It is a frightening thought that there may be a percentage of Federal or Postal Federal Disability Retirement applicants who read an initial denial from the Office of Personnel Management, and take their words at face value. From statements such as, “Your doctor has failed to show that your condition is amenable to further treatments” (by the way, when did the Office of Personnel Management obtain a medical degree or complete a residency requirement?) to “you have not shown that you are totally disabled from performing efficient work” (hint: this is not Social Security, and the standard is not “total disability”), to a full spectrum of error-filled statements in between, one may suspect that there may be a knowing strategy in rendering a denial, knowing that a small percentage of the corpus of disability retirement applicants will simply walk away and not file a Request for Reconsideration.
Further, I suspect that this occurs more often with certain more “vulnerable” medical conditions — Fibromyalgia, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Major Depression, PTSD, anxiety, panic attacks; Chemical Sensitivity cases, etc. Why do I suspect these? Mostly because such cases are attacked for “lacking objective medical evidence” (see my articles on Vanieken-Ryals v. OPM, and similar writings) and failing to provide “diagnostic test results”, etc. There was a time, long ago, when it used to mean something when someone said, “The Government says…” In this day and age, I would advise that you take it to an attorney to review whether or not the words of the Office of Personnel Management are true or not.
Sincerely,
Robert R. McGill, Esquire
Filed under: OPM Disability Process - 1st Stage: OPM Disability Application, OPM Disability Process - 2nd Stage: OPM Reconsideration Stage, When the OPM Application Is Denied | Tagged: anxiety & panic attack in the Postal Service, appeal to first OPM denial decision, carpal tunnel syndrome and your federal job, Chemical Sensitivity, chemical sensitivity mcs on federal employees, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome CTS and OPM Disability Retirement, chronic fatigue syndrome opm disability application claim, chronic immuno-neurologic disorder as a basis for fers disability, compensation for federal employees with not job-related injuries, continuation of pay cop for federal employees with disabilities, cts carpal tunnel federal workers comp, disability for anxiety disorder opm, federal disability retirement legal assistance for nalc members, federal employees with chronic fatigue, federal employees with cumulative trauma disorders ctd, federal employees with severe anxiety disorder, federal workers winning disability benefits even after first denial, federal workers with panic attacks, fibromyalgia and federal disability retirement, Fibromyalgia in OPM disabiity retirement, Filing the Request for Reconsideration after first OPM denial, fitness for duty examination ffd in your opm disability claim, functional capacity evaluation not needed in a federal disability claim, getting fers disability and anxiety, how federal workers can win compensation for a stress claim?, if the ecab denies you federal compensation benefits, if you wish to pursue your opm disability claim after first denial, illogical reasons used by the opm to deny fers disability retirement, legal help after first application denial, Major Depression cases in the USPS, many opm disability retirement applications are denied at first stage, medical conditions that the opm loves to deny, Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS), Office of Personnel Management (OPM), OPM "difficult" disabilities, opm and owcp allowed conditions, opm disability applicants that fail to provide diagnostic test results, opm disability retirement and the total disability concept, opm's excuses to deny your federal disability retirement, panic attacks and federal disability retirement, post traumatic stress disorder and federal employee disability, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) among fed workers, postal employees with injuries on their shoulders, postal workers with repetitive strain injuries, ptsd early disability retirement opm, repetitive motion strain injuries in the us postal service, stress disorders and postal workers, the Vanieken-Ryals case, us postal employees with depression, usps employment discrimination to postal workers with stress, usps stress related disability retirement, what medical conditions will the opm try to deny? | 1 Comment »