For diagnoses after Jan 27, 2023, employees will have to establish eligibility under typical standards for showing that a condition is work-related. Image: Burlingham/Shutterstock.com
The Labor Department has posted a reminder that special provisions for FECA benefits related to COVID-19 infections will expire January 23 under terms of the 2021 pandemic relief law that created them.
That law provided that a federal employee diagnosed with COVID-19 who carried out duties that required contact with patients, members of the public, or co-workers, or included a risk of exposure to the virus within 21 days prior to the diagnosis, is deemed to have an injury that is proximately caused by employment for purposes of establishing eligibility. However, that applies only to those diagnosed with COVID-19 on or prior to January 27, 2023.
“In accordance with the clear congressional intent to end the specialized treatment of COVID-19 claims for federal workers’ compensation on January 27, 2023, OWCP is updating its procedures to provide that claims for COVID-19 diagnosed after that date must establish the five basic elements for adjudication set forth in the FECA regulations,” the announcement said.
For diagnoses after that date, employees will have to establish eligibility under typical standards for showing that a condition is work-related. Those include that the condition “is found by a physician to be causally related to the established event(s) or employment factor(s) within the employee’s federal employment. Neither the fact that the condition manifests itself during a period of federal employment, nor the belief of the claimant that factors of employment caused or aggravated the condition, is sufficient in itself to establish causal relationship,” it says.
It says for example that if an employee asserts the infection was caused by sitting next to a fellow employee who was covid-positive, the claims examiner may accept that assertion as true but the claimant would have to show proof of the co-worker’s infection.
It adds that a self-test “insufficient to establish a diagnosis of COVID-19 under the FECA” unless it “is monitored by a medical professional and the results are verified through documentation submitted by such professional.”
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See also,
The Process of Retiring: Last-Minute Changes
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FERS Retirement Planning Bundle: 2022 FERS Guide & TSP Handbook