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OWCP moves toward recognizing presumptive diseases for wildland firefighters

Bill GabbertApril 21, 2022Uncategorizedinjury, OWCP, presumptive disease17 Comments

wildland firefighter with hose — NWCG photo.

Yesterday the Department of Labor announced that they have implemented important changes for processing Federal Employees’ Compensation Act (FECA) claims submitted by firefighters. FICA can pay medical expenses and compensation benefits to injured workers and survivors, and helps injured employees return to work when they are medically able to do so. The new policy eases the evidentiary requirements needed to support claims filed by federal employees engaged in fire protection and suppression activities for certain cancers, heart conditions and lung conditions. In essence, to an untrained observer, the new program looks similar to the presumptive disease policy employed by many fire departments and governments.

The new Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs FECA Bulletin, No. 22-07 “Special Case Handling in Certain Firefighter FECA Claims Processing and Adjudication” issued April 19, 2022, establishes a list of cancers and medical conditions for which the firefighter does not have to submit proof that their disease was caused by an on the job injury. The requirements to qualify for this new policy are that the condition must be diagnosed by a doctor, the person was engaged in fire protection activities for at least 5 years, and the diagnosis must have occurred no more than 10 years after employment.

If these requirements are met, the employee’s claim would be deemed “high-risk” and qualify for expedited processing.

The medical conditions covered are:

Cancers: esophageal, colorectal, prostate, testicular, kidney, bladder, brain, lung, buccal cavity/pharynx, larynx, thyroid, multiple myeloma, nonHodgkin’s lymphoma, leukemia, mesothelioma, or melanoma; or
Hypertension, coronary artery disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, pulmonary fibrosis, asthma, or a sudden cardiac event or stroke.

To implement the policy changes, OWCP has created a special claims unit to process federal firefighters’ claims. The unit consists of existing staff specifically trained to handle these issues. 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.

These two major changes in how the OWCP handles illness and injury claims from firefighters appear to be monumental improvements if they pan out as advertised. In recent years the reputation and services provided by the agency for injured or sick firefighters, or the surviving spouses and family members of those killed on the job, has been abysmal. Too often they have been driven to beg for money at GoFundMe just to pay medical bills after being hounded by bill collectors when the federal government did not fulfill their legal obligations.

NFFE and IAFF met with Labor Secretary Marty Walsh (wearing the red tie) and Department of Labor officials in Los Angeles, April 20, 2022 to discuss processing of firefighters’ injury claims. NFFE photo.

Some of these changes and improvements are due in part to efforts that have been going on behind the scenes by members of the Grassroots Wildland Firefighters, International Association of Fire Fighters, and the National Federation of Federal Employees. In the last month they have traveled to Washington DC and Los Angeles (at least) to meet with federal officials who can make things happen. For example they have met with Marty Walsh, the Secretary of Labor, twice. These folks deserve your thanks.

One of the causes of the slow response to firefighters’ injury and death claims has been a reduction in the number of OWCP claims examiners due to declining budgets over the last few years. It is critical that the President and both houses of Congress follow up and ensure that the agency is appropriately funded so that they can perform their required duties, assisting employees injured or sickened on the job.

More information from the Department of Labor:

Fact sheet
Details about how the OWCP will process the claims.
A more digestible version about the process, with information for firefighters.

How to file a workers’ compensation claim (From the OWCP):

To file a workers’ compensation claim, you must first register for an Employees’ Compensation Operations and Management Portal (ECOMP) account at www.ecomp.dol.gov. ECOMP is a free web-based application. You do not need approval from your supervisor or anyone else at your agency to initiate your FECA workers’ compensation claim. Once you register for an ECOMP account, you will be able to file either Form CA-1 ‘Notice of Traumatic Injury’ (single event trauma) or Form CA-2 ‘Notice of Occupational Disease’ (repeated exposure).

Thanks and a tip of the hat go out to Ben.

Wildland firefighters meet with Secretary of Labor

Bill GabbertMarch 17, 2022March 18, 2022UncategorizedNFFE, OWCP1 Comment

They later had meetings at the White House

UPDATED 6:06 p.m. ET March 17, 2022

In addition to meeting on Wednesday with the Secretary of Labor and other Administration officials, today, Thursday, the group of wildland firefighters and National Federation of Federal Employees personnel who traveled to Washington, DC met with two officials at the White House.

They talked with Erika Dinkel-Smith, a former BLM firefighter who worked in Nevada, California, and Oregon while she was going to college. She now works as the White House Director of Labor Engagement. The group also met with Cedric Richmond, who gave up his congressional seat to be a Senior Advisor to the President and the Director of The White House Office of Public Engagement.

“We didn’t have long with Director Richmond, but we did discuss topics many wildland firefighters face, such as low pay, homelessness, and high rates of suicide. We also discussed Tim’s Act”, said smokejumper Ben Elkind. “Cedric had some animated responses when he learned about these issues we face and I’m confident we have many allies in the White House that will push for real reforms within the USFS and DOI. Neither of these people had to meet with us and they were truly interested in our experiences. Really great people who are friendly and approachable, if you can get through security.”

As a former @BLMFire wildland firefighter, I was honored to meet with @NFFE Wildland firefighters alongside @Richmond46 at the @WhiteHouse today. We are incredibly grateful for the dangerous work you do on the fireline. Stay safe out there. pic.twitter.com/UWHfeYtk0r

— Erika Dinkel-Smith (@EDinkelSmith46) March 17, 2022

Left to right in the photo above: Justin Mahaffey (USFS Engine Captain), Ethan West – (NFFE), Bob Beckley (NFFE), Max Alonzo – (NFFE), Cedric Richmond (Senior Advisor to the President and the Director of The White House Office of Public Engagement), Randy Erwin (NFFE – President), Ben Elkind (USFS – Smokejumper), Erika Dinkel-Smith (White House Director of Labor Engagement), Hannah Coolidge (USFS Hotshot).

Originally published at 1:27 p.m. ET March 17, 2022

NFFE meets with Secretary of Labor, March 16, 2022. L to R: Max Alonzo (NFFE), Bob Beckley (NFFE), Hannah Coolidge (USFS Hotshot), Marty Walsh (Sec. Of Labor), Dane Ostler (USFS – Prevention), Ben Elkind (USFS – Smokejumper), Randy Erwin (NFFE – President), and Jeff Friday (NFFE).

Yesterday a group of wildland firefighters and officials from the National Federation of Federal Employees met with the Secretary of Labor and other administration officials in Washington, DC. The NFFE is a union that represents some of the employees in the federal agencies that have land management responsibilities.

Ben Elkind, a smokejumper, told Wildfire Today that they talked with officials and legislative staff members mostly about passing a bill named after Tim Hart, a smokejumper who was killed on a fire in New Mexico last year. The Tim Hart Wildland Firefighter Classification and Pay Parity Act (H.R. 5631), would address many of the heartbreaking issues wildland firefighters and their partners face, including raising firefighter pay, creating a wildland firefighter job series, providing health care and mental health services to temporary and permanent wildland firefighters, as well as housing stipends and other improvements. (More details are in the Wildfire Today article from October 19, 2021.)

The Office of Worker’s Compensation Programs (OWCP) is within the Department of Labor, and has been heavily criticised for slow-walking or failing to appropriately process the claims of firefighters injured on the job. It has not been uncommon for firefighters for the U.S. Forest Service or Bureau of Land Management to resort to asking the public to give them money at GoFundMe because their employer refused to honor the requirement to pay their doctor, hospital, and physical rehabilitation expenses.

“We met with Marty Walsh yesterday, the Secretary of Labor,” Mr. Elkind wrote in an email. “He’s the former mayor of Boston and very pro-labor. We shared some stories about our pay and work/life balance and he was astounded. He promised to bring this up with the President and try to work on legislation, but also acknowledged that the bureaucracy is very real and difficult to maneuver. Marty was very down to earth, and I believe he has our backs moving forward. Hopefully we can get something done this year, but it will be a lot of work.”

OWCP commits to better processing of injury claims of firefighters

Bill GabbertMarch 17, 2022March 17, 2022UncategorizedOWCP, presumptive disease3 Comments

The Office of Worker’s Compensation Programs responded to a letter from six Senators

Deer Park Fire, patient on litter — An injured firefighter is moved using a “conveyor belt” technique on the Deer Park Fire in central Idaho, August 6, 2010. Screen grab from USFS video.

In responding to a letter from six U.S. Senators, the Director of the Office of Worker’s Compensation Programs (OWCP) has promised better processing of claims from firefighters injured on the job.

The incompetence of the OWCP in quickly and fairly paying the medical bills for wildland firefighters has become a quagmire that should infuriate citizens of the United States. Men and women serving their country who suffered serious, life-changing injuries, in some cases were hounded by bill collectors, forced to attempt to pay huge fees for their treatment, and had to declare bankruptcy resulting in their credit rating dropping into the toilet. It has not been uncommon for firefighters for the U.S. Forest Service or Bureau of Land Management to resort to asking the public to give them money at GoFundMe, because their employer refused to honor their requirement to pay their doctor, hospital, and physical rehabilitation expenses.

The first sentence of the Senators’ February 14, 2022 letter to OWCP Director Christopher Godfrey said: “We urge you to expedite the establishment of a special claims unit to handle firefighter compensation claims so that it can be in place before the start of the 2022 fire season.”

The Special Claims Unit processes death benefits for members of the Armed Forces who die in connection with a “contingency operation.” The OWCP told Buzzfeed News in December, 2021 that they were in the process of developing new procedures and modifying existing policies to include the use of the Special Claims Unit. But apparently by February 14 it may have appeared to the Senators not to have been done, which prompted the letter.

A response from the OWCP was dated March 9, coincidentally the day after Wildfire Today wrote about the effects of the agency dragging its feet in paying the medical bills for Casey Allen, a US Forest Service firefighter seriously burned while serving on the Dolan Fire, September 8, 2020. He finally got some financial relief after U.S. Rep. Salud Carbajal and his district representative Wendy Motta were able to break a stubborn repayment logjam so Allen and his wife Tina could be reimbursed for money they had to pay toward his recovery.

In the March 9 letter from Director Godfrey, he wrote that as of December 15, 2021 they had adjusted procedures so that the Special Claims Unit now adjudicates all new incoming firefighter claims, and that it “should improve customer service and consistency in navigating through the medical requirements of their claims.”

In addition, Director Godfrey wrote, they are developing policy regarding the evidentiary requirements needed to link a firefighter’s exposure to toxic substances which can lead to “cancers, heart disease, and lung disease that firefighters are at risk for. Our policy will also recognize the difference between structural and wildland firefighters and their unique exposure risks.” They plan to train the Special Claims Unit to understand the new policies.

“Completion of these new procedures is expected by Spring of 2022,” said Director Godfrey. (We checked the official dates for Spring, and this year it is March 20 through June 21.)

This new structure could be a step toward recognizing presumptive diseases, a policy that is in effect in many agencies that employ firefighters. A bill that has been introduced in both the House and the Senate provides that heart disease, lung disease, and specified cancers of federal employees employed in fire protection activities for at least 5 years are presumed to be proximately caused by such employment if the employee is diagnosed with the disease within 10 years of employment; and the disability or death of the employee due to such disease is presumed to result from personal injury sustained in the performance of duty.

Below are photos of the March 9 letter from the Director.

Continue reading “OWCP commits to better processing of injury claims of firefighters”

Federal government to spend $18 million to rebuild fire station destroyed by Dolan Fire

Bill GabbertMarch 8, 2022March 9, 2022UncategorizedCalifornia, Dolan Fire, injury, OWCP8 Comments

The federal government has balked at paying for the treatment needed by a firefighter who was severly injuried during the burn over

Dolan Fire deployment site. Engine & pickup. Image from the report

Congress has set aside $18 million to rebuild a US Forest Service fire station that was destroyed in the Dolan Fire in the Los Padres National Forest in Southern California in 2020.

The fire had been burning for weeks. The night before it reached Nacimiento station on Nacimiento-Fergusson Road 7 miles from the California coast highway on September 8, 2020, the fire ran for about three miles toward the station, burning 30,000 acres with spot fires three-quarters of a mile ahead. The fire personnel at the station during the burnover included two USFS engine crews, two dozers with operators, and the only Division supervisor working the night shift due to a shortage of personnel.

Below is an aerial photo of the Nacimiento guard station taken almost exactly two years before the burnover.

Fifteen firefighters deployed into only 13 fire shelters. Four were injured and three were hospitalized. One had very serious burns.

The Forest Service will use the funding to replace the fire station, barracks, engine garage, and pumphouse, as well as a water well, solar connections, and access roads.

These funds were provided as Supplemental Disaster Funding through the Extending Government Funding and Delivering Emergency Assistance Act of 2021. The disaster assistance funding is a share of the $1.36 billion of supplemental appropriations provided to the Forest Service.

The federal government balked at paying for treatment for injuries to one of the firefighters

According to The Tribune of San Luis Obispo, California, one of the firefighters severly injured in the burn over is still dealing with not only his on-the-job injuries, but attempting to get the government to pay for his treatment:

Casey Allen said Monday that healing from his second- and third-degree burns is continuing, with only a few small wounds left on his ankles, and his Achilles tendon on his right foot is almost completely healed.

However, the news about Allen’s injured left hand wasn’t as good: Doctors may have to amputate his ring and pinkie fingers.

He credited U.S. Rep. Salud Carbajal and his district representative Wendy Motta with finally breaking a stubborn repayment logjam so Allen and his wife Tina, who he called “my rock,” could be repaid for money they had to pay out of pocket toward his recovery.

Mr. Allen’s fiancée at the time set up a GoFundMe account for him. She wrote, “He will need hospital services for the next year at a minimum.”

Mr. Allen is suffering one of the ultimate indignities — being severely injured in a life-changing on-the-job incident, and your employer, the U.S. government, is balking at stepping up and providing the payment for your desperately needed medical treatment. The Office of Workers Compensation needs to be funded adequately by Congress so it can rebuild its staff and respond PROMPTLY to situations like this.

Senators urge the OWCP to use special unit for handling injury claims of firefighters

Bill GabbertFebruary 15, 2022February 15, 2022Uncategorizedinjury, OWCP9 Comments

Numbers Fire Nevada wildfire Carson City Minden — Numbers Fire, Nevada, July 6, 2020. Photo by Tallac Hotshots.

A bipartisan group of U.S. Senators has signed a letter urging the Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs (OWCP) to expedite the handling of death and injury claims of federal firefighters “in advance of the 2022 wildfire season.”

As we wrote on December 14, 2021, the federal agency responsible for supporting firefighters when they are injured on the job too often fails to reimburse them appropriately for medical bills and death benefits. A December 13, 2021 article at BuzzFeed News described numerous examples of firefighters who were seriously injured while working, then confronted with huge medical bills. Some were being hounded multiple times a day from bill collectors demanding money that should have been paid by the OWCP. Firefighters’ credit cards have been maxed out and credit ratings destroyed. Injured firefighters have routinely been reduced to setting up GoFundMe pages and depending on grants from the Wildland Firefighter Foundation.

A spokesperson for the OWCP told BuzzFeed News that the agency was in the process of developing new procedures and modifying existing policies. For example, a “Special Claims Unit,” which usually handles nontraditional requests, will now adjudicate “all new incoming firefighter claims.”

The Special Claims Unit already existed. The agency’s manual states that one of its duties is handling death benefits for members of the Armed Forces who die “in connection with service with an Armed Force in a contingency operation.” All of these claims for a death gratuity “are to be transferred to [the unit] immediately upon receipt for handling and response.”

One of the causes for the slow response to firefighters’ injury and death claims is a reduction in the number of OWCP claims examiners due to a declining budget over the last few years. The letter signed by the Senators does not address their responsibility for appropriating adequate funds to accomplish the mission.

“Federal wildland firefighters have recently reported difficulty getting their medical treatment costs for work-related injuries covered by the government within a reasonable timeframe,” Feinstein wrote in a letter to Christopher Godfrey, director of the Labor Department’s Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs. “This is simply unacceptable – these firefighters put their lives at risk to defend American lives and property, and they deserve our support.”

Feinstein continued, “Your commitment to establish a special claims handling unit is an excellent first step to remedying this situation; we urge you to follow through expeditiously and to focus on handling the claims of both federal wildland firefighters and structural firefighters…Given the urgency of the wildfire situation in the western United States, we request an update as to the status of this special claims handling unit at your earliest convenience.”

In addition to Senator Feinstein, the letter was signed by Senators Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), Tom Carper (D-Del.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine).

The complete text of the Senators’ letter is below:

February 14, 2022

Mr. Christopher Godfrey
Director, Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs
Department of Labor
200 Constitution Ave. NW
Washington, DC 20210

Dear Director Godfrey:

We urge you to expedite the establishment of a special claims unit to handle firefighter compensation claims so that it can be in place before the start of the 2022 fire season. As you noted in your testimony before the House Committee on Education and Labor on December 2, 2021, federal firefighters who file claims with your office are facing many challenges, and it is our understanding that firefighters are sometimes unable to obtain compensation for their medical treatment, especially those who assert long-term illnesses attributable to their work.

As you know, wildfires in the West are becoming larger, more frequent, and increasingly hazardous. In 2021, the wildland firefighting national preparedness level was raised to its highest level on July 14 – the earliest date in a decade and the second earliest date in history – and required the active deployment of more than 80 percent of the nation’s wildland firefighting crews. We expect this trend to continue, requiring federal firefighters to be engaged for longer periods of time each year combating increasingly dangerous fires. As a result, firefighters will likely sustain more work-related injuries and will increasingly be exposed to conditions that can lead to long-term illness and injury.

Federal wildland firefighters have recently reported difficulty getting their medical treatment costs for work-related injuries covered by the government within a reasonable timeframe. These firefighters, facing bankruptcy, have been forced to seek assistance from the Wildland Firefighter Foundation or private fundraisers to pay their bills while they await reimbursement. We are similarly concerned that claims from firefighters diagnosed with certain cancers or other long-term illnesses associated with firefighting activities are simply refused. They are told that, because they cannot definitively prove the link between the illness and their job exposure, the federal government will not cover their medical expenses. This is simply unacceptable – these firefighters put their lives at risk to defend American lives and property, and they deserve our support.

Your commitment to establish a special claims handling unit is an excellent first step to remedying this situation; we urge you to follow through expeditiously and to focus on handling the claims of both federal wildland firefighters and structural firefighters. This new unit should ensure its examiners are aware of the particular risks facing firefighters and provide clear rationales for rejected claims to ensure that claims processing is efficient, accurate, and transparent. Given the urgency of the wildfire situation in the western United States, we request an update as to the status of this special claims handling unit at your earliest convenience. Thank you for considering our request, and we look forward to working with you to support the important work of our federal firefighters.

Sincerely,

Dianne Feinstein
U.S. Senator

Alex Padilla
U.S. Senator

Susan M. Collins
U.S. Senator

Jacky Rosen
U.S. Senator

Ron Wyden
U.S. Senator

Thomas R. Carper
U.S. Senator

Horror stories about how firefighters injured on the job are treated by OWCP

Bill GabbertDecember 14, 2021December 15, 2021Uncategorizedinjury, OWCP, Tim Hart23 Comments

They can become a victim a second time

If you are a federal employee hopefully you don’t know what “OWCP” stands for. If you do, you could have been forced to deal with them, and your experience may or may not have been a positive experience.

Many federal workers have been pleased with the services provided by the Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs, but too many stories from others are truly sickening.

On BuzzFeed you can find articles titled, for example, “Putting ketchup on more than half of these foods is a federal crime — are you guilty?” (for real). But an offshoot, named BuzzFeed News, actually writes serious articles about news of the day. They even have a reporter assigned to cover the White House. Yesterday they published a long thoroughly researched piece about how some wildland firefighters injured on the job have been profoundly mistreated and ill served by the OWCP.

If a firefighter is injured while working, or becomes ill on the job, OWCP is required to do everything they can to make them whole again, including covering medical and rehab expenses so they can get back to work without wiping out their bank accounts.

Their Mission Statement:

"The Mission of the Office of Workers' Compensation Programs is to protect the interests of workers who are injured or become ill on the job, their families and their employers by making timely, appropriate, and accurate decisions on claims, providing prompt payment of benefits and helping injured workers return to gainful work as early as is feasible."

The BuzzFeed News article describes numerous examples of firefighters who were seriously injured while working, then confronted with huge medical bills. Some were being hounded multiple times a day from bill collectors demanding money that should have been paid by OWCP. Firefighters’ credit cards have been maxed out and credit ratings destroyed. Injured firefighters have routinely been reduced to setting up GoFundMe pages and depending on grants from the Wildland Firefighter Foundation. Rehab has been discontinued too soon. All because OWCP is incompetent or because their funding has been reduced to the point where they can’t hire enough staff to “protect the interests of workers who are injured or become ill on the job.”

One of the more recent, of many examples in the article is what has happened to Michelle Koch Hart, the widow of Tim Hart, a smokejumper who died after being injured on the Eicks Fire in New Mexico in May of this year.

Here is an excerpt from the BuzzFeed News article:

“Today, she’s still battling with federal agencies, trying to prove the facts around her husband’s death to recoup money. It’s been a maze of talking to case managers who send her to different departments, calling 1-800 numbers that lead nowhere, digging up records, and refiling paperwork that apparently never went through. Some of the claims can’t be submitted until the Forest Service investigation into Tim’s death is completed, and she has no idea when that will be. The Forest Service told BuzzFeed News that “reviews of fatalities can be a lengthy process.” This month, she got an unexplained bill from the Department of Agriculture for $1,030, due Dec. 9. She has no idea what it’s for, and when she tried to find out, she said, the agent could not talk to her because she was not Tim.

” “It’s very traumatizing, lonely,” she said. “There’s no one person in the federal government who is helping me. People don’t know who I should talk to. I have to do everything on my own, but I still have so many unanswered questions. The system is broken.”

“The US Forest Service, which oversees the large majority of the country’s wildland firefighters, has known for more than a decade that its employees have struggled to navigate the workers’ compensation filing system, get claims approved, and have their medical needs paid for, according to the documents reviewed by BuzzFeed News. They give insight into how many top officials, including the Forest Service’s current director, were not only aware of these widespread problems, but had been discussing their frustrations about the process internally for years.

“Leadership in the Forest Service failed to do a damn thing to address our issues with OWCP despite us repeatedly asking and offering solutions,” Buddy Byrd, a former safety and occupational health manager for the Forest Service’s Region 6, which spans Oregon and Washington, told BuzzFeed News. “OWCP is a piece of a bigger systemic failure on behalf of the US Forest Service.”

Our take

The federal agencies that employ firefighters and forestry technicians, need to quadruple their efforts to force OWCP to process the claims of the injured quickly and fairly.

They could consider assigning a human resources person to every injured employee who can troubleshoot problems caused by the OWCP. They should not be left alone and victimized a second time for the injury they suffered while serving their country fighting wildfires.

Upon the death of a firefighter the agencies need to figure out a way to quickly produce enough documentation to satisfy the OWCP that they were killed on the job in the line of duty.

Congress needs to appropriately fund the OWCP so they have staff capable of serving the needs of injured firefighters, and their spouses.

Thanks and a tip of the hat go out to Ben and Tom.