Officials at the Labor Department's Office of Workers' Compensation Programs (OWCP) are sacrificing the health and well-being of some federal workers through poor management practices, employees from across the government testified Monday at a House subcommittee hearing.
Several injured federal employees who had dealt with the OWCP said the office fails to deliver benefits promptly, is not people-oriented and acts in an adversarial manner toward injured employees. An OWCP representative denied the employees' claims. The hearing of the House Government Reform and Oversight Subcommittee on Government Management, Information and Technology was held in California.
OWCP's primary function is to administer the Federal Employees' Compensation Act (FECA), which allows federal employees to apply for disability and medical benefits for workplace injuries.
Ankle, neck and head injuries sustained on the job left Sammy Lopez, a supply technician at the Department of Veterans Affairs, unable to work. But because OWCP did not administer FECA properly, he testified, he was forced to liquidate his savings, cash in savings bonds and borrow money from friends and relatives.
"At every step of the process I was met with resistance from my agency and OWCP, which was responsible for safeguarding my FECA rights," Lopez said.
Lopez said the agency would not return his repeated phone calls inquiring how long it would take for his doctors to receive a response to their request for authorization. Also, when Lopez' doctors said he should not work, OWCP sent multiple requests to the physician asking for justification and often overruled the doctor's orders.
Howard Miyashiro, a former letter carrier for the U.S. Postal Service, testified that he experienced similar problems. Miyashiro sustained shoulder and back injuries as a result of carrying 50 pounds of mail everyday for 12 hours, he said. After filing a workmen's compensation claim with OWCP and visiting a doctor that recommended one week of bed rest, the OWCP scheduled a "fitness-for-duty" examination. The appointed doctor verbally abused him and accused him of lying about his injury, Miyashiro testified. The doctor also suggested that his back pain was congenital, meaning he would not be eligible for compensation, and suggested his termination.
Anthony Burrelli, a retired Long Beach Naval Shipyard marine electrician, testified that he has lost range of motion in his left leg and has excessive pain and joint degeneration in his hips, because of OWCP's negligence. OWCP employees, Burrelli said, purposely deny therapy authorization and evade FECA requirements.
"OWCP operates on its own set of regulations, directives, transmittals and procedures," Burrelli said. "I can only describe it as a laboratory experiment which has grown larger then its creator, answers to nobody and leaves a path of human destruction."
Postal manager Rachael Santos urged the subcommittee to take immediate legislative action to reform the claims process due to the "abuses by several high-level employees in the positions of oversight in the Labor Department."
Santos said that as a supervisor, she was told to deny all on-the-job injury claim forms from employees and to force employees to see a Postal Service doctor before having a chance to see a private doctor.
Michael Kerr, OWCP deputy assistant secretary, said the office "maintains high standards for timely decision-making, prompt payment of wage loss claims and medical bills."
"In general, I believe our record shows we do a very good job, and that we are evolving and improving in measurable ways," Kerr said.
In fiscal 1996, federal employees reported about 170,000 new injuries and about 148,000 of those claims were approved for compensation on the basis of the initial submission, Kerr said.
"For the vast majority of FECA claimants, this means quick payment of medical bills and payment of wage-loss claims," he said.
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