Under OPM policy, agencies are to expedite disability retirement applications of their retiring employees who have a life expectancy of one year or less or who have certain serious health conditions. If that applies to you, make sure your agency follows the special process.
Agency retirement counselors are to provide information directly to the disability branch at the time that the retirement application is submitted so that OPM can review the medical documentation before the retirement case is received at OPM. Agencies are to send that information by fax or email using a cover sheet OPM provided that identifies the case as for expedited processing.
The list of qualifying conditions is:
Aortic stenosis which is severe and cannot be corrected
Metastatic and/or inoperable neoplasms
Class IV Cardiac disease with congestive heart failure
Respiratory failure, chronic and progressive
Cor pulmonale with respiratory failure
Emphysema with respiratory failure
Severe cardiomyopathy – Class IV
Aplastic anemia
Uncontrollable hypertension with hypertensive encephalopathy
Cardiac aneurysm not amenable to surgical treatment
Agranulocytosis
Severe chronic hepatic failure
Severe hypoxic brain damage (encephalopathy)
Severe portal hypertension with esophageal varices
AIDS (active – not AIDS related complex or seropositivity)
Scleroderma with severe esophageal involvement
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, rapidly progressive)
Huntington’s disease
End-stage sclerops
End-stage Parkinson’s disease
End-stage renal disease which cannot receive dialysis or transplantation
Quadriplegia with life-threatening complications
This advance notice is designed to allow OPM’s disability branch to review the application and determine if additional information is needed so that there is no delay once the case arrives. The application must still meet all requirements for a disability retirement, including required service and timeliness.