Without getting into too many comparisons, the laws governing disability retirement benefits are, upon reflection, actually quite reasonable. Think about it this way: yes, it doesn’t pay a great amount, but at the same time, you are encouraged to go out and be productive in some other employment capacity, and are able to make up to 80% of what your former job pays currently.
Unlike the stringent and onerous OWCP/DOL laws, you are not subjected to arbitrary, so-called “independent” medical examinations by doctors who make a substantial portion of their livelihood on rendering such “independent” second, third, and fourth opinions; your application is based upon what your own treating doctor says — not by some doctor who is a specialist in “disability ratings” or “disability determinations”.
This latter criteria is actually for the benefit of the applicant, when you stop and think about it. For, if the law allowed for disability retirement applications to be determined by doctor’s opinions who are “disability specialists”, and not by your own treating doctor, then what would happen is that the entire disability retirement process would become a war between doctors and so-called specialists, overshadowing the one who should count the most — the treating doctor.
Instead, as the reasonableness of the present law stands, the weight of the medical determination is based upon the applicant’s longstanding treating doctor — and that is the way it should be. For it is only a doctor who has enjoyed many years of an intimate doctor-patient relationship who should be granted the special weight and status that is accorded in disability retirement laws: the special status of one who can make a viable, respectable determination of one’s employment capabilities, based upon the medical conditions he or she suffers from. All in all, the disability retirement laws are governed by a criteria of reasonableness.
Sincerely,
Robert R. McGill, Esquire
Filed under: OPM Disability & OWCP Workers Comp Filings, OPM Disability Administrative Law (Statutory and Non-Statutory Law), Pre-Application Considerations | Tagged: Administrative Law, civil service disability, delaware opm federal disability benefits, disability federal employee, disability retirement facts, disability retirement for federal employees, earned income concept in OPM disability, employment capabilities and opm disability, federal owcp, federal disability law, federal injured ill workers, federal workers comp, federal workers disability, FERS disability lawyer, FERS disability retirement, FERS medical retirement, getting OPM disability benefits, ill postal worker, independent medical evaluation postal workers, information on disability retirement federal workers, injured federal employee, medical evaluation from primary treating physician, more weight to your treating physician opinion, not such a thing as an opm disability "ratings", OPM Disability and the Ideal Doctor and Patient Relationship, opm disability determination, opm disability law is very fair and reasonable, OPM disability retirement, OPM doctors, OPM physicians, OWCP benefits for federal workers, physician's statements in an OPM disability case, Postal disability retirement, Postal Service disability, postal service disability retirement, The 80% OPM Disability Rule, the statutes and regulations of administrative law, USPS disability retirement, usps medical disability, your own doctor instead of an "independent" consultant, your treating doctors |
OPM Disability Retirement 
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