW area.

SPEAKER_01 26:36

Yeah. Contact me, Trina, tomorrow, 877 787 OWCP.

SPEAKER_02 26:43

Yeah, we'll be happy. We're gonna fix you up. Now, these doctors that I know are not Federal Injury Center's doctors, but I know them.

SPEAKER_01 26:50

Because he's trained them.

SPEAKER_02 26:52

I know them very well. I'm from there, so I know they do a good job.

SPEAKER_01 26:55

Rhonda says I had a roll away, runaway thrown from my vehicle, but my office never sent me to the doctor. I went a week later to my doctor, not for this, but long story short, I had a total new had a total knee replacement and claims got denied. How do I get it covered and documented?

SPEAKER_02 27:11

Rhonda, let us know where you're located. Your doctor has to write a narrative report that explains how the injury happened during the accident. Seems like it should be easy, but most doctors write terrible narratives.

SPEAKER_01 27:23

Yeah. Rhonda, I think I've let us know where you're located. Yeah, I think I've been working with you. We've been trying to do some stuff together. So contact me and let me help you with this. Mess send me a message on Facebook and I'll see what's going on and help you out there.

SPEAKER_03 27:37

Yeah. Happy to help.

SPEAKER_01 27:39

Yeah. Beth said, did a CA 17 previous to being sent to Occupational Medicine Clinic to be seen by the doctors at Handlework Comp, post office HR was questioning restrictions set for by the surgeon. We hear that all the time. So if a medical provider sets restrictions and your post office is telling you it's otherwise, ask them to see their medical license.

SPEAKER_03 28:04

Yeah, that'd be good.

SPEAKER_01 28:05

Seriously, because they have to follow. This is a medical provider, a state medical provider, an MD, that's telling you what you can and cannot do because of your injury, and no one else in the post office, I highly doubt, has a medical license to tell you that it's not right. Ask your post office HR if they have medical license and make sure that you guys are. We've been noticing this more and more. Make sure you guys are not signing HIPAA stuff to release your records to your HR and to your postmasters and to your supervisors. Make sure you guys are reading everything because in the last couple weeks we've heard about so many people by accident signing over their medical stuff to the post office and to management. And then they're wondering how is the post office knowing about anything. So you guys are really letting them get your medical records and letting them see in detail, and that's not something that you want. Marcos, yes, message me Monday. Eileen says, What about third-party at fault case and treatment after case is settled?

SPEAKER_02 29:16

That's what I was talking about. When the third party's at fault, you file an OWCP claim, CA1, and after it's settled, then 20% of the settlement after expenses goes to you, and 80% goes to DOL to cover the medical bills.

SPEAKER_01 29:32

Okay, Marcos, I figured they have no clue. No, they don't have a clue. Marcos, what agency are you with? Let me know, please. Just comment down below. Union, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 29:42

Witchercraft.

SPEAKER_01 29:44

Okay. Eileen says, with my case, the guy ran the stop sign case is going into mediation next month, but I'm still having issues and looking at a possible surgery on my spine. So if accident case settles, how do I cover treatment after the case? And I still use OWCP, or would it be on my own insurance?

SPEAKER_02 30:02

Yeah, as long as you filed your OWCP claim and it's accepted, you can use it for life. When the case settles, it settles. That's the way it goes. You'll get 20% of the settlement after expenses, but OWCP will continue to pay your claim and pay all your medical bills for as long as it takes to get you better.

SPEAKER_01 30:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:17

It doesn't run out just because the case settles.

SPEAKER_01 30:19

Rhonda, they removed me from work, had to take money out of my 401k. No, nine months, how can I get this accepted? Rhonda, tell me what city and state you're in, and I'm going to send you to a doctor as close as possible that I can look up for you to get the claim accepted. Get the claim accepted. So let me know. You guys let me know what cities and state you're from. And I'm still waiting. I haven't seen anything from our Massachusetts people. So, Massachusetts, let me know where you're located.

SPEAKER_02 30:48

So, Ron is saying that uh he wanted to know how long it takes for Dr. Say to get everything done. It doesn't take any longer for him than anyone else. The difference is the narratives are good and the claims get approved faster. But the problem is claims examiners don't have any period of time they have to get things approved in. So they could take as long as they want. They work from home, they're probably watching Wheel of Fortune. And so you gotta call the claims examiner like every week to ask them what the heck is going on with your claim once the narrative report goes in.

SPEAKER_01 31:16

Phyllis says I work six hour modified, but work comp isn't paying me 3.5 hours, and my leave earnings are falling 50 every two weeks. Why?

SPEAKER_02 31:27

Um that's a really good question. You need to take that into your union rep and uh or talk, I was gonna say, or talk to your supervisor, don't do that to yourself. Take it into your union rep and show it to them and let them explain it to you. Because if there's not a good reason for it, they'll want to grieve it and get you your money.

SPEAKER_01 31:45

Natalie says, My accident was two years ago on a hit and run. Two torn rotator cuffs plus things that have just shown up in the last couple of years. I would like to talk to a lawyer. Yeah, at the end, I will go ahead and post attorney Eric Blowers' information, like on another post on Wednesday night, and my Facebook, Chris's Facebook, and a federal injury center site, so you guys could all take a look at it. So it will be on there. Oh, Eileen, you're so welcome. We enjoyed coming and meeting you guys in Wisconsin, even though I didn't eat any. I may think I had a couple pieces of cheddar cheese, but that's about it.

SPEAKER_02 32:21

I love the cheese.

SPEAKER_01 32:22

And he loved the cheese.

SPEAKER_02 32:23

You may have cheese here too, but that was Wisconsin cheese.

SPEAKER_01 32:26

And Ron Berg, the Wisconsin NRL LCA state president, that was really sweet. He said they were excellent.

SPEAKER_02 32:33

So you're excellent, Ron. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 32:35

Those of you that your presidents are battling and your union doesn't want us to come, have them call another president that we are working with.

SPEAKER_02 32:44

And there's a lot of them. We don't have to bombard Ron. Yes. But the ones that get it, this isn't a it's not even a question. Like most of them, it's like standing orders. And when we don't show up, they call us and find out why we weren't there.

SPEAKER_01 32:56

A shout out to Dr. Tony. Dr. Patron, we are yep, we're actually going to be there tomorrow. Those of you that don't know, we are going to be in Chicago tomorrow for the APW convention. So we'll be there Friday. Chris is speaking at one o'clock. And those of you that want to meet us and are not in the in the going to the convention, we'll be in the office Friday morning from 8 to 10. So if you guys want to come by in Hoffman Estates, I'll put the address to and link it later. You can come by and say hello to us. We love to meet you guys in person.

SPEAKER_02 33:27

Let me just say Derek is watching and Maria Probenzano is watching from Massachusetts. They're partners of ours up in that area. And hello to them. And if you're from Massachusetts, I want you to get on here and tell us what city that you're in. So just tell city and state, because we'd like to recognize you. Jump on, tell your friends to get on here too. This is a really good time for everyone to share if you haven't done it. Or if you have done it, you should still do it again. Just keep sharing this thing. And when you're done, be sure you hit the follow button on this page so you get notifications every week that when it happens.

SPEAKER_01 34:00

I have look at that. I have Mr. George Galvin. Hello. He said he used to be a branch Yeah, we know George.

SPEAKER_02 34:06

He lives in the DFW area now.

SPEAKER_01 34:08

No. Yeah, ask him. George Galvin. Oh, okay. He used to be a branch president in Massachusetts for the mail handlers union. Although you're not in Massachusetts, thank you for letting us know where you are from. Susan says, I need help filling out work comp papers. Witness a young gentleman set his body on fire. I'm in the VA Virginia area.

SPEAKER_02 34:28

I heard about that. Hey, this is a good time for me to tell you. We uh recently hired a person who I've known for a long time. I actually wanted to hire her the very first time I ever met her. She'll tell you that's true. And then shortly thereafter, she moved to Texas and I hired her. Now I just got a chance to hire her again from my company. And uh when it comes to, I was just telling Tom this earlier, when it comes to OWCP knowledge, she's one of us. We have some extra brain power now to help. So if anybody's got questions, you don't have to wait in line on me. I'm gonna start having a talk with Jennifer as well. She's excellent, and she'll definitely be able to answer your questions as well. And so we're really glad to have her.

SPEAKER_01 35:05

Yeah. Trina, like you said, no, it's not too late to get an attorney. You're still in your three-year period, so I'll make sure you get that number tonight and then tomorrow contact Eric. He's great, and he's the most reasonable priced federal attorney out there.

SPEAKER_02 35:22

Eileen, how's the file aggrievance t-shirt going? No, we were just talking about that, Eileen. It's not going because we forgot to do it, but we just talked about it again today. She's got the hashtag readforfeds today.

SPEAKER_01 35:31

Today is read for feds for our VA employees.

SPEAKER_02 35:34

So we're always representing you'll see us hashtag file agreements soon. And uh just for fun, really, but seriously, file agreements. And right now, in fact, I think everyone should just sit and think for a minute on find something and file agreements on and just do it because uh it'll be fun.

SPEAKER_01 35:50

Yeah, Marcos, you said you're a role carrier. You know what? We find that the role carrier presidents are really acceptable. Oh, yeah. So yeah, let's talk on Monday, and I can make the phone call for you because we actually met with the old president that you guys had, Dart Mr. Stoddard. Dart Stoddard, really sweet man. We drove and met him in uh Dart's from Texas. That's where oh no, never mind. Never mind, Marcos. You said you're in Chicago. But no, call me and I can fix that. I'll talk to you about your president. That's not an issue. I know who your president is. We'd love to help your rural carriers there, and have your president call Ron Berg or Natasha or Devin and Virginia. Devin and yeah, Devin Cassidy, or not that we're name dropping. Say Sam Mays. We're gonna be going to the Alabama Rule Carrier Convention next month.

SPEAKER_02 36:41

And we're probably not gonna scam you, like most likely. Usually we don't, so we probably won't this time either.

SPEAKER_01 36:48

There's a Jay on here from New Bedford, Massachusetts.

SPEAKER_02 36:52

What's up, Jay?

SPEAKER_01 36:53

Jay, hello. It's nice to have you on. Welcome to the chat. Love to have you share this with all your people in Massachusetts, and you will be seeing Chris and I, hopefully, at one of your union meetings or state conventions coming up.

SPEAKER_02 37:05

Yeah, hopefully soon.

SPEAKER_01 37:06

All right, so Susan, about the person that you saw was burned and you need help filing your work comp stuff. Please call me on Monday. We'll walk you through it.

SPEAKER_02 37:18

All right, Ivana Perkins, NRLCA president in the house. What's up?

SPEAKER_01 37:22

Who's that?

SPEAKER_02 37:23

There. Ivana, where are you from?

SPEAKER_01 37:27

Yes, we want to come to your state convention.

SPEAKER_02 37:29

Where are you from? City and state, please.

SPEAKER_01 37:34

Okay, let's see. All right. So Elaine Gunn says, I'm currently on workers' comp, have been for over two years. They are removing me from my route in Michigan. Was waiting for an approval on surgery. They never notified me that surgery had not been approved and was about to expire, and surgeon's office said they never received my approval by mail.

SPEAKER_02 37:56

They can get your approval through the ACS website. Tell them to get with the program. The ACS website does a lot of things. One of the things it does is they can request authorization and track the result of authorization request on ACS.

SPEAKER_01 38:12

Eileen, I'm nominated for national, so hopefully I get to come see you. We still need to get into national. So all of you rule carriers, make it happen. Don't forget Chris lives in Dallas.

SPEAKER_02 38:22

Like I live 20 minutes from there.

SPEAKER_01 38:24

This convention is like in his backyard. He's just gonna show up and just come say hi.

SPEAKER_02 38:28

And they have a really great steam room there. I'd like to go there and use it.

SPEAKER_01 38:31

When are you coming back to Wisconsin? We will come back to Wisconsin when Mr. Berg invites us again.

SPEAKER_02 38:36

So when we get invited, yeah, we're we'll make it happen. Hopefully, not in the winter time.

SPEAKER_01 38:42

Okay, questioning. I read a document saying OWCP gets the CA7, not management. Let me pull it and see if I can send it. Also, my postmaster wants to bring me back to work. Can you clarify for me what exactly he means by duration? Because Dr. Camerman has been doing a CA 17. Is the postmaster asking for a letter, or what this has gone on too long?

SPEAKER_02 39:06

Something you wanted to say about that. What you just read. No. Okay. Nicholas, I'm really glad, Nicholas, you said this. Nicholas said the NALC employs eight full-time regional workers' comp assistants to help members who suffer on-the-job injuries. RWCAs do nothing but research and advise members with claim development, billing issues, appeals, and schedule awards. I think that's great. Awesome. I'd like to know all eight of them. We'd like to help as well. Sadly, one out of 13 federal employees hasn't accepted claim. Everyone else doesn't. And we need more than those eight and me. Like, there's we need a lot of help. Because claims are getting denied or not being attempted. Supervisors are bullying employees. There's not enough hours in the week for unions, especially at the post office, to battle management for what management does to the people. Yeah, we're really glad the RWCAs are there, and we hope we can be a resource to them. And when they get stumped on an OWCP issue, I think they should call me. I'd be happy to help.

SPEAKER_01 40:11

So I have a little message here. I know I'm not, my hair is all over the place, but I know Mr. Stutz, you're watching tonight. So I am asking you, I hope you got my email some time ago where I said I would love if you would invite Chris and I to come to the national convention in Dallas. And if you're not watching, somebody send this portion to Mr. Stutz. We don't charge anything, we would talk for 45 minutes, an hour and a half, eight hours, whatever you want. But we'll be there all week, all day, whatever you want. But this is just an education. We understand you have people that are doing this already and helping. We're just adding an extra benefit just for everybody. Chris always says there's 2.8 million federal employees nationwide, plus more overseas, who knows? And we're just trying to educate people on what to do when they get hurt. And this goes out for all the presidents, all the union reps, all the district reps. We're not trying to take anyone's job away. We are just an added bonus on social media to help everyone else that doesn't understand, doesn't have the knowledge, and make you guys your own little OWCP experts within yourself. Like you guys always see that I always say that.

SPEAKER_02 41:23

And the other thing is um like appeals. I'm super glad that there's people out there helping members with appeals. But you got to understand if the claim gets approved the first time, you don't have to do an appeal, and pay is not delayed, you don't have to jump through all the hoops with the forms. Life is just better when the claim gets accepted the first time, and so that's why we're here doing this. We're teaching you how to do your part, and then on the other end, we're teaching doctors how to do their part so your claim gets accepted. All of you that are out there assisting members from the various unions, please keep it up. Just know we're out here trying to make it to where you don't need an appeal, make it to where claims just get approved and doctors understand what's going on, and uh federal employees don't feel like they're in the dark when it comes to OWCP, and they do. Look, I've taught thousands of federal employees. I've never walked into a room where more than 10% of the room knew what OWCP stood for, so there's a disconnect, and it's not an insult. Look, I love doing this, I'm I would never want to do something else, and uh but listen, there's a huge disconnect in education on OWCP, it's massive, and uh it's it's the worst thing I've ever seen is what happens when someone gets hurt. They have no clue what to do, and then their coworkers don't know what to do, and they give them bad advice. Management, whether they know what to do or not, give bad advice, usually maliciously, purposely, and they feel like they're backed into a corner and they there's no light shed on the thing until we meet them. And uh so, anyways, we're not gonna stop doing it. I hope more unions get more people involved and get trained on OWCP. And by the way, not for nothing, but I'd be happy to train those people too. Anybody that would like to take your OWCP reps and get some really great training, I'd be more than glad to fly wherever you're at, and I'll do that training too. There's never gonna be enough training for 2.8 million federal employees, it'll never be enough. So together we should all just be working on this deal.

SPEAKER_01 43:16

Yeah, so that's why we tell you guys. I'm with you. Yeah, that's why we tell you guys to share. There are people out there with no knowledge of OWCP. I hear it all the time. I know you guys are always tagging me to help somebody.

SPEAKER_02 43:26

And what's the most basic question? What's the difference between a CA1 and a CA2?

SPEAKER_01 43:29

Right.

SPEAKER_02 43:30

How can people not have that information?

SPEAKER_01 43:32

So that's why we try to add it in every week so those new people that are coming on and joining us for the first time will get to understand what a CA1 versus a CA2 and when to file it. And we normally have Eric Blowers on talking about the car accidents. And you guys know that we're having some issues trying to figure out how to do this invite with Facebook and invite him back on. So we're gonna get it worked out. But before the end of the year, I'll have him on a couple more times, definitely. He's a great attorney. He's well spoken, very humble, and his prices are better than most federal attorneys. And not only does he deal with personal injury, he deals with impairment ratings, schedule award, and any type of issue outside of our scope that we don't understand. And Eileen, you wanted to know if there's something we could submit for your national magazine to reach more carriers. If you can call me next week, or actually you call Chris. Chris has a lot of stuff that he writes, blogs and stuff like that. He will do an amazing job writing whatever it is that you want to write and in your national magazine, and it will help a lot of people.

SPEAKER_02 44:45

Carlos said the national business agents, he's talking about NALC. The NBA doesn't think going out of the union is a good idea, nor the OWCP specialist. So look, I get it. And maybe not always, but sometimes there's some territorialism. I understand. I'm definitely not trying to get on anybody's turf. But just understand this one out of 13 federal employees has an accepted claim. But the doctors that we work with are nearly 100%. And so let's just take me out of the equation, let's take them out of the equation, and let's just look at the numbers. One out of 13 versus nearly 12 out of 13. And we're just trying to help. If I can get if I can take one claim and make sure it doesn't get denied, that was a good day. We're running closer to 100%. And nationwide, it's closer to 1%. Seven. But so let's all get together on this deal. I'm happy to help. And look, I'm grateful for the MBAs. I told this to Al to Al in Florida the other day. I'm so grateful for the MBAs. They're so useful and needed, but I'd like to be able to help them. There's a blood flying around here if I start swatting. I'm not swatting at her.

SPEAKER_01 45:50

Probably is.

SPEAKER_02 45:51

Numbers don't lie, JJ. And what's up, JJ? Nice to see from hear from you. Numbers don't lie. They don't.

SPEAKER_01 45:56

Let me make this clear, and we say this all the time. We are not trying to take any of the district reps jobs, union reps jobs, national jobs, NBA's jobs. We are not doing that in any way. We encourage you to reach out to them.

SPEAKER_02 46:13

Oh, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 46:14

Unfortunately, at times they may not know the answer, and it's okay. We're not trying to be better than that.

SPEAKER_02 46:20

But how many times do we say go to your union?

SPEAKER_01 46:21

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 46:21

Every time.

SPEAKER_01 46:22

This is why when we tell you go talk to your union, these are the reasons why we tell you to go to your union because you have people that have been doing this longer than the two of us and maybe have more answers that we don't. Because sometimes I personally reach out to a particular NBA agent. She's very well knowledge. I've asked her. I've asked her. I can't find a doctor. I ask, I definitely reach out to her in areas that I just don't have people to send you guys to. So I use them as a resource too. So understand we're not trying to take anyone's job away. We're only an added bonus to help people that don't know that there's NBAs, union reps, district reps. Some of you don't even know who your union president is because when you call me and you and I'm like, Who's your union president? You'll say you don't even know. And I already know.

SPEAKER_02 47:11

If you don't know your union president, you don't know your NBA.

SPEAKER_01 47:13

Yeah. Oh, hold on.

SPEAKER_02 47:15

Mike Mike wanted me to mention that any questions that you're asking that we haven't answered. Thank you, Mike. Yeah, we're gonna go on after this and we'll make an effort to answer all the questions. So don't think they're gonna go and answer just because we haven't read them yet.

SPEAKER_01 47:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 47:26

We won't get to them all while we're here, but we'll get to them all eventually.

SPEAKER_01 47:30

Lori, yes, all of our doctors handle issues with hospital work environment, stress, anxiety. We know what to do. We know what to do. If you call me, I'll tell you exactly the process. You don't see us first, just a real quick thing. If you have any stress, anxiety, or any of that P PTSD and stuff, what you need to do, file your CA1, contact a psychiatrist or psychologist or a therapist, and go see them two to three visits. Once that happens, call me and I'll try to find you a treating OWCP doctor. Then the two doctors collaborate together, put the notes together. The treating work comp doctor will send it to DOL. Most of the time it gets accepted. So don't think that you're stuck and you can't get the help because there's tons of stuff we hear would stress and all the crazy stuff that carry your C on their route. So there's definitely hope there.

SPEAKER_02 48:33

Robert wanted to know if we can if we know of any doctors in San Antonio that can do schedule awards. I don't, but let me tell you what Google OWCP ACS, and then once you get there, scroll down a little bit and go to provider search and then go through the screens. This, what I'm at, what I'm telling you, actually sucks, but it's a way to do it. And then you can call the list of doctors that are in your area and ask. There's also this guy in Oklahoma City, which is a heck of a drive for you. It's probably 10 hours or an hour flight. But nobody has done more schedule awards in their life than Dr. Ellis. So you can also Google EllisClinic.com, E-L-L-I-Sclinic.com, and uh he's probably the best in the world at schedule awards, so check that out too. I know it's a long drive, but if it's worth it to you, then you know maybe you want to do it.

SPEAKER_01 49:17

So David Irwin says, Hey, what jobs do you both have? Do your supervisors treat you all bad for doing this or any retaliation to either one of you?

SPEAKER_02 49:28

Does supervisor retaliate on us?

SPEAKER_01 49:30

First of all, we don't work for any federal agency, David.

SPEAKER_02 49:33

But I'd like it if they try, that'd be fun.

SPEAKER_01 49:34

And we haven't had any supervisors say anything to us personally or to anybody that we hear it from the employees, but nothing about us. We actually educate you on what to do when supervisors harass you and retaliate you and threaten you, and we have Facebook Live where we've gone over the roles and statutes on what to do when you're in that situation. But us personally, we work with Federal Injury Center's doctors, and our job is to go out there and educate you guys and get you guys to doctors that you don't know that exist, and to help you guys answer your OWCP questions. We don't ask for any money. We never will, we never have. That's against the law. And we go to different union meetings, we go to state conventions, or trying to get into national conventions, we work with all the agencies. So this is what we do, but still a supervisor training. Yeah, we'd love to help the supervisors understand because we hear a lot of times the reason why supervisors retaliate the way that they do is because maybe us or somebody else gets them educated, the employee, and then when they go tell the supervisor what's going on, the supervisor has no clue and says, I don't know what that form is, I don't know where to get that form. I don't know. That's not a job work injury. So that's my answer, Mr. Irwin. And if you have any more questions, please feel free to ask. You got quiet. Why?

SPEAKER_02 51:11

I was just reading something. So Octavia called in Friday, used sick leave, and wasn't paid. If you use sick leave, you should have been paid. Go talk to your union about that. Talk to your supervisor, find out why you didn't get paid. And if the reason's not sufficient, file agreements. Hashtag file agreements.

SPEAKER_01 51:27

Yeah, Diane, yeah. This is why. If they've if we can't help you find a doctor, I direct everyone to D-O-L, go to Google, type in D-O-L-A-C-S. There, you're gonna go under provider search, you're gonna click accept, you're gonna click Vika, and you're gonna click provider search again, and then you're gonna enter physician MD and your state. And there's gonna be pages of doctors. However, that doesn't necessarily mean that every doctor does OWCP.

SPEAKER_02 52:00

Most of them don't.

SPEAKER_01 52:01

Chris has called, no joke, looking for an ortho, 11 doctors before he got one in the state of Alabama.

SPEAKER_02 52:07

The first hand said no.

SPEAKER_01 52:08

And yes, they don't regular primary care doctors, regular orthos that don't know anything about OWCP, they do not want to see you. You say it's a work injury, and they do throw you out of the room. With that said, reach out to us, reach out to your union, reach out to your NBAs, reach out to your district reps if you don't want to use us and we you don't seem like we're helping you. You have so many other options to use. Reach out to your national. So don't think that there's an end. There is hope, is just to take the time to find the doctor.

SPEAKER_02 52:41

Don't think that we're helping them, but that's not gonna happen.

SPEAKER_01 52:44

No, I didn't mean by that. Can you talk a visit to BST? I'm just talking to JJ. Oh, okay. To my doctor yesterday, she didn't say Oh, Stevie, I'm glad you went. I know we've been messaging back and forth on Facebook about your doctor, so let me know how it all turned out. Thank you. I have so many people on what to do, but everyone has told me since I was not physically hurt, but mentally I am. No, you can still you don't no, you don't have to be physically hurt to file a CA1. No or two. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 53:21

It could be a CA1 or two.

SPEAKER_01 53:24

Let's see. Anybody else?

SPEAKER_02 53:28

Yeah, we're not gonna be able to stay on past an hour. We're about three minutes left because they were really nice to let us borrow their uh lobby area and their free Wi-Fi during our power outage. Again, we'll be uh in Tampa training the mail handlers tomorrow. We'll be in Chicago tomorrow night, but Friday training the clerks, so that'd be fun. We're looking forward to that. Come out and see us. And uh before we get off of here, let me tell you to uh get your phone like this, pick it up. Great. Go to Twitter. You don't have Twitter, no problem. Go to the app store or to the Google Play Store and download the Twitter app and log in, just get a free account, and then go to search and find at the at sign at Fed Injury Center. At Fed Injury Center on Twitter. You need to get on there because a lot of the stuff that I'm talking about, I post there and it's an easy place for you to find it. I've only got 138 followers, but there are 2.8 million federal employees. You guys need to pick it up at Fed Injury Center.

SPEAKER_01 54:26

Where's the tweet?

SPEAKER_02 54:27

The little bird.

SPEAKER_01 54:28

The little tweety right there.

SPEAKER_02 54:30

Right. There.

SPEAKER_01 54:32

That's Twitter, folks.

SPEAKER_02 54:33

Get that.

SPEAKER_01 54:34

Twitter.

SPEAKER_02 54:35

And then go to at Fed Injury Center. At Fed Injury Center. And follow that. That way when I post something new, you'll be the first one to see it. But definitely do that. Get on this OWCP chats, Wednesday night OWCP chats and like it and follow it. And then go to Federal Injury Centers on Facebook and like it and follow it as well. You need to be in the places where we're at teaching this stuff so you can get the information as we as we put it out there in real time.

SPEAKER_01 55:01

David, you said I have a coworker that has a he's a letter carrier. Dog was chasing him and he jumped a fence and was injured. The local doctor worded it wrong. He was denied work comp. He needed MRI, finally paid for himself. He still has never been paid for at least six months. He has a lawyer, but how can you get help from workman's comp? David, message me and let me know what city and state he's in, and I'll go ahead and help you with that because these dog issues.

SPEAKER_03 55:24

That's easy to fix.

SPEAKER_01 55:25

It's crazy, but that is easy to fix. Stevie, you need to file what's the mileage?

SPEAKER_02 55:31

OWCP 957.

SPEAKER_01 55:33

OWCP 957. And yes, you do get paid for your mileage once your case is accepted.

SPEAKER_03 55:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 55:39

So all you guys that are trying to file CA7s, mileage, reimbursements, hotels, or whatever, make sure that your case is accepted. Keep a track of it. Start filling out your forms, but make sure that you guys wait and let your case get accepted and then submit all of this stuff.

SPEAKER_02 55:56

All right, we're at 141. Three more people just jumped onto Twitter. Thank you very much. The three of you, you know who you are, but let's make it 3,000. So start sharing this. Tell your coworkers like, cool, when you're at work, show them your phone and say get Twitter and show them at Fed Enjury Center. Get all your coworkers on this. Okay, wherever you're working, you have a responsibility to make sure that the people that you work with have this information too. It's free information. You're not gonna really find it any place else because it's in it's scattered in so many different places. It's very hard to get what you're looking for. But if you're following me at Fed Enjury Center on Twitter, then you're gonna get some really great stuff. I'm not gonna waste your time. Like I always say, I'm not going to write on there who my favorite football team is or who I'm pulling for in the basketball playoffs or what I ate for dinner. Okay, I'm not gonna pull any of that crap. It's just gonna be useful, necessary information. I'm not gonna post stuff all the time. Look, if there's nothing to post, there's nothing to post. But at least you know that you have someplace you can go and very quickly find some super valuable stuff that'll help you with management and help you with your OWCP claim.

SPEAKER_01 57:02

JJ says you're gonna make me get Twitter. I despise social media. JJ. Get Twitter. Come on, man. Eileen, we can make a flyer for you, and we'll give you all the website info for you guys to post it definitely. And David Irwin, I will get in contact with you for Kentucky. Eventually, we will be coming to Kentucky. It's probably gonna be next year sometime, but we will, and I know that's not acceptable now, but I will help you and see what I could find for you. Stevie says, I never filed for mileage from my shoulder. It's accepted. Can I backdate for mileage?

SPEAKER_02 57:36

Yeah, definitely. You just got to have proof of where you were driving from and to and attach that to your form.

SPEAKER_01 57:42

Marcos, your dog is following Chris on Twitter. That's awesome. That's totally awesome. And yes, Eileen, we'll make sure that we get that taken care of for you. Always keep track of all your doctor's visits, all the mileage round trip. Please be honest about it. Don't exaggerate even a mile. You want to be honest with stuff like that. And let's see. We're gonna be coming off. Anyways, guys, we're gonna get ready to go. It doesn't work.

SPEAKER_02 58:12

We're losing power.

SPEAKER_01 58:13

This one doesn't work.

SPEAKER_02 58:14

Everywhere we go, we're losing power. So we're gonna have to shut this thing down.

SPEAKER_01 58:16

So, you guys, again, we had lost power in my neighborhood because something went a big boom. My kids said, So we came to the Hampton.

SPEAKER_02 58:23

So before this battery goes dead, we're gonna have to let you go tonight. So, anyways, it was nice seeing everybody at Fed Enjury Center on Twitter. Follow us at right here, and we'll see you again next week.

SPEAKER_01 58:31

Yeah, don't forget tomorrow morning we'll be in Tampa for the Trick. The Troy State Convention for the Mail Handlers Union and Chicago. Those of you that want to see us, come to Dr. Patron's office Friday morning. We'll be there. Don't forget Twitter, follow, share, and like our page, and don't forget our app is coming soon. So, with that said, we'll see you guys next week. I'll be live in Dallas next week.

SPEAKER_02 58:57

Hashtag file agreements.

SPEAKER_01 58:58

Bye. Bye.