Federal workers’ compensation can help federal employees pay for medical expenses and lost wages if they are injured while on the job. This type of compensation is extremely helpful because work-related injuries are often sudden and unexpected, resulting in lost time from work and necessary procedures that can come with expensive price tags.
While it might sound simple to recover lost wages and pay for medical expenses with the funds from workers’ compensation, it’s not always that easy. There are several reasons why a compensation claim might be denied, including filing the wrong type of claim. Here are the five types of injury claims you may need to file, accompanied by the reason you would file each particular claim.
- Traumatic: This is a sudden injury that is tied specifically to an incident at work. In these cases, the employee came to work feeling normal and then experienced a traumatic event that caused an injury. The employee should file a CA-1 injury claim for traumatic injuries. They should also try to find witnesses to help establish one component of Fact of Injury. Continuance of Pay (COP) should also be checked so that the employee will be paid if the injury prevents them from returning to work immediately.
- Occupational disease: An occupational disease injury develops slowly over time and may not immediately stop you from working. This type of claim requires a doctor’s report to file, which contains the doctor’s diagnosis and connects the illness or condition to your job. The employee should file a CA-2 injury claim.
- Recurrence: The Recurrence injury claim is filed incorrectly most often, according to Silver Wellness Center. The crux of the recurrence injury claim is that a current injury worsens without an intervening cause. The employee will need to consult a doctor who can prove the injury worsened. If an employee has an injury that worsens because of something that happened at work, a traumatic or occupational disease claim is the way to go. This claim is filed with a CA-2a form. As with all the claims, the doctor cannot use “pain” in the diagnosis because the Department of Labor will reject the claim for that reason.
- Consequential: This is an additional injury to another body part that happens as a result of an injury that happened at work. For this claim to succeed, a doctor must document and prove that the employee suffered an additional injury outside of work because of something that already happened at work. An example would be a knee injury at work that caused a lower back injury or a stress fracture on the other knee because of how the employee had to walk with a brace or a limp. No special form is necessary for this claim.
- Intervening: This claim is similar to the consequential claim, but the key difference is in where the injury occurs in the body. In these cases, the employee basically re-injures a work injury during their daily lives. For example, the employee may have injured their back at work but then re-hurt their back doing household chores. An intervening claim doesn’t require a special form, but a doctor needs to diagnose the new injury and connect it to the old injury.
Navigating the federal workers’ compensation process can be confusing and complicated. Silver Wellness Center employs approved federal worker compensation doctors who are trained to help federal workers receive the benefits they deserve. The specialists at Silver Wellness Center also work with other approved doctors and attorneys who know how to get an injury claim approved.
The state-of-the-art facility at Silver Wellness Center offers direct one-on-one muscle and massage therapy with a licensed muscle therapist, acupuncture, exercise and rehabilitation, Kinesio Taping, spinal decompression, and Rapid Release Therapy (RRT).
You can schedule a complimentary learning consultation to determine what you need and if Silver Wellness Center is the right office for you. There is no obligation or any commitment. Visit their website today to start the process. You can also call them at 410-298-3100.
Download this e-book from Silver Wellness Center that highlights the necessary forms to file and processes to follow as you file an injury claim. It also notes some of the common mistakes federal workers make on their workers’ compensation claims.