Bad Information Abounds

Today, I stumbled on a July 2018 article on a blog written by a law firm that claims they have been assisting injured federal employees since 1994.

The article was about OWCP's field nurses and after reading it, I came away shocked and have been shaking my head ever since. 

According to this law firm, that claims they handle OWCP claims and have been doing so for 24 years, a claimant should be as cooperative as possible with an OWCP field nurse.

The article says:

"First, it is important that you remain calm and concede to have a nurse attached to your OWCP federal workers’ compensation case. This is because refusal would look like you are being uncooperative which might make FECA cut off or reduce your payouts. As such, you should speak to the attending nurse and accept their requests to attend your doctor’s visits. However, resist the urge to tell them about your condition should they ask you; this is because they are not on your side and may just be looking for a loophole or piece of information to influence OWCP’s decision to take you off compensation. Your answers should be ‘yes’ or ‘no’, and should always refer them to your physician the minute they start asking convoluted medical questions."

The article goes on to say:

"...it’s in your best interests to be as cooperative as you can without being verbose to avoid sabotaging your compensation."

And of course the article ends by saying call us.

I'm having heart palpitations reading this article. 

First, FECA doesn't cut off your benefits. FECA is the law, the Act under which OWCP benefits are paid. 

Second, the OWCP field nurse program is VOLUNTARY. You DO NOT have to "concede" to have an OWCP field nurse attached to your claim and you don't have to be cooperative.

How do I know this? It's in part three of the FECA Manual, which anyone can find at 3-0201-6(c)(5): 

"Although the intervention program is voluntary, participation should be strongly encouraged."   

Third, OWCP CANNOT reduce or suspend your benefits if you are "uncooperative" with their field nurse. That's the vocational rehabilitation process, not the field nurse program. 

Being "uncooperative" doesn't "sabotage" your claim because the field nurse program is VOLUNTARY. 

Time after time, the ECAB has stated:

The regulations do not equate the assignment of an OWCP nurse with vocational rehabilitation. 

Here's an ECAB decision that lays this out:  

https://www.dol.gov/ecab/decisions/2006/Dec/06-0777.htm

This case sums up the error of reducing or suspending benefits stating:

"Appellant's refusal to cooperate with the nurse intervention program does not constitute a failure or refusal to cooperate with the early or necessary stages of vocational rehabilitation under section 8113 of the Act. The Office's application of section 8113 to reduce appellant's monetary compensation to zero was in error. Consequently, it did not meet its burden of proof in reducing appellant's monetary compensation benefits."

Forth, you DO NOT have to allow a field nurse to attend your medical appointments and you DO NOT have to allow a field nurse access to your doctor or refer them to your doctor if they ask medical questions. Why? Because the field nurse is VOLUNTARY.

I know physicians who handle OWCP claimants and when an OWCP nurse walks into their office, the doctor or the staff tells them to get out and never return because these physicians know the damage an OWCP nurse can do to a claim.

It's bad enough that claimants are subjected to inaccurate information from OWCP and by their employer, but to have a law firm that doesn't even know the basics out there drumming up claimants to hire them is truly concerning to me. 

I'm sure this law firm has no problem taking a fat retainer from a claimant and also charging them an hourly fee and yet they believe you must cooperate with a field nurse or risk "sabotaging" your claim or risk your compensation being "cut off" or reduced. 

Claimants aren't expected to know all the rules and regulations in OWCPland, but if an 'expert' is taking your money, it's their job to know. 

In my opinion, this article, which was just written, gives extremely bad advice that could damage your claim much more than if you didn't allow OWCP's nurse on your claim. 

For instance, if OWCP's nurse is allowed access to your doctor and tells your doctor something that isn't true and this results in a change in your treatment or status, or bullies your doctor into releasing you back to work when you're clearly not ready for that, that's much more damaging than OWCP getting cranky because you know the field nurse program is voluntary and you don't choose to cooperate. 

If this law firm doesn't know that, what else don't they know? 

I've said it time and time again, be careful who you hire. 

Just because someone says they know what they're doing, it doesn't make it true and this article shows that a law firm that claims they've been dealing with OWCP claims for almost a quarter of a century doesn't even know the field nurse program is voluntary.