FERS Disability Retirement Help: OPM’s Medical Specialists

OPM — the U.S. Office of Personnel Management — has “Medical Specialists” from the “Boyers Division” to review, evaluate, assess and ultimately make decisions upon each Federal Disability Retirement application submitted by Federal and Postal employees under FERS.

Now, there is no doubt that they possess unique medical knowledge — to whatever degree that they hold, from whatever perspective they come from, and the context of their applying such knowledge and background, etc.  But they are not lawyers.

Doctors and nurses have a specific perspective in viewing the world, just as lawyers and engineers, also, have a unique perspective. Their background and expertise is like a colored lens through which the world is seen.

Federal Disability Retirement is not just about a medical condition; it is, instead, the nexus between the medical condition and one’s ability/inability to perform one or more of the essential elements of one’s Federal or Postal job, within the context of a continuously-growing body of law.  That is why OPM’s Medical Specialists are often wrong in their conclusions in making a determination on a Federal Disability Retirement application.

If you need to file for Federal Disability Retirement benefits, or have been denied such benefits from OPM, contact a FERS Disability Lawyer who specializes in Federal Disability Retirement Law; for, in the end, it is not up to OPM’s Medical Specialists to make the final conclusion on a Federal Disability Retirement application — rather, it is The Law.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill
Federal Disability Attorney