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by The Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association (FLEOA)
July 29, 2010
On July 21, 2010, FLEOA National President Jon Adler testified at a House Subcommittee on Federal Workforce, Postal Service and the District of Columbia hearing entitled, "Are Federal Agencies Playing it Safe and Protecting Federal Workers." Adler's testimony targeted the committee's question, "How well the Federal Employees' Compensation Act is meeting the needs of injured workers in high-risk occupations" (see FLEOA'S full testimony at www.fleoa.org). In his testimony, Adler identified five FLEOA member cases that illustrate the severe "financial and emotional duress" injured federal law enforcement officers have endured. To wit, Adler discussed the Office of Workers Compensation Program's (OWCP) failure to process claims effectively that were filed by Special Agent Mike Vaiani, Inspector Bill Paliscak, Special Agent Paul Buta, Special Agent Tim Chard (FLEOA Director of Administration), and Deputy Jason Matthew. These cases spanned a time period of September 11, 2001 to the present. Subcommittee Chairman Stephen Lynch was responsive to Adler's testimony, and asked what FLEOA recommended to help fix the serious problems. Adler recommended that a critical care nurse be promptly assigned to traumatic law enforcement injury cases. FLEOA members' experiences have been positive in situations where an OWCP critical nurse was quickly involved. To help combat the communication obstacles FLEOA members' have experienced, Adler recommended that OWCP and FEC establish emergency points of contact accessible for each law enforcement agency. This would enable agency officials to contact an OWCP and/or FEC representative to intervene quickly and resolve specific case problems.
According to OWCP Director Shelby Hallmark, who testified in the first panel, OWCP approves roughly 80% of traumatic injuries and 50% of exposure cases and they are "constantly seeking ways to do better." He also stated that "complicated cases" could take up to six months to adjudicate. Adler's rebuttal to that statement was, in effect, that while the OWCP adjudicates, federal law enforcement officers are bleeding and accruing overwhelming debt.
The day after the hearing, Washington Post reporter Joe Davidson wrote an article entitled, "Getting Compensation Shouldn't Be So Hard For Federal Workers Hurt on the Job." After writing that "Uncle Sam should not be as stingy as he was made out to be during the hearing Wednesday on Capitol Hill," Davidson proceeded to reference three of the cases that Adler referred to in his testimony: Chard's, Vaiani's and Paliscak's. Davidson pointed out that in each of the three cases, all officers endured both financial and physical duress. In the case of Special Agent Chard, OWCP's rejection of his claim resulted in the FLEOA Foundation stepping up to pay for his much needed treatment.
On July 23, 2010, FLEOA National President Adler, Legislative Vice President Duncan Templeton and USSS Agency President Donald Mihalek held a follow up meeting with the Department of Labor's Office of Workers Compensation Program to discuss any progress made on initiatives suggested at a similar meeting six months prior. FLEOA was fortunate to have USSS member Paul Buta, who was shot during an off-duty incident, and Marshals Service member Jason Marshal, who was stabbed during a violent encounter by an HIV positive inmate, present at the meeting. In each of their cases, OWCP either denied care or failed to pay for follow up care for injuries sustained on the job. OWCP Director Shelly Hallmark, FEC Director Douglas Fitzgerald and their staff participated in the meeting and were able to hear first-hand how OWCP failed Paul and Jason. The DOL staff, including both Directors, was apologetic about the mishandling of critical LEO cases and indicated a commitment to work to fix the system. One of the areas OWCP did point out would be very helpful in processing OWCP claims is for the Agencies and individuals to fully fill out the correct paperwork and get it submitted in a timely fashion. OWCP indicated that they did offer waivers for timeliness, have training available online for individuals in Agencies dealing with OWCP claims and that a "paper trail" was critical to proper adjudication of claims. FLEOA reiterated its suggestion to have Regional OWCP liaisons specifically for LEO's and their Agencies to help facilitate claims and answer questions. FLEOA also reiterated its recommendation to have OWCP accelerate the involvement of Critical Care Nurses for law enforcement cases involving traumatic injuries. Both Directors indicated they were good ideas and would work on setting up protocols for implementing each.
On a separate but related issue, OWCP advised that by federal law, they are prohibited from paying for preventive medications or procedures stemming from exposure. OWCP did indicate that in those cases, Agencies do have the authority to pay for the medications, but are not compelled to. This issue was highlighted when Deputy Jason Marshal told the DOL staff how he was violently assaulted and stabbed by an HIV positive inmate, who had secreted a knife on her person. He was later told that the inmate was HIV positive and Jason would need to take medications that helped prevent an HIV infection. When Jason filed a claim to cover the cost of receiving such treatment, OWCP denied it based on their position that the law precludes them from accepting exposure cases. Apparently, if Jason was to be diagnosed with HIV, then OWCP would pay for the medication and treatment. It is important to note that the Marshals Service immediately stepped up and covered the costs that the FEC declined to pay.
At the July 21st hearing, Chairman Stephen Lynch asked FLEOA if there was any legislative fix that could help with the ongoing OWCP problems. FLEOA will follow up with Chairman Lynch to address this critical area in need of a Congressional fix. FLEOA would like to recognize Chairman Lynch for his considerable support on this issue, as well as with other FLEOA issues such as the USPS Postal Inspector Pay Equity legislation (H.R. 5368).
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