Agency Direct Communication with Federal Injured Workers OWCP rules & Provisions

 A growing problem that injured federal workers keep running into: employing agencies that try to short-circuit the OWCP process by offering modified duty straight to the injured employee—or handing them agency medical-clearance forms—while deliberately leaving the claims examiner out of the loop. That’s not just poor practice. In many cases it violates the Federal Employees’ Compensation Act.”Core Problem with this process first under the OWCP and FECA ACT rules: Agencies are increasingly making written or verbal modified-duty offers directly to the injured worker (or the treating physician) without concurrent notice to, or approval by, the OWCP claims examiner.They often attach arbitrary return-to-work deadlines and imply that failure to report will result in loss of compensation or disciplinary action.Separately, agencies are giving injured workers their own “medical clearance” or fitness-for-duty forms and instructing the worker to have the OWCP-authorized physician complete them—again without routing the form through the claims examiner for suitability review.Both practices are becoming routine and are being used to pressure workers off the compensation rolls while not following OWCP procedures. For more click on the show transcript...The podcaster is Dr. Stephen Taylor, OWCP medical-legal consultant & DOL expert for Oberheiden Law Firm.  Dr. Taylor’s contact email information is:fedcompconsultants@protonmail If you need a medical provider or assistance with an OWCP /  DOL claim in  Pensacola, Tampa or Jacksonville Florida you can make an appointment to see Dr. Taylor  at the clinic at  FWC Medical Centers or check out the webiste at fedcompconsultants.com To make a consultation with Dr. Taylor  call the clinic at 813-215-4356  in Florida.For responses email Dr. Taylor at [email protected] TOP 10 National Workers Compensation Podcast: https://podcast.feedspot.com/workers_compensation_podcasts/?feedid=5557942&_src=f2_featured_emailFor responses email Dr. Taylor at [email protected] the showFEEDSPOT TOP 10 National Workers Compensation Podcast: https://podcast.feedspot.com/workers_compensation_podcasts/?feedid=5557942&_src=f2_featured_email