Disability Retirement for Federal Government Employees: Refiling

For various reasons, it is necessary to refile a case.  Sometimes, an individual who has received a denial from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, has allowed the 30-day time period to lapse, and therefore has lost the right to file for Reconsideration, or to file an appeal to the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board.

As long as the Federal or Postal employee who has allowed for such lapse has not been separated from Federal Service, or from the U.S. Postal Service, for more than one (1) year, such refiling is perfectly acceptable.  However, if a Federal or Postal employee who has been separated from Federal Service, has:  (A)  been separated from Federal Service for more than one (1) year, and (B) has allowed for a denial from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management to lapse for more than thirty (30) days, then such a Federal or Postal employee has forever lost his or her right to refile, precisely because the Statute of Limitations would preclude the Federal or Postal employee from refiling.

In determining whether or not to refile because the Federal or Postal employee still continues to retain the right to file again, the identical questions which one should ask in the original filing of a Federal Disability Retirement application would prevail:  Do I have a supportive medical doctor?  Does my medical condition prevent me from performing one or more of the essential elements of my job?  Will my doctor help me prove that I can no longer perform one or more of the essential elements of my job?

In preparing, formulating and filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, whether under FERS or CSRS, the questions for an original filing, or in refiling, remain the same; the only change is the time that lapses, making each of us a day older, but hopefully, that much wiser.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

Federal Disability Retirement Benefits for Federal & Postal Employees: Which Medical Conditions to List

I am often asked that question — will all medical conditions be listed?  What happens if a medical condition is not listed, but later develops into something serious?  That is the essence of the problem of the unlisted medical condition, of course.  In a FERS or CSRS Federal Disability Retirement application, once the packet is submitted to the Office of Personnel Management and a CSA Number is assigned to it, you are precluded from amending the Applicant’s Statement of Disability by adding further medical conditions.

Thus, the problem in not listing a medical condition (or a symptom thereof) can have exponential significance.  In such a situation, one option would be to withdraw the Federal Disability Retirement application and resubmit it anew.

The loss of time involved, however, is one obstacle which often makes an applicant pause at such a drastic step.  Another problem — one which cannot be overcome — is if you have filed within the statutory timeframe, but the 1-year of separation occurs after you filed your application for Federal Disability Retirement under FERS or CSRS.  In that hypothetical, you are “locked in”, because you cannot withdraw your application.  To do so would leave you with no avenue to “refile”, because the 1-year statute has already passed and precludes you from filing again.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

Medical Retirement Benefits for Federal & Postal Employees: Listing the Medical Conditions (Continued…)

If an individual who has filed for Federal Disability Retirement benefits under FERS or CSRS later finds, during the process of waiting for a decision or, between the time of an initial denial and during the Reconsideration Stage or an appeal to the Merit Systems Protection Board — that a previously unlisted medical condition has worsened, can he “add” that medical condition to his Federal Disability Retirement Application?  Can he file an “amended” SF 3112A, Applicant’s Statement of Disability?  The general answer is, “No”. 

However, one can certainly submit a medical report concerning such “previously-unlisted” medical condition if one can reasonably argue that the previously-unlisted medical condition was in fact listed, right there for everyone (i.e., the Office of Personnel Management) to see.  This issue comes up often enough to be of concern, especially because of the valuable time lost in being forced to “withdraw” an application for OPM Disability Retirement and to start all over again in order to add a “new” medical condition.  To safeguard against such a potential event, it is wise to read through the multiple medical conditions when putting together an OPM Disability Retirement packet, and decide which primary diagnoses to include, and at the same time, to “weave” into the narrative of the description of medical conditions, symptoms and areas of pain which can be reasonably interpreted to encapsulate potentially underlying medical diagnoses which may later become prominent and require greater focal emphasis.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire