Archives for April 2022

To support federal firefighters who become ill after years in service, the Labor Department’s Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs (OWCP) has established a special claims processing unit.

Federal firefighters are at particularly high-risk for work-related illnesses and injuries, DOL wrote in a press release on April 20. But, those workers often struggle to receive compensation after filing claims with the OWCP.

Federal firefighters work across the country at a variety of government facilities, including military installations, federal research laboratories and veterans’ hospitals. Many of those situations present high risk for disease, DOL stated.

OWCP handles a multitude of federal workers claims, including 15,000 firefighters in federal service. Firefighters file approximately 2,600 compensation claims to OWCP annually. About 175 of those are for illnesses like cancer, heart disease and lung disease, DOL stated.

The National Federation of Federal Employees, a union that represents federal firefighters, said that long wait times and lots of paperwork make the claims process burdensome for those workers. An NFFE spokesperson told Federal News Network that firefighters often will not go through DOL’s claims process because of those issues.

“For firefighters, because of the time it takes for DOL to authorize treatment through OWCP, the employee is better off using private healthcare or paying out-of-pocket,” the NFFE spokesperson said.

Additionally, it’s difficult for federal firefighters to prove that an illness is connected their years in service, the NFFE spokesperson said. That often causes OWCP to deny coverage.

In response to those issues, NFFE, as well as the International Association of Fire Fighters, are collaborating with Labor Secretary Marty Walsh and OWCP Director Christopher J. Godfrey on policy changes for firefighters’ compensation claims process.

“The policy changes we are making will help us improve our service to federal firefighters and assist them through the claims process,” Godfrey said in a press release.

By establishing a special claims unit for those workers to submit their compensation claims, OWCP hopes to streamline the process for those who need to file.

The unit will use specially trained staff to expedite the claims process. Specifically, OWCP will use a special indicator for claims that come from federal firefighters. The special claims unit will process the claim, then reassign it to a non-specialized examiner after reviewing the decision.

OWCP will also collaborate with other departments to update them on the procedural changes.

“The agency is also providing comprehensive training to the unit’s examiners on the impacts of the policy changes, and working with federal agencies including the departments of Agriculture, Defense, Homeland Security and Interior to explain the changes in policy and procedures,” DOL stated.

Under the Federal Employees’ Compensation Act (FECA), DOL handles claims for all federal workers’ filings, including those for federal firefighters. That includes managing ongoing cases, paying medical expenses and compensation benefits to injured federal workers, as well as eventually helping those employees return to work when possible.

DOL said it pays special attention to high-risk jobs for processing claims, which includes federal firefighters.

“While all federal employees who contract an occupational disease related to their federal employment are entitled to FECA coverage, special case handling considerations should apply to those employees engaged in high-risk employment,” DOL stated in an announcement about federal firefighter claims processing.

To be considered high-risk, DOL said claimants must have worked in a federal firefighting position for a minimum of five years.

The new special claims unit at DOL dovetails the House’s Federal Firefighters Fairness Act that’s aiming to further support those workers. That legislation, which the House Education and Labor Committee advanced on March 16, would establish a baseline connection for several common types of illnesses to be classified as work-sustained.

Firefighters, who work at federal institutions, do not currently have that coverage, the committee stated.

“Workers’ compensation laws in 48 states, by contrast, provide firefighters with a presumption that certain diseases are work-related. However, no such law covers the approximately 15,000 firefighters employed by the federal government,” the committee wrote in a fact sheet.

The committee said that DOL faces challenges when using FECA to handle firefighters’ compensation claims.

“FECA is well designed to address traumatic injuries, but is poorly designed to provide benefits for occupational disease caused by exposure to toxic substances. Federal firefighters who have contracted cancers face difficulty proving illnesses are work-related because of the lack of data to prove the disease is linked to specific incidents or exposures,” the committee stated.

Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.), the committee’s chairman, said it’s difficult for federal firefighters to show the connection necessary to receive compensation.

“When federal firefighters apply for FECA benefits, they are faced with a steep burden of proof,” Scott said in a statement.

Several unions and federal organizations, like the American Federation of Government Employees and the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association, support the legislation.

“Passing this bill would bring federal rules in line with the vast majority of states in recognizing the occupational danger placed on firefighters and solve an inequity placed on the brave men and women who choose this line of work,” NARFE National President Ken Thomas wrote in a letter to the committee’s chairman.

The NFFE additionally supported the bill. In a March 29 letter to the House committee, NFFE National President Randy Erwin said under the current law, firefighters’ claims to OWCP are often denied.

“Without presumptive benefits, firefighters must undergo a lengthy administrative process from the OWCP to receive medical care, salary and health insurance benefits,” Erwin wrote in the letter.

The NFFE stated in a press release that the legislation would allow federal firefighters who work for at least five years more comprehensive coverage of diseases that come from on-the-job activities.

“If the Federal Firefighters Fairness Act is passed, it will lower the evidentiary burden and allow for more comprehensive coverage for OWCP claims that involve occupational illnesses,” an NFFE spokesperson said.

The Senate has a companion bill for the Federal Firefighters Fairness Act, which has been referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.

The legislation complements DOL’s establishment of the special claims unit. The bill would make it mandatory for OWCP to regularly monitor and update its list of medical conditions that are covered in the claims process.

NFFE said it hopes to continue working closely with DOL to support federal firefighters, especially as the dangers grow as a result of longer and more severe fire seasons.

“We hope to expand our relationship with DOL to reform the federal firefighting workforce, which is in dire need of systemic transformation as wildfires are exacerbated by climate change,” an NFFE spokesperson said.

When Army Staff Sgt. Nicole Pierce had a miscarriage in 2016, she had two days to grieve and recover from surgery before she needed to be back on duty.

“I ended up asking my doctor, ‘Hey, can I get a little more time? You know, I just lost my child. My whole life just changed before my eyes. Can I have a little more time?’” Pierce told reporters Thursday during a roundtable.

Her request was denied. Pierce ended up taking two weeks of chargeable leave to “mourn the loss of my family and the future that I thought I was going to have.”

Now, six years later, thanks in part to a grassroots effort from soldiers around the country, the Army is issuing a sweeping directive that gives new privileges to soldiers who are parents, pregnant or postpartum.

“Pregnancy is not a unhealthy negative malady,” said Amy Kramer, special assistant to the undersecretary of the Army. “It is a healthy natural life event that should be celebrated. That’s part of our effort to normalize parenthood – expanding one’s family is natural; it is healthy. When our female warriors undergo such a life event, they shouldn’t be treated like they’re sick. They should be celebrated as we have one more member of the Army team, and what can we do to ensure that she is supported and can continue to fulfill the oath that she pledged years earlier? The same applies to adoptive parents and all parents.”

The directive brings together a group of decentralized policies that were either de facto implemented or were only applicable in certain areas of the Army. It also adds in six new policies for soldiers, five of which come from soldier feedback.

The policies include benefits for soldiers like Pierce after losing a child. Those soldiers will be given convalescent leave for emotional and physical recovery. That leave will be non-chargeable. Soldiers whose spouses went through a miscarriage will also be granted convalescent leave.

The leave can vary from seven to 42 days depending on when in the pregnancy the child was lost.

The policy also removes a requirement for soldiers to get pre-approved leave to terminate a pregnancy and grants those soldiers convalescent leave as well.

The directive changes training and education requirements for expecting soldiers and new parents. Postpartum soldiers will have a year to defer professional military education without effecting their promotions.

Lactation accommodations will be provided in education facilities and all soldiers will be exempt from physical fitness standards at educational facilities for a year.

Pregnancy will not disqualify a soldier from graduating a school and schools will be more accommodating to absences for soldiers who get pregnant during a course.

One area of contention in the service was the body composition test, postpartum soldiers will be exempt from that test for a year as well.

The concern is that women were forced to change their bodies in ways that were not healthy for the production of breastmilk or for recovery.

Another large change is that the Army is allowing birth parents and non-birth parents from any component to defer operational training for a year. That helps keep at least one parent home with the child at all times.

“We recognize that traditional male/father, female/mother – that’s not so traditional anymore,” said Lt. Col. Kelly Bell, an Army nurse who advocated for changes to policies. “You have single parents, you have single mothers, single dads, but you also have same gender couples who use fertility treatment if they’re female, or on the male side adopting. You have transgender soldiers, so this directive really is all inclusive of all parents seeing, and that is super exciting.”

The policy allows soldiers to wear maternity clothes up to a year after giving birth as well.

Kramer said the changes will have minimal negative effects on readiness and that only 0.6% of the Army is pregnant at any given time.

“But for the 180,000 women in uniform and for the 400,000 parents in the Army at some point in their careers, they will be affected by one or more of the policies in this directive,” she said. “That’s the long term investment in readiness.”

Tom Temin: Mr. Tapp, good to have you back.

Charles Tapp: Thanks again for having me on this morning. It’s always a pleasure to spend some time with you and certainly speaking about important topics for our veterans.

Tom Temin: All right, so pension poaching, how do these schemes actually work here?

Charles Tapp: Well, as you know, fraud is increasing on a global scale, and it’s changing the way businesses and individuals have to protect themselves. And pension poaching is pretty much a financial scam that targets veterans, survivors and their families who are potentially eligible for VA benefits. This popular scam occurs when unethical advisers tried to artificially qualify VA pensionneers or potential pensionneers to get pensions by hiding their money via trust, or hiding their money in annuities. And the unfortunate thing is, once VA reviews those applications or does revaluations on an annual basis, and we determined that a pensioneer was not actually eligible, unfortunately, sometimes those veterans have to repay those funds.

Tom Temin: Right, almost similar to Medicaid, you have a look back period also. In this case, it’s three years?

Charles Tapp: Absolutely. So generally speaking, when we qualify someone, we do a look back of three years, and then average obviously on an annual basis when we revisit the financial condition of a pensioner, we’re also looking back at their federal tax information to make sure they maintain their qualification for this important benefit.

Tom Temin: Well, unless the pension payments can get diverted to the adviser, what is the incentive for these advisers to mislead the veterans in that manner?

Charles Tapp: Well unfortunately, when they’re working with veterans, what they do is they charge a fee up front for setting up an annuity or setting up a trust, and those fees again goes to those unscrupulous actors. The other thing that can happen also in a pension poaching situation is where you may have family members who asked the beneficiaries to deposit their benefits into their account versus the veteran account. Those are two scenarios, certainly where our veterans and sometimes our elderly veterans are being taken advantage of.

Tom Temin: Are there any clues? I mean, what methodology do you have to be able to suspect when someone is applying in this manner that this doesn’t look right?

Charles Tapp: Well, unfortunately, there’s not a lot of clues on the front end. Usually we find them in arrears once we’re doing our investigation or inquiries. So the unfortunate thing is that veterans aren’t aware, and they’re not educated on the front end. Sometimes the challenge is we’re catching them after the unfortunate act has already occurred.

Tom Temin: Because if someone has an application in for a pension, but the funds are requested not in their name to go somewhere else, would that maybe trigger an automatic investigation?

Charles Tapp: Well a lot of time with the bank accounts and the information that we receive, we get a routing number and a bank account number submitted by the veteran. So generally the veteran is in charge of what information they provide us. So again, if they’ve been convinced by a family member or a third party to deposit their benefits in their accounts. Unfortunately, that’s a choice that the veterans have made that sometimes that may result in them not receiving the benefits that they truly have earned.

Tom Temin: Is there a way to say pause that application so that you can get a message, maybe do this routinely for everybody and say, we see you’re applying for pension benefits, just keep these rules in mind, and then proceed or something in that way, kind of a pause in the middle?

Charles Tapp: So what we do is actually we try to educate our veterans as well as our veterans service organizations and their accredited powers of attorney on what to look out for. We always share with our veterans never fill out forms and pre-sign them before information is input so that you absolutely know what you’re signing. We also emphasize the fact that you should work with an accredited VSO and those accredited VSOs you can absolutely find out who those are using the VA.gov site, and then our search engine typing in accredited representatives. And we will provide a list of VSOs and attorneys that have been vetted through the VA. We also make sure that folks understand that they don’t allow their benefits to be deposited in someone else’s account to make sure it comes to your account. And obviously, if you need to make transfers, or there’s financial transactions that you maintain the control of that as a veteran. Because it’s very important, again, for your overall financial safety.

Tom Temin: We’re speaking with Charles Tapp, he’s chief financial officer of the Veterans Affairs Department. And any idea how much pension poaching costs VA every year?

Charles Tapp: So right now, we have close to 300,000 veterans and survivors who are in receipt of some type of pension. And right now the number of fraud cases is less than 1%, and the amount of money that’s defrauded is no less than $100,000. But we found just like when we process claims that every veteran is more than just a claim number. They’re an individual. So for each veteran or survivor that’s defrauded, you take that very personally. So while the numbers aren’t gaudy for those veterans who are defrauded, it means the world to them. So we want to make sure that we’re taking all the actions that we can to protect those who have served our country and serve them well.

Tom Temin: And you want to point out too also to veterans that if they are caught, even unwittingly misled by some of these scammers, nevertheless, they’re the ones that have to pay back the pension money they’ve received.

Charles Tapp: Yes, unfortunately, again, when benefits are filed they’re filed certainly in the name of the veteran or the survivor. So if there’s an issue in terms of eligibility, unfortunately, that does come back to the beneficiary. And they would be the ones who would be held responsible in terms of returning funding back to the federal government in instances where they were not deemed to be eligible.

Tom Temin: And just to reiterate, there is a way that someone can vet a service provider or an advice giver, through third party means?

Charles Tapp: Absolutely. So again, if they go to VA.gov, and in our search engine at the top right hand corner of the website, if you type in accredited representative, we can absolutely confirm that those folks are accredited. Or if they have challenges in working with our website, you can always call the national call center at 1-800-827-1000. And you can certainly ask those same questions. And we can certainly walk veterans through that process to make sure they are certainly working with someone who’s accredited, and someone, again who’s been vetted, through the VA’s Office of General Counsel.

Tom Temin: All right well we’ll help you get the word out here through this very broadcast. And while we have you, just a couple of CFO questions: How are you doing with the compressed fiscal year, which is about half of the normal length of the fiscal year? How are things going and that must put special pressures on the CFO and the accounting staff, just to make sure everything stays kosher in that compressed period?

Charles Tapp: Yeah, no thanks for that question. No, the secretary has been very clear about the importance of receiving a full-year budget, and we are so grateful for the partnership and support from Congress and the president for ensuring that we did get a ’22 budget. And while the timetable is somewhat truncated, we were postured and ready to move forward. So we could actually move forward and spend responsibly in our responsibility so that we could continue to deliver benefits and services to veterans. So again, while the schedule is short, we’ve got our sleeves rolled up, and we’re postured to make good fiscal choices on behalf of veterans and those that we serve.

Tom Temin: And what kind of preparations do you need to make in general for a new fiscal year coming, especially in this case, the president has proposed a pretty good budget increase for VA for 2023. Nowhere near enacted yet, let alone funds dispersed, but should that potential come to pass, how do you get ready for that?

Charles Tapp: Each year, what we do is we’re making sure that we’re in constant communication with our stakeholders. We’re engaged with discussions with our veterans service organizations, members of Congress and veterans themselves to understand what are their expectations of VA and VBA, specifically, and as we looked at the 23 budget, our key focus point was making sure, number one, we had enough resources, and we could continue to process the three Gulf War presumptives the Secretary approved last summer, and that’s asthma, rhinitis and sinusitis. So we made sure we had an FTE to continue to process those claims both timely and of high quality. Number two, our budget request is also focused on automation. We recognize that as we continue to have new presumptives, that automation may provide us another tool so that we can process claims more quickly. So again, that veterans don’t have to wait longer. So we’re very focused in those particular areas. And then last, but certainly not least, we also have some additional FTE that we’ve requested. Because again, as we continue to educate veterans more through our TAP [Transition Assistance Program] and through other educational mediums, we get more claims, and we don’t want veterans waiting longer to get the benefits that they’ve earned and deserve. So we asked for additional FTEs so we can process those both timely and accurately. So again, our veterans receive their benefits and services without having an extended wait.

Tom Temin: Charles Tapp is chief financial officer of the Veterans Affairs Department. As always, thanks so much.

Charles Tapp: Thank you for having me again, it’s always a pleasure.