Federal Workers’ Compensation Program
The Federal Employees’ Compensation Act (FECA) is the Worker’s Compensation program for Federal employees.
Collaborative case management process
FECA pays disability, survivors, and medical benefits, without fault, to employees who are injured or become ill in the course of their federal employment and the survivors of employees killed on the job. The FECA Program is administered by the Department of Labor (DOL) Office of Federal Workers Compensation Programs (OWCP) and the costs of benefits are paid by each employee’s host agency.
Our Centralized Workers Compensation Claims Processing Center is located in Annandale, Virginia in close proximity to our Federal client agencies. Our Center receives new claim filings, long-term cases and existing claim inventories providing professional case management assistance that is focused on quality service to injured employees while reducing program costs and the time that the employee is away from work. Communicating directly with Federal employees, medical providers and agency management, our case managers promote expedited return to work, prompt access to medical care, shorter lengths of disability and lower costs per claim.
Our staff of professional case managers, including FECA Subject Matter Experts, have years of experience in the Federal Workers’ Compensation program and have worked with numerous Federal Agencies in order to improve their program performance. First and foremost, our staff assists the injured employee and their agency. We respect and protect injured workers’ rights for confidentiality and privacy in accordance with DOL OWCP and HIPPA regulations. Our guiding principles are superior customer service, going above the call of duty, and early intervention.
Over the years, we have developed an outstanding reputation in the industry and have addressed the following requirements:
Returning employees to work after they have suffered on-the-job injuries can be a tremendous challenge, especially if the employee has been gone a long time and the Agency is not equipped with the right tools. Long-term disability cases often receive less OWCP attention than recent workers compensation case. We are actively engaged in the case management of long term cases, obtaining medical documents that properly support ongoing disability.
Case managers review files with no wage-earning capacity on an annual basis to identify education and re-employment opportunities. Utilizing “red flag” indicators we review cases for signs of fraudulent activity and if appropriate, refer the file for further review. Our case managers work proactively with agency supervisors, OWCP staff and assigned medical personnel to establish expectations for light duty and work toward achieving resolution.
When a patient consults with a physician, there is an expectation of appropriate and effective medical treatment. We evaluate the medical authenticity of each claim including whether treatment was medically necessary and appropriate. WCC ensures that, where appropriate, a trained medical professional (nurse) works with our Case Manager to facilitate appropriate medical care, identify obstacles to recovery and ultimately focus on returning an individual to work.
Our Medical Review Physicians are available to consult on select cases to ensure the disabled worker receives the appropriate medical care aimed at rehabilitation and return-to-work. The Medical Review Physician is able to provide case evaluation and medical record review so that WCC and the Agency can drive movement in each case depending on the findings and determine the next steps to take.
Our staff has expertise in dealing with a complex return to work issues and can overcome these challenges by working cooperatively with the agency and OWCP. WCC employs a number of Best Practices that include early contact with employees, the provision of modified work positions for short-term injuries and the participation of agency management.
We identify work restrictions that can result in the need for temporary or permanent modification of duty or sometimes a new position A successful return to work is recorded by DOL OWCP when the injured worker returns to the employing Agency within the two-year tracking period.
The FECA program is financed by the Employee Compensation Fund which consists of funds appropriated by Congress. Each Federal Agency is assigned the costs for compensation and medical payments for work-related injuries by a mechanism called “The Chargeback System”. Our review of agency Chargeback Reports results in identification of coding errors and improper compensation and medical cost payments generated by OWCP. WCC is actively involved in the process with DOL to ensure the corrections are made which decreases the cost to the agency.