When I look at a potential disability retirement case, I find it helpful to look at the case not only prospectively, but retrospectively. While not a “rule” cast in stone, when the Office of Personnel Management approves a disability retirement case, it will normally attach a page which identifies which disability — normally one, often two, sometimes three — was/were the basis for the approval. Thus, it is important when preparing a disability retirement packet and application, to identify which medical disabilities will be listed and depended upon; and further, once is it approved, it is helpful to look to the future, for there is a random chance that every 2 years or so, you will be selected to answer a Medical Questionnaire to determine if you are still disabled.
Thus, if you list a minor medical condition, and you get approved for that minor medical condition, if you recover from that condition, you can potentially lose your disability retirement benefits in the future. (Note: for those of you who are my clients, please do not worry; no client of mine who has received a Medical Questionnaire has ever lost his/her disability annuity) Thus, it is important to identify those medical conditions which are the “most serious”, and base your medical disability retirement packet upon the most serious, long-term disability first –before listing secondary or additional medical disabilities. This is not to say that you should not list more than one medical disability; indeed, in preparing my packets for my clients, I will often list more than one, but I do it in sequential fashion, and when I put together my legal memorandum in arguing my case on behalf of my client, I constantly refer back to the central medical disability.
Sincerely,
Robert R. McGill, Esquire
Filed under: OPM Disability Application, OPM Medical Questionnaire, Post-Application Issues, The Job of a Federal Disability Attorney, U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM), When the OPM Application Is Approved | Tagged: central medical disability, considering future issues from the beginning, CSRS disability retirement federal attorney, disability federal employee, disability retirement at the USPS, federal disability attorney's advice, FERS disability retirement, FERS medical retirement, if the opm disability applicant has several medical issues, keeping a watchful eye the opm medical questionnaire, legal & foundational argument, legal memorandum, maintaining your csrs disability annuity, medical condition(s), Medical Questionnaire, more on the opm medical questionnaire, most serious conditions, multiple medical disabilities federal employee, nationwide representation of federal employees, opm disability and planning for the future, OPM disability application tips and strategies, OPM Initial Stage, Post Office disability, Postal Service employee advocate, pragmatic methodology, preparing for a strong fers disability case, representing federal employees in and outside the country, representing us government disability employees anywhere, statutory requirements in OPM disability law, USPS disability retirement, when the opm follows up your disability retirement claim, when there are several medical conditions, your future financial health may depend on the opm questionnaire |
OPM Disability Retirement 
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