CSRS & FERS Medical Disability Retirement: A Hypothetical

The case-law opinions from the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board, as well as from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, upholds the statement added onto Question 4 of Standard Form 3112A, the form which specifically requests the Applicant’s statement of disability, which asserts:  “We consider only the disease and/or injuries you discuss in this application”.

Failure to identify a particular medical condition can have an adverse impact upon one’s application for Federal Disability Retirement benefits.

Take the following hypothetical: a Federal or Postal employee is terminated from Federal Service; he or she files for Federal Disability Retirement benefits within one (1) year of being separated from service.  While the Statute of Limitations has already been met because the filing has occurred within the 1-year timeframe, during the process of awaiting a decision from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, the treating doctor has diagnosed with greater specificity the primary and underlying cause of the medical condition.

In his or her haste to file, the (now former) Federal employee quickly noted the diagnosed medical conditions in response to question 4, but nowhere is there an indication of the newly-diagnosed medical condition.  During the wait, it is now more than 1 year from the time of separation.  The quandary:  The Federal Disability Retirement application cannot be withdrawn, because the 1-year Statute of Limitations has already passed, and so he or she is no longer able to re-file.  No additional medical conditions can be added onto the SF 3112A.

Is there a problem? The answer:  Under this hypothetical, potentially yes.

Even if OPM approves the case, there may be future difficulties if OPM approves the Disability Retirement application based upon a medical condition listed, but resolved.  Care in identifying and properly annotating the medical conditions must be taken in preparing, formulating and filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, whether under FERS or CSRS.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

Disability Retirement for Federal Workers: Listing, Prioritizing and Weaving

In preparing, formulating and filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, the Federal or Postal employee who is formulating the Applicant’s Statement of Disability on Standard Form 3112D must describe the medical conditions which will be proven to impact upon one’s inability to perform one or more of the essential elements of one’s job.

Submission of the “list” of medical conditions will concretize and place boundaries around the issue to be litigated. Once submitted through the Agency or the U.S. Postal Service, then forwarded to Boyers, PA and assigned a CSA Number, the medical conditions described will be the only ones which can be argued.  Further, once a Federal Disability Retirement application is approved, the approval letter will have an attachment which describes and identifies those medical conditions which the Office of Personnel Management found the applicant to be disabled for (is this the feared split infinitive?).

Thus, by way of example, if a Federal or Postal employee filed for Federal Disability Retirement benefits based upon medical conditions X, Y and Z, and OPM based its approval only upon medical condition Y, then for any future Medical Questionnaire requesting an updated status on the annuitant’s medical condition, it is only medical condition Y which would be relevant.

As such, in the very preparation of the applicant’s statement of disability, important decisions must be made which will have significant future consequences:  which medical conditions to list; how to prioritize the medical conditions; whether to weave secondary conditions into the applicant’s statement, and to what extent, etc.

While some of the issues will be determined by the medical narrative report(s) prepared by the treating doctors, it is ultimately the responsibility of the Federal or Postal employee who is considering filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits — along with his or her attorney — to set the course for future events in a manner which will ensure not only present success, but future security.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

Disability Retirement for Federal Government Employees: The Approach

In the busy lives we lead, it is often a temptation to simply adopt a generic approach to each event, for purposes of ease and convenience.  It is easy to think that most distinctions in life do not contain relevant differences — at least not enough to make much of an impact.  

In preparing, formulating and filing a Federal Disability Retirement application under FERS or CSRS, it is certainly useful to utilize the paradigm of successful past filings, and there is enough information “out there” by multiple attorneys and “specialists” (whatever that may mean) to gather a composite model of a Federal Disability Retirement application which has a good chance of becoming approved.

However, one must always remember that each individual case is unique because of the multiple factors which must interact, and the uniqueness of the approach must match and be tailored to the distinctions which are inherent in each case.  Not only are the medical conditions different; the job description, the essential elements of a job, the symptoms which manifest themselves; whether the Federal Disability Retirement application should be based upon a single medical condition or a combination of multiple conditions; whether psychiatric conditions are primary or secondary; the intersecting impact between the medical conditions and the essential duties of one’s job; and, beyond all of this, if a Federal Disability Retirement application is denied at the First Stage of the process, or even at the Reconsideration Stage, the methodology and approach of responding to such a denial is important.  

Generic approaches are sometimes useful, but in preparing, formulating and filing a Federal Disability Retirement application under FERS or CSRS, it is important to recognize that most distinctions do in fact make a difference.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

Medical Retirement Benefits for Federal & Postal Employees: Listing the Medical Conditions

The rule on an application for Federal Disability Retirement benefits under FERS or CSRS is that, once the application is filed with the Office of Personnel Management, the application cannot be amended or modified with respect to the “list” of medical conditions.  Thus, on the Applicant’s Statement of Disability (SF 3112A), one must list the medical conditions upon which the entire application for eligibility is based.  Once it is filed with OPM and a CSA Number is assigned to the case, you are restricted from being able to “add” to the list of medical conditions which are delineated on your statement.  This is fair enough, if one stops and reflects upon it, for a number of reasons.  For one thing, it would be unfair to have the right to change the basis upon which one has filed for Federal Employee Disability Retirement benefits under FERS or CSRS.  For another, OPM must be able to begin the process of evaluating the eligibility of a case without the potential for modification of the medical conditions, or the adding or subtracting of the underlying basis of the claim.  However, the mere fact that one cannot “add” to the list of medical conditions, does not prevent one from submitting additional supporting medical documentation (even from a previously-unnamed medical provider) which would support the already-listed medical conditions. 

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire