Breaking OWCP with Chris & Gini

(Chats 4-15-26) |10 Mistakes Ruining Your OWCP Claim (And How to Avoid Them)

• Chris & Gini Helms

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Welcome back to the Breaking OWCP podcast with Chris and Gini!  If you are a federal employee dealing with a work-related injury, the process of securing your benefits can feel like navigating a minefield. In this episode, Chris and Gini break down the most common unforced errors that ruin federal workers' comp claims. Originally planning to cover just five mistakes, Chris overdelivers with a list of 10 crucial missteps you need to avoid to ensure your claim is accepted and your job is protected. Plus, we answer listener questions and preview our upcoming trip to Park City, Utah, for the APWU state convention! 


  • Mistake 1: Not reporting your injury immediately. Don't be part of the "rub some dirt on it" crowd; waiting to report your injury can cause you to lose benefits and could result in your agency writing you up.
  • Mistake 2: Failing to obtain a CA-16 form. If you report a single-shift injury within seven days, your supervisor is required to issue a CA-16 within four hours. This vital form pays for your injury-related medical bills for the first 60 days, even if your claim is ultimately denied.
  • Mistake 3: Not electing Continuation of Pay (COP). When filling out a CA-1, always elect COP. This allows the government to cover up to 45 days of your time off, protecting your personal sick and annual leave balances.
  • Mistake 4: Skipping your personal statement. Don't rely solely on the limited space provided on the CA-1 form. Write down every detail immediately so your treating doctor can establish the "fact of injury" in their medical narrative to get your claim approved.
  • Mistake 5: Letting your supervisor choose your doctor. By law, federal employees have the right to select their initial physician. Do not let management push you to an agency-contracted doctor; choose an OWCP specialist who knows how to navigate the system.
  • Mistake 6: Ignoring your doctor’s orders. The CA-17 duty status report is not a vacation ticket. If your doctor clears you for restricted duty, you must report to work; staying home can result in lost pay, job termination, or case closure.
  • Mistake 7: Missing your deadlines. OWCP deadlines are incredibly strict and cannot be overlooked. You have exactly three years to report an injury, seven days for a CA-16, 30 days to claim COP, and 12 months to file for reconsideration.
  • Mistake 8: Rushing to sign limited duty offers. You are not legally required to sign these offers under duress on the spot. You have 30 days after your claims examiner reviews the offer to consult with your doctor and ensure the assignment is safe.
  • Mistake 9: Accepting inadequate diagnoses. Do not let your doctor submit paperwork diagnosing you solely with "pain". Pain is just a symptom; to get an OWCP claim approved, your doctor must diagnose the underlying cause, such as a sprained knee or a torn ligament.
  • Mistake 10: Delaying your return to work. Clocking in as soon as it is medically safe protects your job. Remaining out of work for extended periods—over a year for carriers, clerks, or mail handlers, and two years for rural carriers—gives your agency the contractual right to remove you from your position.

Join Us Live Next Week:We will be streaming our next episode live from Park City, Utah, for the APWU Utah State Convention. Come say hi if you're attending

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Wednesday Night OWCP Chats with Chris & Gini

SPEAKER_00

Welcome back to the Breaking O WC Podcast. Join Chris and Jeannie as they bring you expert advice on Federal Workers Comp, guiding you step by step to get back to work the right way.

SPEAKER_01

Let's break down the barriers and get you the healthy dessert. Tonight's gonna be quite a night with things, five mistakes that is ruining your OWCP claim. Let's see if you guys can guess what the five mistakes are before we start. But before we start, we want to do a little bit of housekeeping. All right, we're gonna end the month of April.

SPEAKER_02

We live in hotels, and the thing that I hate the most in the morning about hotels, number one is hotel coffee. It's the worst. Hotel room coffee is the worst. Number two are these words housekeeping. Gosh, just go away. First of all, it's bad coffee, and now you want to bug me. I can't even put synthesis together, and your coffee is not helping. Anyways, housekeeping.

SPEAKER_01

We don't ever ask for housekeeping either. I make the bed, I clean everything. So again, tonight we're talking about five mistakes that are ruining your OWCP claim. All right, for the month of April. Next week, we're heading to my favorite place on planet Earth, back home to Utah, where it is actually snowing.

SPEAKER_02

And those of you that know us, you're like, look, we get it. You love Utah, you're just vacationing all the time. We're not vacationing. So where are we going?

SPEAKER_01

We go for vacation in either the end of January or February with our kids. That's our official vacation. But when you see us there, we're really literally there for work. So we're gonna be there for the APW, our favorite friends on planet Earth.

SPEAKER_03

Yep.

SPEAKER_01

For their Utah State Convention. So come by, say hi, and we're gonna get lots and lots and lots of pictures. And then we're home for one, two days after we come back. And then we are off to Atlanta for District 5 AFGE's caucus, where we get to see five states, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, and all of our friends from all five districts. So we're super excited.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Uh as we go into May, I'm not even going to tell you about our schedule for May. We are literally doing something every week in the month of May. We are booked until June, and that's it.

SPEAKER_02

In fact, I didn't want to see May, and then I looked at the calendar over there and now I can see it.

SPEAKER_01

Like, yeah, if you're wondering why I'm looking over there, is because I have a handwritten board calendar for Chris. So when he's sitting at his desk, he knows what the heck he's looking at, so he knows where we're gonna be.

SPEAKER_02

Otherwise, I never know where I'm gonna be.

SPEAKER_01

He has no clue where we're gonna be.

SPEAKER_02

I wake up sometimes in hotels and wonder, where am I today? She wakes up in hotels and runs into the wall because that's where the bathroom is in our house.

SPEAKER_01

Jack.

SPEAKER_02

What's up, Jack?

SPEAKER_01

I leave the do not disturb on. Oh, yeah, our sign is always on. Victor. To Nora. And Maria, hello, everybody. All right. Everybody share this. Share, share, share to your co-workers. Remember, if you are tagging your coworkers, you do need to put the at sign in on your end, it it'll have to be in blue. Because you guys just start listing friends as names and they don't ever see it. So you have to do the at sign and your friend's name. So again, tonight it's five mistakes that are ruining your OWCP claim. We have a bunch. So while I share, Chris will start.

SPEAKER_02

It's funny. She said we have a bunch. So there are five, to be clear.

SPEAKER_01

That's a bunch.

SPEAKER_02

But because I like to over-deliver, I actually have 10 for you. I broke them down to the top five, but there are five others, and I thought, shoot, as long as we're doing this, we're gonna go through all 10 of them. Because I see this all the time with the training that we do, all this traveling is for training. Um, I hear the same stuff over and over that I didn't do that, I wish I would have known that. I wish I would have known you two years ago when this happened to me. I never heard of that form. I never heard of this. I didn't even know. I didn't know, I didn't know, I didn't know. And in spite of us doing this for the last 10 years, uh, here live, and for the last, I guess, seven years, I think, doing these big companies. And I've written these books and all this stuff, and in spite of that, I walk into a room of federal employees, and like two-thirds of the room don't even know who I am, much less what a CA 10 is, for example. So sometimes it may seem what I'm talking about is overly repetitive, but the truth is that I can't say this stuff enough. If what I say tonight, these 10 things, I promise five, I'm gonna give you 10.

SPEAKER_01

That was just a repeat, so you guys know what he is saying.

SPEAKER_02

I promise five, I'm gonna give you 10. But if everyone would do these 10 things or don't make these 10 mistakes, everyone's lives would be so much better when it comes to OWCP. Now, your life is ultimately better if you just don't get hurt. And that's my wish for you, but it's wishful thinking because you do jobs that are incredibly hard. But once you get hurt, you just start tripping over yourselves and doing what I always say, like stepping on landmines or another thing I call them unforced errors. Like you didn't, it's like a in soccer kicking it to your own goal. Don't do own goals, right? But it happens all the time in OWCP.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

I'm gonna talk about all those mistakes and how to avoid them. But again, what she said, please share this with your friends, your coworkers that are friends. And if you don't have any friends that are co-workers, be nicer and go meet people at work and make friends and then help them. Yeah, this is really important, and I'm making a little bit light of it. But seriously, the only people I can teach are the ones that hear this video. Everyone else, I depend on you to go pass it on.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

So, what I'm gonna say, pass it on, but have your friends come and watch. Yeah. And have them come next week and to follow because this is really useful stuff.

SPEAKER_01

It is.

SPEAKER_02

So you want me to just get started right away?

SPEAKER_01

I am finishing up sharing. Oh, it was it's it. I just wanted to say we have our border patrol guys that we're so thankful. Everybody should be thankful to your border patrol. They're finally started sharing our stuff. And uh, there's a guy in the Border Patrol in San Diego said, I've never heard of you guys before, and this is awesome information. And I'm thinking, you've never heard of us before. But those are the guys I get injured pretty much a lot.

SPEAKER_02

And just since she mentioned it, I'm just gonna say this is not a political channel.

SPEAKER_01

Oh no.

SPEAKER_02

If you're angry about politics, this is not the place for you because we're not talking politics. Border patrol agents are federal employees just like everyone else. Yeah, and I my mission is to help everybody, yeah, regardless. Okay, I'm gonna help you, them, everyone else. I just want to say that. Melissa Ross said, Amen. Don't get hurt because it becomes a trickle-down effect. But before that, she said, Oh my, has it been 10 years? Yeah. I recall being at, I believe, your first Facebook Live.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I remember her there. I remember that too.

SPEAKER_02

Thanks for being, she's been here since day one. She's at front row.

SPEAKER_01

She was in front row that day and asked some great questions. And she's actually an anniversary participant, anniversary follower. That means she's that means she's been with us since day one.

SPEAKER_02

I love it. And good evening to you, Michelle. Um, okay. So, as if you're here on a regular basis, she'll I'll pause in a minute, she'll read the questions and I'll answer them. Yep. If you feel like we overlooked your question, just ask it again. We're not doing that on purpose. We want to read them all. So be patient with us. There's a lot of you and two of us. With that.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Hold on. Before he starts. Again, if you didn't know what tonight's subject is, it's five things. No, five mistakes that are ruining your OWCP claim.

SPEAKER_02

Okay. All right. So let's avoid all these mistakes. I'm going to give you the top five and then the next five. Yep. And the next five are important too. Let's start here. Mistake number one. Do not be in the rub some dirt on it crowd. There's a lot of you. What is the rub some dirt on it crowd? A lot of the guys here know exactly what that is. And a lot of the women that have sons know what that is too, because it's a guy thing. We're too macho. We're not hurt. Everything is fine. The rub some dirt on a crowd says, Yeah, I'm hurt, but eh, maybe it'll get better. Let me just wait. And we see that in a lot with BOP. I'll point at a table and be like, you are the rub some dirt on a table. I see you. I see you. And uh it used to be me. So that's how I know who's at the table because in the past I would have been at the table too. But the rub some dirt on a crowd says, Yeah, it hurts, but it'll probably get better. Let me just wait and see. But what happens is you wait and see, and you wait a week or you wait a month and you lose benefits. I'll get to those benefits in a minute. But if you wait, you begin losing benefits.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

The other thing that happens is your agency says, Why'd you wait? And then they want to write you up. So you're like, you can't win. You're between a rock and a hard place. The best thing you can do is just report now. So the first mistake is not filing now. When you're injured, report your injury immediately, even if you don't think it's severe, and I hope it's not, even if you don't think you're gonna have any lost time, and I hope you don't, but report it immediately because that's how you make sure you don't lose benefits. And when you lose benefits, especially the two that I'm gonna talk about next, when you lose these benefits, the people that lose these are the ones that have that spiral out of control.

SPEAKER_01

Yep.

SPEAKER_02

Where their life is the worst of anybody else that has an OWCP condition, and all because they waited to report. Do not wait.

SPEAKER_01

We tell you guys all the time, even those of you that are retiring this year, don't wait. File.

SPEAKER_02

Now, somebody out there, maybe there's a supervisor watching, or who knows who. They're gonna say, see, Chris wants everyone to have an injury and report their injury. Let me correct you. I want no one to have an injury, but when you have it, I want you to have all of your benefits.

SPEAKER_01

Yep.

SPEAKER_02

And that's the law. You have a right to all of your benefits.

SPEAKER_01

Victor just said, first mistake of not filing a CA form. I got hurt on the job, but I don't feel pain.

SPEAKER_02

I don't want you to feel pain.

SPEAKER_01

Sometimes you don't feel the pain, just like you get into an accident. It takes your body almost 14 days to recover from the accident. Your body goes into shock. And even if you're at a work injury, your body goes into shock.

SPEAKER_02

Now we're not doctors, we're not doctors. Don't take anything we're saying as medical advice. But the point is, if you hurt yourself, it doesn't have to hurt for it to be injured. Just report it. Whether you have to do anything or not, report it so that you don't lose benefits. Report it today. So that's mistake number one, not reporting now. Number two is the first thing that you lose if you don't report now. So the second mistake people do is on a CA1 claim, CA1 happened in a single shift, the injury happened today, they don't get a CA 16. And then when I'm in a room of live people, I say, show of hands, who's ever heard of a CA 16? And out of 100 people, seven people raise their hand. That's a problem. The CA 16, when you report your injury within seven days, and because you'll do the first thing properly, you'll report now, you won't lose the opportunity to get a CA 16. The CA 16 pays all your medical bills for the first 60 days. Without a CA 16, many doctors ask you for your health insurance and your co-pays. Whether that's proper or not, and it's not, they do it. But when you have a CA 16, it pays every medical bill for 60 days. And even if your claim's never approved, you don't have to pay it back. So a huge mistake people make is they don't give themselves an opportunity to have somebody else, in this case the government, pay for their medical bills, which is their right. And if you rub some dirt on it and wait more than seven days, you don't even have the option to get a CA 16. But a lot of people report right away and still don't get it because their supervisors don't think they have to. They don't think you're hurt bad enough. Bad supervisors, like Victor said, stupid visors. It's not their decision whether or not you're hurt bad enough. They're not a doctor, they don't have a license. This the rule states that if you have a CA1 injury that you report within seven days, then the supervisor shall issue CA16 within four hours. It's pretty specific. Shall issue, and they shall do it within four hours. Yep. So the second mistake is not getting a CA 16 so that you have a way to pay your medical bills for the first two months. And who understands that a lot of injuries just get better in two months? You don't need anything else. Whether your claim ever got approved or not, you got better and the government paid for it. So not getting a CA 16 leads to disasters.

SPEAKER_01

Yep.

SPEAKER_02

Because you didn't wake up thinking, I'm gonna get hurt today and I got plenty of money to pay for it. Instead, you woke up and you went, I'm just gonna go to work and make money. And then you got hurt. And too many people live paycheck to paycheck, which is scary. And you didn't plan on these medical bills. The CA 16 takes care of it. I can't stress enough how critically important it is to get the CA 16. So the second mistake is not getting one. The third mistake, which is again a product of one, not reporting now or on time, is or not understanding what your rights are, but not electing continuation of pay.

SPEAKER_01

Yep.

SPEAKER_02

Again, you're only eligible for COP on a CA1 claim that happened in a single shift. If you wait more than 30 days, you're not eligible for COP, continuation of pay. If you report now, like I said in the first one, not only can you have a CA 16 to pay all your bills, but now the government will pay for up to 45 days of time off. That's continuation of pay. So now you get, because you reported on time, number one, you received a CA 16, so you have a way to pay your bills. You elected COP, so somebody's gonna pay for your time off if you need it. You don't have to worry about how am I gonna get through this? Because you've got somebody to pay your medical bills for two months, and you've got up to a month and a half of time off that you don't have to use sick and annual leave.

SPEAKER_03

Correct.

SPEAKER_02

So many people just say, Oh, I'm gonna take sick and annual. But I was training a group of DOL employees that were with the AFGE, and in that group were some claims examiners, and the president of this particular group was a senior claims examiner. And he said, Chris, in box 15, tell everybody to just elect COP, don't elect sic and annual. That's not me telling you, that's a senior claims examiner. The reason why is if your claim is ultimately denied, and by ultimate denial, final adjudication, like there's nothing left we can do to get it approved, then you owe back your COP. The way they do that is they'll take your second annual leave. If there's anything left over, they'll deduct it from your paycheck. But let's just stick it to your second annual leave. If your claim is ultimately denied, they'll take your second annual. Or in the beginning, you can just give them your second annual. They're gonna come take it anyways. So don't just give it to them, make them come take it. So elect continuation of pay and then work like crazy to get your claim approved. And just a note final adjudication does not mean that you had an initial denial. This happens all the time. You they'll send you a letter specifically your claim is denied because blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. You have appeal rights. So it's not a final adjudication. You get to appeal. And if you do reconsideration, you can do an unlimited number of reconsiderations. So you can appeal over and over and over again. Like our friend Gilbert from Miami, eight years straight you can appeal. And if they do take your COP back and your claim does get approved later, they have to give that COP back to you again. So you got the COP because you reported on time. For some stupid reason, they took it back from you because you gave it to them. And then your claim gets approved. Now they got to give it back to you again, which is ridiculous. So we're gonna let them know. No, my claim's not finally adjudicated. I'm under appeal, and here's my appeal request form. And I'll let you know what happens. But right now we're not finished. So elect continuation of pay. That's the third thing. Not electing COP is a mistake because who's gonna pay for your time off? Now, just a note: our policy, as non-doctors, but federal injury centers policy is we want you to get back to work. The surest way to get paid, as I always say, is to clock in. We want you back at work, but we want you back at work safely, so continuation of pay is there for you if it's not safe for you to go back to work. Okay. Mistake number four: you get injured and you don't write it down. You don't write a personal statement what happened to you. And you should write it immediately. Like it just happened. I'm in pain. I don't feel like it. You need to feel like it because you don't understand yet. If you're not hurt yet, okay, let me tell you something. People that have been hurt will tell you this is true. The injury is the least painful thing in the OWCP process. The most painful thing is denied claims and the hassles and the hoops you have to jump through and the supervisors harassing you and the denial letters. That's painful.

SPEAKER_01

Yep.

SPEAKER_02

Not knowing how you're gonna pay your bills next month or how I'm gonna get back to work tomorrow, that's painful. That's way more painful than the injury itself. So people don't think about it. Like you got to write a personal statement of what happened. Why do I have to do that? I filled out the CA1 because trust me, there's not enough room. You need to be able to do this. You write down every per every possible detail you can think of that happened, where I was hurt, when I was hurt, what I saw, what I felt, what I heard, what I smelled. I saw butterflies flying past me. Like all the details that you can think of. Because you're gonna take that to your doctor. Your doctor is gonna add that into their medical narrative as part of their fact of injury, which is one of the five components of an accepted claim. So people don't write their statements down. And then later on, their their memory's not great. They say 30% of memory is made up, not on purpose. You just misremember things. So write a personal statement immediately because that's a key way to help your doctor get your claim approved. And people don't do it.

SPEAKER_03

Right.

SPEAKER_02

They show up like with no information. What do I do? Just get my claim accepted, do it. Doctors can't do it without good information.

SPEAKER_01

Yep.

SPEAKER_02

So not writing a personal statement. And then the fifth one, I'm gonna break and then I'm gonna give you five bonus mistakes not to make. The fifth one is not selecting your doctor, allowing the supervisor to push you to their doctor.

SPEAKER_01

That's a no-no.

SPEAKER_02

Now look, the law states that you're allowed to choose your own doctor. You have the right to initial selection of physician. The law states that supervisors have to inform you of that right. And it says they can't get in the way of that right, and they can't force you to go to a doctor that's employed by or under contract with your agency. The choice is yours. That means if you want to go where they send you, you can. But it also means if you don't want to, you don't have to, and they're not allowed to penalize you for it. They may get mad at you. You'll see in a minute that I don't care about that. But you have the right to choose your own doctor. Chris, why is that a big deal? Why is that a mistake to go where they send you? Nationwide, in federal employment, about 7% of federal employees have an accepted claim. That's not 7% of injuries are accepted, it's 7% of all the people. I don't know how many injuries there were because they don't report those, and I don't know how many denials there were because they don't report those. But you and I both know that up to half of your people are hurt at all times. So up to half of people are hurt and 7% are approved, there's a 43% gap. That's a big problem. What does that have to do with selecting your own doctor? If everyone, if every doctor knew how to do this, then the number would be 90% plus of approvals, right? You'd have a huge approval number. It would be 35% of federal employees haven't accepted claim. It would be something huge, like hugely bigger than 7%, five times bigger, I would think. Five times bigger. So not selecting your own doctor is critical because so many doctors have no clue what they're doing. They're not trained. It's just, it's not their thing.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

They're not in the OWCP lane. They're family practice, their urgent care, ER, VA, chiropractic, they're just surgeons. They do what they do, but they're not OWCP specialists. And unfortunately, there's not that many of us. So you have to choose your doctor wisely. And if you allow your supervisor to choose it for you, you're certainly going to be in the most likely the 93% that don't have an approved claim. So choosing your own doctor and not letting anybody get in the way of that choice. And I didn't say go pick a federal injury centers doctor. I don't actually care. Pick whatever doctor you want. The point is it's your choice. You choose. Don't let anybody choose for you, not your supervisors, not me. Nobody chooses for you, period.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, and try not to go to places that charge you for you going there.

SPEAKER_02

If you pick the wrong doctor, you'll know it's the wrong doctor because they'll charge you. Yeah, because there's no- They'll ask for your health insurance and co-pays.

SPEAKER_01

Not only that, there's companies out there that are consultants about OWCP, and they take a retainer and then they charge you every month. So I'm speaking for just federal injury centers. We never charge nothing. Yeah. Zero. It's zero dollars and zero cents.

SPEAKER_02

But you don't have to go to federal injury centers. You have to go wherever you want to go. So the first five mistakes not filing now, not getting a CA 16, not electing continuation of pay, not writing your own personal statement, and not choosing your own doctor. Those are the first five and the biggest five OWCP mistakes. And I can tell you if you break all five of those, you're gonna have a hell of a time in OWCP. OWCP. But if you file today, get a CA 16, elect COP, write a statement and select your own doctor, and it happens to be a trained doctor, you're in good shape.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

And people don't understand that. It's to me, they're basic things like breathing. But this isn't your thing. You're not an OWCP expert like we are. And so it's not automatic for you. So I'm telling you, file now, get a CA 16, elect COP, write your own statement and go to the doctor of your choice.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

So I'm going to pause and let's talk about questions.

SPEAKER_01

A lot of you are seeing Victor respond on here. We've known Victor for quite a while now.

SPEAKER_02

Victor knows everything.

SPEAKER_01

And Victor know he's a great clerk craft director. And if you need to reach out to him from APW and ask questions, Victor Sanchez is the one to ask.

SPEAKER_02

Nobody advocates for their members like Victor does.

SPEAKER_01

More than he does. Nobody. Yeah. Okay. Charmaine Mays. Is everything done online now? CA2A on a recurring accident from 2015.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, they want you to do all of it on e-comp. So you go to ecomp.dol.gov. Great question.

SPEAKER_01

Dina, I'm watching from Connecticut.

SPEAKER_02

Hey, hello, Connecticut.

SPEAKER_01

Victor says, I know you guys are give a great report in training, and I really appreciate that. But I know there's a lot of people on here that don't know much about the CA1, two, and 16. On another night, we're gonna do forms, the whatever, the top five forms that you should know. So we've done that.

SPEAKER_02

Last week I did all about the CA1, which touched on the CA 16, and I touched the CA 16 again tonight. Yeah, I'll do the CA2 another night.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, we'll do forms for sure.

SPEAKER_02

You're exactly right. But I did do CA1s last week. I've touched on CA 16s the last two weeks, and CA2 will come soon.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, and if you guys ever want to rewatch any of the videos from the past, I know we've been doing this for 10 years. They're on YouTube. They're all on YouTube. It's Facebook won't hold all the videos anymore. And this goes for anybody that goes live.

SPEAKER_02

And you can listen to the breaking OWCP podcast with Chris and Jeannie on your work shift. If you're a letter carrier, you can listen to it with your ear pods while you're driving. We're there. So all of these chats end up in our podcast as well for your convenience to listen to during the day if you're not able to hear us tonight.

SPEAKER_01

Yep. Victor also says OWCP gives you the right to choose your own doctor. Stop believing management's lies.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, that's right.

SPEAKER_01

So about stupid visors management. Melissa Ross, does the doctor you choose have to be registered as a provider with DOL to get the doctor treatment paid?

SPEAKER_02

Okay. First of all, you don't need to care if the doctor gets paid. Good question, and I'm gonna answer it. But for everybody out there, doctors are doing fine. Don't worry about them. Now, if they don't get paid for very long, they'll dump you as a patient. Unfortunately, that's what doctors do. I'm not getting paid, I'm not doing this anymore. I've been in this business since I was 20 years old. I've seen it. But do they have to be registered? I can tell you this the vast majority of doctors are listed on OWCP's provider search site, are only there because they saw one patient one time.

SPEAKER_01

Yep.

SPEAKER_02

They weren't registered with OWCP when it happened. They probably didn't get paid, but they're only listed there because they saw one person one time. Now, many offices, like all the 60 odd, whatever federal injury centers offices are credentialed. Like we actually want to do it. So we went through the credentialing process. Um, I would say that for the doctor to get paid, they need to be credentialed, but they also have to get your claim approved. So they have to be good at it. If they don't get your claim approved, they're not getting paid. And why should they? Nobody should get paid if they do a bad job, period. Yeah. And that goes for us too. If we do a bad job, we work for free. That's our fault. It's not your fault. You don't get a bill. Why should you? We screwed up, which we don't. But in theory, like if we did, why should you pay? They should go ahead and get registered, which is called credentialed with OWCP. They just should to take care of them, but you don't need to care about that.

SPEAKER_01

All right, just so you guys know, tonight we're discussing those of you that are just hopping on, the five mistakes in OWCP ruining your claim. And Chris just went over the first five. And so now he's gonna do a bonus five.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, she and I were talking about damn it, Chris, 30 years in the business. You're getting old. I love you too, Victor. Yes, yes, I am, by the way. She was asking me the other day, what do you want to talk about this week? Because believe it or not, like I don't just decide what I'm gonna do. She doesn't just decide. We actually talk about it. What do we want to do? What are people saying? What are they asking about? And uh so she had this idea. Let's do, I think she said seven, the seven, seven mistakes people make.

SPEAKER_01

I don't know why I said seven, but I said seven.

SPEAKER_02

It's fine, but I have this weird thing about me. Lists cannot have seven things. You can have a five-point list, but not six. You can have a nine put, you can have a ten-point list, but not nine, and not eleven. And if you had a four-point list, why don't you have five? So I said seven. Uh nah, that's weird. I'll do five. But then today, just today, I went, oh god, five, that's not enough. So I'm gonna give a bonus, but it has to be ten, not seven, eight, nine, or eleven. So I do have a full 10-point list because it's the way I work. So I will give you five more as a bonus. But if you've been following us all this time, you should know this stuff already. Yes. If you've been in my classes, you definitely have heard this stuff already. If you're part of the Utah California, Florida, no, the APW Utah, oh, and you've been in my class six times, you could probably say this stuff yourself. And for all you Florida folks that have heard me talk all those times, you know what I'm about to say too. But for all of you that are new, this is good bonus material.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

And for those of you that are veterans, you've probably forgotten and you're not doing it anyways. So before I read these five, I'll also say if you're a steward in your union, it is your responsibility to make sure these 10 things happen with all your members. It's your responsibility. It's not my responsibility. I can't reach them. You can. I can only reach them if you bring them here. Um, but you haven't, or they're not, and so you got to do it. So remember these 10 things, and I'll at the end, I'll read all 10 again. But if you, as a union steward, will help your coworkers, your members, the people that depend on you for information, if you'll help them with this, you'll have a very powerful union when it comes to workers' comp. And by the way, people will be out of work less. They'll be out of work less time, they'll have less disability. Everything is better if they just do all the right things and don't make these 10 mistakes. Everything is better. People get back to work full duty without any disability in the end. It's just, it's an amazing thing when the system doesn't break you down.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Uh, Mr. Jarrett said, I'm new here, but I definitely need some guidance because I have an accepted case now. Congratulations.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, for sure. Congratulations on having an accepted claim. I'm excited for you because you know, only 7% of people do unless they're with federal injury centers.

SPEAKER_01

So, whatever questions you have, you're welcome to type them here. Or if you want to make it private and personal, you can always wait till the chat is over and send me a message on Messenger.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, we're happy to help. We do it all day, every day.

SPEAKER_01

All right. The bonus time. I wish I had a button to push, like the bonus button. We got that thing up there. We're gonna have pretty soon we're gonna have voice, little cool sounds.

SPEAKER_02

She bought some a new board that we're gonna learn how to use. And once we do, we'll have some fun stuff going on here.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Boing.

SPEAKER_02

It's our 10-year anniversary gift in OWCP chats.

SPEAKER_01

All right.

SPEAKER_02

So just a recap the first five mistakes is not filing your injury right away, not getting a CA 16 to pay all your medical bills related to the injury for 60 days, not electing continuation of pay on the CA1 on box 15, letter A, which gives you up to 45 days of time off after a CA1 injury, not writing your own personal statement, which will end up in your doctor's medical narrative and help with fact of injury, which is one of the five parts of an accepted injury claim, and not selecting your own doctor because most doctors are not trained and don't know what they are doing and with the best intentions are going to get your claim denied, even though they so badly want to get your claim approved because they care about you. But unfortunately, only 7% of federal workers have an accepted claim, and that means doctors don't know what they're doing. So you gotta choose the right doctors. You need an OWCP specialist. And if the receptionist, when you call, has never heard of it, you need to call somebody else. Because offices that understand and want to help with OWCP, their receptionists know. Do you know all the franchisees that we have, the receptionists know what OWCP is? They can all answer your questions. They can all they know what DOL is, they'll get you to somebody, they know what a CA1 and a CA2 and a CA 16, they know what all this stuff is because we train them. Yeah. Offices that want to help you are trained to help you.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

So pick the right doctor.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, and Maria, you said wow, 10 years. We celebrated the 10 year of Wednesday night OWCP chats, February 16th this year.

SPEAKER_02

So we're two months after that.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. So Maria, yes. Wow, 10 years. Oh Victor. Oh my gosh. Yep. All right. The bonus. Let's hear.

SPEAKER_02

All right, we're in the bonus round. This would be like a siren.

SPEAKER_01

We need like Alex Trebek, like that bonus.

SPEAKER_02

Okay. I was just setting outside. I was thinking, and I said, all right, these are the first, the next five things that came to mind in no particular order of importance because they're all important. The number one bonus mistake is not following your doctor's orders.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, yes.

SPEAKER_02

Oh, what do you mean, Chris? You mean like treatment? I don't mean that. Although you should follow your doctor's orders on treatment. Okay, for sure. Whatever they say, I'm not a doctor. If I told you what to do in treatment, you should ignore me. What do I know? But your doctor does know, so you should do what they say, but that's not what I'm talking about. What we see a lot of is doctors fill out a CA 17, a duty status report to get you out of work, back to work, write restrictions, the whole thing, right? And what'll happen is lots of times, this has happened so countless times in the last 10 years. Somebody will send us a message saying, Hey, can you help me? I'm not getting paid for these two weeks, or let's just call it two weeks. This two weeks of LWAP, I'm not getting paid for it. I turned in my CA7, I attached all the documentation that you told me to attach, and they keep denying me. I don't understand. And then I find out that their doctor sent them back to work on restrictions and they didn't think they could do it, so they stayed home. You cannot stay home when your doctor says go to work.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

You can only stay home when the doctor says medically you should not go to work. So not following your doctor's orders will prevent you from getting paid and potentially get you fired and could cause your OWCP claim to get closed. So bad things happen when you don't follow doctor's orders. Now, if your doctor's no good, get a new doctor, okay? I don't know. Like you decide that. But all else being equal, follow your doctor's orders because when you don't, it can cause a lot of trouble for you, just administrative trouble. Not to mention you're not getting better if you don't follow treatment orders.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, the CA 17 is not to go on vacation, people.

SPEAKER_02

No, a lot of people are on a vacation.

SPEAKER_01

We've heard a lot of people say this. It is not. You must, even the supervisors, we hear it all the time. Supervisors don't want us, so they're making you do outside of the restrictions. You need to file a grievance.

SPEAKER_02

And go to your doctor and say, Hey, I need a new CA 17. Write a narrative explaining to my supervisor and the claims examiner why this isn't working for me. But don't just skip work when your doctor said you can go back.

SPEAKER_01

Our doctors know that the CA 17 is not a ticket for vacation.

SPEAKER_02

And let's say your doctor sends you back to work on restrictions and your supervisor says, I don't have anything that fits those restrictions, and they send you home. Now you can be home because they sent you home. Yep. And now you can get paid because they sent you home. But if you are told to go to work by your doctor and you don't, I can't get you paid. Nobody can. And that's important. And I don't like it when people get paid or don't get paid. Don't get paid. So one of the big mistakes, this number one bonus of big mistakes is not following doctors' orders because that can get you fired, case closed, not paid.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. And then there's nothing we could do. None of the doctors could help you.

SPEAKER_02

It's a big deal.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

The next bonus mistake mistakes are never bonuses, okay? But you get one, is missing deadlines. Yes. This is a huge one.

SPEAKER_01

And we are going to talk about that later on in the year because everybody loves this one, this topic.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, we'll have a we'll have a deadline topic.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

But deadlines, you have three years to report an injury. Three years in a day, too bad. On a CA2 claim that happened over a period of time, it's three years from when you knew it was work related, not three years in a day. You have seven days to get CA 16, not eight. 30 days to get COP, not 31. If you file for a reconsideration, you have 12 months, not 12 months and one day. If you want to get uh LWAP, you gotta file it within one year of the missed time. If you want to get reimbursed for medical expenses, you've got to file that within one year of the expense. If you'd like to get reimbursed for travel expenses, you gotta file that within one year of the incurred travel expense. There are deadlines, and people miss these all the time. And I say this all the time: the one thing that I cannot overcome, and if I can't, nobody can, is missed deadlines. So don't miss your deadlines. They are critically important.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, it's funny. I want to give a shout out to Rich Ray. Last week I we asked you guys, hey, and I made a post, tell us what you want us to train about. And I'm now seeing this. Richie Ray, who is a NALC president in Staten Island and Brooklyn. And Brooklyn.

SPEAKER_02

He's not the president anymore, but he's a high up dude.

SPEAKER_01

He said he would like us to talk about common mistakes that cost claims. And here you go, Richie. Here we are, Richie. This is for you with that cup of coffee.

SPEAKER_02

Yep, and miss you. Yes. Okay. After I finish these next three, we'll finish the rest of these questions. Okay. So the number eight mistake, which is the third bonus mistake, is limited duty offers. You people, and I said it like that. You people sign your limited duty offers under duress.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, yes.

SPEAKER_02

Or under protest, or I don't know. The rules don't have those words.

SPEAKER_01

And everybody asks us this. Wow.

SPEAKER_02

Nowhere in the rules does it say you should sign under protest or sign under duress. Nowhere does it say that. It says your supervisor should give it to you in writing, give it to your claims examiner in writing. Your claims examiner has a chance to look at it and tell you that they think it's good. And then that from that point gives you 30 more days to show it to your doctor.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, guys, don't do that to yourselves.

SPEAKER_02

And I don't want you to take 30 days to show it to your doctor. I think you should show it to your doctor today and clock back in tomorrow.

SPEAKER_01

Yes.

SPEAKER_02

But the rules allow for it. That's the point. Just because I don't want you to take 30, you have 30. And your supervisor is saying, you better sign it now, or I'm going to pull this and it won't be available again tomorrow. That's not the rules. And you should file a grievance on that. And I don't even know. I'm not an expert in labor board stuff, but there may be labor board charges. I don't know. But do something to push back on this because the whole purpose of the limited duty offer is to give you a job that is safe. And in my experience from doing this my entire adult life, the more people are out of work, the more people are out of work. But if we can get you back, even with restrictions, you'll get back at full duty sooner.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Your supervisors are screwing up so bad by putting you in that kind of pressure in that position to have to potentially accept an offer that could be unsafe for you. You need the opportunity, and that's what the 30 days is for, to show your doctor. Go do it immediately. But you have an opportunity to show your doctor. Your supervisors are stealing that opportunity from you and you're allowing it. Now, after I tell you this, maybe you're going to keep doing it, but I want you to know, be informed that the rules on limited duty offers have nothing to do with duress and protest.

SPEAKER_01

Yep.

SPEAKER_02

Those words are not in the law. I'm talking about the code of federal regulations, the defect procedure manual. This is the rule. You have 30 days after your claims, after, after, after your claims examiner sees it.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, never sign it that day.

SPEAKER_02

No, I'm not saying never. Hey, you do what's in you think your best interest, okay? I want you to know what the rules are.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, here's what happens.

SPEAKER_02

If you want to sign it today, you can sign it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

A lot of you wouldn't will go. You'll get whatever you get, and you give it to the supervisor, and instantly you guys literally upload it and send it to me. And that's the first question. Do I sign this today? Here's the law.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, you decide what to do. The law allows you 30 days from the day your claims examiner says it's a valid offer, not from the day your supervisor puts it in front of your face.

SPEAKER_01

Time frames, people, time frames. Oh, yeah, 30 days. That's right.

SPEAKER_02

I was like, Yep, 30 days. All right, so limited duty offers. Number nine, or the fourth bonus mistake: having inadequate diagnoses. What do I have to do with diagnosing? That's the doctor. Yeah, but it's your life. So a mistake people make is they allow the doctor to upload medical documentation without reviewing it. You should review your medical documentation. And I said diagnoses because it's a mistake. If your doctor diagnoses pain, your claim will be denied. But Chris, I have pain. OWCP doesn't care. They want to know what's causing the pain. Right. I have knee pain. Big deal. What's causing it? Okay, I have a torn ligament. Oh, torn ligament approved. Knee pain denied. Right. So don't let your doctor diagnose pain. It's the most, it's an unforced error. This is like kicking the ball into your own goal. You don't need to have it on there. Just don't have it on there. Don't have it. And if you let a di if you let a medical report go in with a diagnosis of pain, it doesn't matter if they have a ligament tear on there, if they have a knee sprain on there. It doesn't matter. The fact that there is knee pain on there, the whole thing will be denied. Don't allow your doctor to diagnose pain. Yeah. Very important mistake not to make. And finally, one of the most important things you can do is go back to work. Chris, you talked about that already. You said go back to work. The surest way to clock in is go to work. Okay. You also said that if the doctor sends you back on restrictions, I should go back. Otherwise, I won't get paid. True. That's not what I'm talking about here. Going back to work as soon as possible is in your best interest for another reason, too. I'd like to take the postal service, for example. If a letter carrier is out of work for a year, they can lose their job. If a clerk is out of work for a year or a mail handler, they can lose their position completely. If a rural carrier is out two years, they can lose their position completely. Okay? So being out of work has another consequence long term. This is why we want to get you back so soon, as soon as medically possible, as soon as safe as possible. Because we know that if you're out of work for a long time, your agency can do bad things to you by rule. Like your contracts with the agency allow this. Okay. And I'm not an expert on contracts, so I'm not getting into that, but I'm saying this is the rule. City carriers, clerks, maintenance, mail handlers. If you're out for more than a year, you can lose your position.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

And it makes your union reps have to work extra hard to save you. Rule carriers is two years. I don't know why it's different, but it is. Whatever. It's two years. So going back to work has so many benefits, not to mention the fact that you get to be on the clock and not jump through any hoops to get paid. L WAP. It protects your job to go to work. And we want to protect your job. Everything we do is meant to protect you. It's meant to overcome the problems that we see so many people having. And that's what these five plus five bonus mistakes. If you can avoid these mistakes, your life will be okay, even if you get hurt. You can get better. Your physical injury can get better. But very often, the things outside of the physical injury get so out of control that it feels chaotic and you can't get better. It feels like there's no hope.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

And if you will not make these 10 mistakes, then you won't feel hopeless.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. We have one of the doctors on here says pain is not a diagnosis, it's a symptom.

SPEAKER_02

He's absolutely right. That's right. We want to know it's a symptom of what? Knee sprain. Okay, great. Diagnose knee sprain.

SPEAKER_01

Yep. All right. Melissa said, Oh, and again, uh along with Victor, Melissa, she's with NALC. Victor's with APW. So you can always reach out to these two. They know a lot. Melissa's a city carrier or real carrier? City. She's in, yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_02

But for either one of us is wrong, she'll correct.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Melissa says, Don't work outside your restrictions either. Even if management says, I just need you to do this one time. We hear that all the time. She said, no, you are responsible for your safety and ensuring your medical restrictions are followed, she knows.

SPEAKER_02

I would agree with that.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Terry.

SPEAKER_02

Also, I'm not interested in you having more problems than you already have with management, but I'm also not interested in you getting hurt.

SPEAKER_01

Your health comes first. Correct. If you're gone, and we say this all the time, and I hate saying it, but if you're not there anymore, tomorrow they're going to replace you. Let's put it a different way. If you die today, they'll replace you tomorrow. I hate saying that. That's why I didn't say it. But it's true. It's brutal, but it's true.

SPEAKER_02

But you all know it. And every time I say it, I get, yeah, that's right.

SPEAKER_01

Yep. But it's so True, they have someone else ready for you. Tara, I am back to work with restrictions, but still do physical therapy in a lot of pain. Can I make an appointment pain management doctor that does work comp as well?

SPEAKER_02

Yes, you can. The best thing for you to do is get a referral from your treating doctor, though.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Michelle McCoy. I want to file for a schedule award from an old accepted injury. Who can I contact for help with that?

SPEAKER_03

Okay.

SPEAKER_01

I don't know why I just paused. I just I read it.

SPEAKER_02

All right, look, first of all, not all Federal Injury Center's doctors do schedule awards. I would Google OWCP. Remember, write this down. OWCP Schedule Award Doctor or OWCP Schedule Award Attorney. You search those things and you will find somebody who wants to help you with that.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, there is. There is people out there. Yep. Melissa said Rich Ray is awesome. Richie Ray is so badass. That's my New York brother. And if you guys haven't checked out his freaking amazing podcast, Hot House.

SPEAKER_02

Good morning, good morning, good morning.

SPEAKER_01

Hot House with Richie Ray. I'm telling you, especially for you city carriers. He's on the podcast. I think he had 50,000, he posted it like 50,000, what do you downloads or something like that, whatever you do in the podcast. And if I were you, and even if you don't like TikTok, I would get on TikTok just to see his cute little face when he leaves early morning for work and he says, Good morning. Oh no, he goes, brothers and sisters, with his little Staten Island accent. So check out his podcast, guys. It's really good.

SPEAKER_02

He's fantastic.

SPEAKER_01

Terry, no one can make you sign anything. Agreed. She's so right, guys. Don't be forced. Victor said, Don't feel afraid on fine filing ULP if you believed your rights have been violated. Once you file ULP, trust me, stupidvisors are going to shit their pants.

SPEAKER_02

Uh Victor, what's ULP? What's ULP, guys?

SPEAKER_01

Okay. Tara says, or does that have to be approved first? Oh, if you want to file a schedule award, your claim has to be approved. Yeah. Yeah. If that's what you were asking.

SPEAKER_02

And you have to have a diagnosis that can receive a schedule award. Not all of them can.

SPEAKER_01

Frank said he's yeah, Frank, I know, which you raise a part of your branch. Yeah. Sharon said, OWCP schedule doctor or attorney.

SPEAKER_02

No, OWCP schedule award doctor or attorney.

SPEAKER_01

That's what he's telling you to put into Google.

SPEAKER_02

Be sure you put award in there. It's very important.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, and another thing too, if you guys use ChatGPT, because I actually put this in there, I put in find me a federal doctor in my area. And I typed in Tampa, Florida, and boom, offices just pop up. So if you don't know how to use Google, ask ChatGPT. Unfair labor practice.

SPEAKER_02

Thank you, Victor.

SPEAKER_01

ULP. All right. You guys heard what Victor said. If you file that, your supervisors are going to shit, so file it. Sounds fun to me. All right. What other questions do we have? Because I'm going to go to some of them that some people asked earlier.

SPEAKER_02

While you're going to those, let me just recap the 10 mistakes, not five. Not filing now, not getting a CA 16, not electing continuation of pay, not writing your own personal statement, not selecting your own doctor, not following your doctor's orders, missing deadlines, limited duty offers in so many ways can be mistakes if you do them wrong. Having inadequate diagnoses like pain and not going back to work, which could cost you your job.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Okay.

SPEAKER_01

Christopher Kane, preparations for second opinion. What, if any, information do we need to bring back to follow up with a federal injury center's doctor's appointment? Can the second opinion be recorded? Okay.

SPEAKER_02

All right. Can the second opinion be recorded? Yeah. If the doctor allows you.

SPEAKER_01

Right. I mean get permission.

SPEAKER_02

It's their office. They can say no. So don't, I would get permission. I if I were a doctor, I'd probably say no. I'm just saying. But you asked me, can the answer is yes, you can, but they may make you stop. What do you take to your treating doctor after a second opinion? Um, I would tell them everything that happened. So if your treating doctor, if you go back up, you go to the second opinion doctor. I would document everything. I would say I was I arrived at 10.02. I was taken back into a medical exam room at 10.30. At 10.33, a nurse came in and took my vitals. At 10.35, the doctor came in. At 1038, the doctor left. In the three minutes the doctor was there, here's what happened. I would do that. And then at 1040, I left. So I would document everything minute by minute what happened. Don't be wrong about it. Be 100% truthful. And then I would take that back to my treating doctor and say, look, I don't know what's going to happen in this second opinion doctor, but it's probably not going to be good. So I'd like to document what happened while I was there and have your doctor do that for you.

SPEAKER_01

So what would they need to bring back to follow up at Federal Engine Center's doctors?

SPEAKER_02

Usually nothing you can bring back from the second opinion visit because they're not giving you stuff. Um that's why you take your own notes and bring your own notes back. And eventually you'll get a second opinion report in your e-comp file. But by the time that report is there, your claims examiner may have already made a determination. So I would have my doctor say, hey, look, I don't know what this second opinion doc's gonna say, but let me tell you what happened in that visit because this needs to be weighed as part of the evidence that you're gonna consider.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. And again, this is a topic that we will have further on down the year.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, I'm gonna spend some time on this.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Katie Cleaner, learning how to oh, add additional diagnosis to your claim or increasing your amount paid per month.

SPEAKER_02

Adding diagnosis to a claim is called a diagnosis expansion. Only a doctor can do that. So after an evaluation, the doctor does that. They write a report based on that evaluation, and they're trying to just add new diagnoses to your accepted conditions. What's the second part of that?

SPEAKER_01

Okay, additional diagnosis to your claim or increasing your amount paid per month.

SPEAKER_02

So increasing your amount paid per month is outside of my scope, but I can tell you the way you're paid is based on a percentage depending on the number of dependents you have and your salary. You increase pay if there's like a blanket pay increase across the board, then you can have that. Or you go back to work full time, and if your pay has changed from the injury date till now that you're back full time, now you can have the higher rate. I think that's how you get an increase in pay.

SPEAKER_01

How to get your doctor to do your appeals and diagnosis expansion?

SPEAKER_02

Okay, if you just go to federal injury centers, they just do it. I don't know how you get a doctor to do it. Hey, doc, here's a denial letter. I need to do a reconsideration. Can you read the paragraph that says specifically my claim is denied because and write a letter about it?

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

And then you send that in for reconsideration. How do you get a doctor to do it? By asking. And if they won't, that's not a doctor I'd want to have.

SPEAKER_01

Yep. And Christopher Kane is on. Thanks for being on.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

All right. Uh Cheryl, do you think it's better to stay on SSDI and OWCP or Fed disability and SSDI?

SPEAKER_02

I saw that question come, and I'm not comfortable asking that. Let me tell you, or answering. Answering, yeah. And here's why. That's a personal decision. SSDI, Social Security, OWCP benefits, that's OWCP benefits. Federal disability, that's a whole different thing. It's we're talking about three different agencies. And uh federal disability by the second year, you're making 40% of your income. But you can't have that at the same time that you're doing OWCP. You have to apply for SSDI to get federal disability. See, it gets complicated. So I'd rather not give my opinion on it. My opinion is I'd like you to be back at work full duty, not on SSDI and not on federal disability. To me, that's the best outcome. Yeah. But which one is better for you depends on you. I'll advise you financially because I don't know your situation.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Miss Robbins, I've been out of work for one full year due to ankle surgery. I received a CA20 today. Can my mental health OWCP provider complete that document for me?

SPEAKER_03

Yes. That was the easiest question all.

SPEAKER_01

That was the easiest answer.

SPEAKER_03

Thank you for that. Yes.

SPEAKER_01

Travis Taylor, been on T T T for over a year. No change in condition. Does federal injury centers have a lot of people on long-term TTD you guys support? And the CA20 and painful second opinions that come up.

SPEAKER_02

We have a wide range of situations. We've helped over 20,000 people. So I couldn't tell you how many we've had, but surely we've had the whole gamut of those things, and we just handle it individually.

SPEAKER_01

Christopher Kane said, Thank you. Government trained me real well to take notes.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, that's right. That's everybody needs to take good notes.

SPEAKER_01

Victor always says, take notes. Cheryl David, I see pain management doctor, but treating doctor retired. How do I go about getting a new treating doctor? My pain management doctor won't referee me. Refer me. Oh, I said referee. Refer me to a new one.

SPEAKER_02

You do a request of change of treating doctor. You send in in writing to your claims examiner and explain that my treating doctor retired. I need a new one, and here's who I'd like to go to. And give them the doctor's name and information that retired, and give them the doctor's name and information that you'd like to go to. If he retired, you shouldn't have any problem changing treating doctors to somebody new. But the claims examiner needs to approve it.

SPEAKER_01

Maria said, Can second opinion appointments be rescheduled if you can't make the first one? How does one go about that?

SPEAKER_02

It can be. You need to have a good reason to reschedule it. I'm sick, my car broke down, my child is sick. Have a good reason, obviously. Don't just reschedule it because you don't want to go. Let your claims examiner know that you what's going on. Oh, I'm sick, I can't make it. They will reschedule it. If you just no-show, they'll cut your benefits off until you go. So communicate, communicate with your claims examiner.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, it's just like a regular doctor's appointment if you can't make it.

SPEAKER_02

And claims examiners are often very reasonable. Remember, they're federal employees too. If they get injured, they have to go through this whole system as well.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Terry said, it's ridiculous that a case manager decides your case. What the heck? Are they more doctors than OWCP is actually an insurance company? Case managers are really insurance agents and they decide your case.

SPEAKER_02

They're claims examiners, but I heard what you're saying. Yeah, actually. But they do have medical advisors on board. They have doctors, they send a second opinion doctors, they have referee doctors, they have district medical advisors, they have all kinds of medical people to advise them. So I think that they have plenty of good advice from qualified people, but ultimately, yeah, that claims examiner is making that decision. But often they make the decision with the advice from medical professionals, which is good. I think the second opinion and referee system is totally broken. I think the district medical advisor probably has probably can be improved. So it's a little less biased towards the government. But all in all, I think the system isn't that bad if as long as the claims examiners don't go rogue.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Yeah, we're gonna talk about expansions as a topic eventually. Sarah Craig, CA2, permanent limited assignments. What is the post office actually required to do? And last but not least, disability retirement. I have been battling for four years and it's just worse every day.

SPEAKER_02

What was the first part of that?

SPEAKER_01

CA2, permanent limited assignments. What is the post office actually required to do?

SPEAKER_02

I know people that have been on limited assignments for a decade. And I think it's just at the discretion of the agency and the supervisors if they're willing to tolerate it. That's really a question more, I think, for the unions, but I can or the union leaders, and some of them are here. But I think that you can be out of work for a long time. I just don't think you should if you don't have to. Eventually, they're gonna get tired of it. And they can they can remove you if you're there, if you're gone too long. They can remove you. The people that I know that haven't been, I think have magnanimous supervisors, and I commend them. What was the second part? You already went past it. Yeah. I get talking, I forget the second part. So anytime, any two-part question, I'm likely to forget part two.

SPEAKER_01

She said, and last but not least, disability retirement. I have been battling for four years and it just gets worse every day.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. So I know a lot of these lawyers that represent you, and one of them said that the very best medical narratives that are sent in for disability retirement, with the very best ones, 40% of those are denied, like automatically, almost as if they just hope you'll go away. So sometimes, sometimes you need a doctor to write better narratives. You have to find out why it was denied and have a doctor fix it. But sometimes you need a lawyer to fight it.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

And if you need a lawyer to fight it, then you can search OWCP injury lawyer on Google and you'll find somebody. OWCP injury lawyer. You can search federal disability lawyer as well. Those lawyers have their website set up so that when you're searching, you find them.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, when you found you guys go to all these conventions, they're all there. All these federal disability guys and girls are all there.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. Yeah, for sure. And I don't want you to be on disability, and I don't want you to have to pay a lawyer, but I'm just answering questions here.

SPEAKER_01

Victor said one final thing. Victor always ends with this. You have to fight for your rights and never give up. And that can't be any more true. Yep. Melissa said, you are paid at your salary at date of injury. You do not get pay raises out on OWCP. Correct. If you go back to work full-time for at least six months and have to go back out on original case, then DOL should adjust your pay to current salary. If you have back pay due to a contract pay increase that awards back pay and your salary, that was from the date of injury increase, let your claims examiner know, and they should increase your salary to the new rate after they verify with your employer there was an increase.

SPEAKER_02

So what she thank you so much, Melissa. So she filled in a blank of something I said. You need to be back at work full-time for at least six months, and then they'll increase your salary. Other than that, you're going to be at your injury salary. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Tess said, How long does it take for OWCP to X accept your new diagnosis to my claim? I go to Federal Under Centers of Montgomery and they submitted a new diagnosis to my case. It's been a month and I haven't heard anything back.

SPEAKER_02

Oh, listen, there's no rules that the claims examiners have to follow for time. You have all the time. They don't like you can't miss your deadlines. They don't have deadlines. Yeah. You have to wait. I wouldn't say wait patiently, but you do have to wait. You can leave a voicemail with your claims examiner, just say, hey, just a friendly reminder. My doctor sent in so and so. Can you take a look at it? Are there any problems? I'd be nice to the claims examiners. Remember, there's like hundreds or thousands of them, and there's like hundreds of thousands to millions of you. So they are overwhelmed, and they're just people just like us, and they're federal employees just like you, and they want to do a good job, and the ones that we know actually care about doing a good job. Yeah, but they don't have any time frames, they decide when they get to it, and they may not make the decision. And unfortunately, sometimes when you do a diagnosis expansion, that's when they'll send it to a second opinion.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Because they either can't or don't want to make a decision on it.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. All right, everybody. So we did the five mistakes that could ruin your OWCP claim. And then Chris gave five bonus claims.

SPEAKER_02

I could probably think of five more right now, but we don't have time.

SPEAKER_01

So with that said, we will be streaming live from Park City, Utah next Wednesday. And we'll have a really good topic too. And we are looking forward to being at the Utah State, the APW Utah State Convention. So if you are with APW and you're going to the state convention, we can't wait to see our friends. And with that, I want to say goodnight, and we'll see you guys next week live from Park City, Utah. All right, everybody. Have a good day. Thanks for being here.

SPEAKER_02

See ya.