As an attorney who represents Federal and Postal employees to “obtain” Federal Disability Retirement benefits, it is important to make distinctions within the process of securing the Federal benefit: while it is important to solicit and secure the medical opinion of the treating doctor, the resistance from such doctors — if in fact there is any resistance at all — most often comes about because the doctor doesn’t understand the “process”.
Doctors are medical providers. They are in the practice of medicine because they believe in applying the science of medicine to help their patients get better. Helping someone obtain Federal Disability Retirement benefits under FERS or CSRS is not part of “practicing medicine”. Yet, in many ways, it is. It is part of practicing medicine because, to allow the patient to continue to work in a job which he or she cannot perform, will only exacerbate and worsen the medical condition.
Further, doctors never like to “disable” their patients. To counter this medical opinion, it is important to clearly inform the doctor what the process of Federal disability retirement is and is not. It is the job of the attorney hired to represent a Federal or Postal worker to obtain disability retirement benefits, to clearly and cogently explain the entire process to the treating doctor. That is what I do, at the very start, in representing my clients.
Sincerely,
Robert R. McGill, Esquire
Filed under: OPM Disability Actors - The Doctor, OPM Disability Application - SF 3112C Physician's Statement for CSRS and FERS | Tagged: applicant's physician, attorney experienced in dealing with fers disability retirement claims, attorney that helps injured and ill federal workers, attorney that will handle federal disability for stress, blogs owcp and opm disability issues, convincing your physician for help during application process, csrs medical retirement, disability retirement fers, doctors attitude towards the injured federal employee, doctors federal disability application form, explaining the federal/postal disability process to your treating doctor, fed disability owcp, federal agencies and secop doctors, federal employee disability, federal employee disability lawyer, federal employee retirement system doctors, federal government medical retirement, federal or postal employees and the reluctant doctors, federal workers disability, federal workmans comp and opm retirement, FERS disability retirement, fers disability retirement facts, help filing federal disability retirement, helping your doctor to help you in your fers disability application, medical retirement for postal employee separated from service, medical retirement for postal workers under national reassessment program, national reassessment program post office, no referee examination by taking the federal disability retirement route, no secop doctors in federal or postal disability retirement, physician's hesitation to help comes from unfamiliarity, physician's statement of disability, physician's statements in an OPM disability case, post office owcp disability, securing cooperation from your doctors is very important for usps disability, support to a physician's medical narrative, the federal disability attorney and your treating physician, tips for dealing with your treating physician, united states postal service disability, usps disability insurance, USPS disability retirement, ways in which an attorney can help to educate your physician for help, what if your physician won't help you to get disability retirement?, when doctors don't understand the federal employees disability process, why physicians hesitate to help the postal worker?, why some doctors hesitate to "disable" a disabled federal worker?, your federal disability attorney can help to secure your physician's cooperation, your treating doctors | 1 Comment »
OPM Disability Retirement: Differing Perspectives
The old adage, “Walk in your fellow man’s shoes for a mile” is a saying which is meant essentially to teach a child (and many adults) to have a different perspective than one’s own, self-centered universe. In practicing law, it is a good idea to attempt to obtain a perspective from the multitude of differing “shoes” — and this is especially important in putting together a Federal Disability Retirement application under FERS or CSRS.
The gathering of such differing and different perspectives — that of the treating doctor; that of the applicant; that of the Agency (the Supervisor and the Agency in its determination that accommodation or reassignment is not available or appropriate for a given employee, given the particular medical conditions and the type of positional duties of the specific job which the Applicant must perform, as well as taking into account what constitutes “efficiency” in the Federal Service, etc.); and further, that of the Office of Personnel Management.
It is the job of the Attorney representing a Federal or Postal employee in preparing a Federal Disability Retirement packet under FERS or CSRS, to pull together the various perspectives; write up and prepare, and gather the information from the multiple and differing perspectives; to neutralize those perspectives which may impact negatively upon the Federal disability retirement application; then to present the fullness of the different perspectives such that it meets the legal criteria and “perspective” of the Representative from the Office of Personnel Management: that “ultimate” perspective which determines a “yes” or “no” in determining the viability of a Federal Disability Retirement Application.
Sincerely,
Robert R. McGill, Esquire
Filed under: OPM Disability Application - SF 3112 Disability Retirement Application Package, The Job of a Federal Disability Attorney | Tagged: a compelling medical case for federal employee disability retirement, a rational perspective from your disability claim evaluation, accommodation of federal employees, applicant's statement of disability, attorney that helps injured and ill federal workers, creating a strong case to qualify for fers disability benefits, CSRS disability retirement federal attorney, each opm disability stage requires a different approach, early out for disabled postal workers with application, federal disability law and legal argumentation, federal disability lawyer to handle opm disability denial, federal employee disability retirement, federal employee medical retirement, FERS disability retirement, gathering medical documentation for an incapacitated federal employee, getting together different perspectives and making a compelling case, going out on medical disability opm, help for injured or ill federal employees seeking medical retirement, help in collecting medical evidence and putting package together, how to neutralize negative information in your postal disability application, if reassignment is not possible for the light duty federal worker, job reassignment, letter carrier occupational illness, Maintaining an Objective Perspective in a Disability Case, making a compelling federal opm disability case, medical as well as legal factors may determine eligibility in opm retirement, medical condition(s), medical disability lawyers opm, medical incapacitation at the federal agency, neutralizing negative comments and/or information for the disability applicant, occupational illnesses in federal jobs, old adage, OPM disability retirement, opm disability retirement new jersey employees, Post Office disability retirement, postal buyout always available for injured postal workers, Postal Service disability, proof of disability for federal workers, pulling together several perspectives for the fers disability application, putting a federal disability case together, rational perspective into the fed workers' medical condition, top federal disability retirement attorney, USPS disability retirement, when accommodation is not available to the injured federal worker, writing up a legal summary and putting together an opm disability application, your treating doctors | Leave a comment »