Federal Workers' Compensation

Has anyone here ever had any experience in regards to a Workman’s Comp Case/Scheduled Award? I was injured in Feb. and have been out for 6 weeks or so. My case has already been accepted. I just had an MRI a week ago and it was determined that I have 2 torn ligaments and a torn tendon. I am seeing a Orthopedic Dr tomorrow that my case manager located. He is close by and accepts Dept of Labor cases and got good reviews as a Dr. as well. I won’t know if surgery on the horizon until tomorrow. Should I get a second opinion? Lastly, has anyone received a scheduled award for this type of injury and at what % impairment were you considered. Just curious as to what I am looking at. I have spoken to an attorney that will take 20% if I hire him. I just want to be able to do my normal activities I used to, and I’m afraid that’s not in my future. I have a 13 yr old son whom is an athlete that I spend a lot of time with preparing him for his games. All input is appreciated. Thank you!

I don't have any info re the lawyer/comp situation. Just wanted to say, I had the same type of injury, off the job (fell off the fireplace hearth while hanging a picture). It was the worst pain ever, just excruciating. It took a year, but I recovered fully. I was on crutches for 2 weeks. Out of work during that time (not allowed in the area I needed to work in with crutches). I had that walking cast for another month or so, then ankle wrapped until I felt like it was strong enough to go without. It was a very long recovery, but ankle is fine now. Best of luck to you.

Edited by user Friday, March 22, 2019 1:15:55 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

To the original poster.

1. Has anyone ever received a scheduled award for an ankle injury? Yes.The ankle is part of the leg and the leg is a scheduled award member/body part under the law.

2. Will you receive a scheduled award for yours? Possibly, but you have to be at maximum medical improvement (MMI) for an award to even be under consideration and it looks like you are a long way from MMI.

3, My advice for now is to not put the cart before the horse. Concentrate on what you need to do now to get the best possible recovery and do accept that it may be a long hard process. Once you learn that there is not much else that can be done and you still have residuals, then file fr that scheduled award at that point.

4. Finally, scheduled awards are based upon the "impairment" that remains. You are not going to get any money because you may not be able to participate in your son's athletic activities. It does not work that way. OWCP using the AMA Guides to Permanent Impairments to evaluate the percentage of impairment that exists. It will be based upon stuff such as range of motion. muscle atrophy, if any and stuff like that.

To the poster who asked about annual leave. In the Post Office, the USPS often advances leave at the beginning of the leave year based upon the assumption that you will be working the entire year. Elsewhere in the Federal government, leave is genarally not credited to your account until you have earned it thru your service. In other words, depending upon your leave category, you accrue a certain number of leave hours every pay period.

Being on LWOP affects annual leave both ways. If you are Postal, you probably will see your advanced annual leave balance diluted for every biweekly pay period you are in a full LWOP status because the leave advance was based upon the assumption that you would be working and you are not. . If you are working part-time and LWOP part-time, your balance probably will not dilute as much, but there will be some effect on that advanced leave balance number. The thing to remember is the leave was "advanced" to you, even though you had not really earned it at the time of the advance. However, any annual leave that you carried over from the previous leave year would still be there.

If you are non-Postal, you will not accrue any annual leave for any pay period in which your total LWOP equals 80 hours. If you are working part-time, then you leave accrual is going to be prorated accordingly. However, whatever annual leave was there at the time you stopped working will still be there when you return to work or will be paid to you, if you have to leave Federal service (for any reason, including the work injury.

I hope this info helps.

Edited by user Monday, May 20, 2019 1:05:35 PM(UTC)  | Reason: clarity

The standard for an MMI rating that leads to that scheduled award is one year of exhausting therapy and other treatments to get you back 100%. Broken bones heal and sometimes come back stronger as they weld themselves up. During that year you would have to show that it has limited your work and personal lifestyle by limiting everything you do, good bye OT, many sports activities, etc.. as you are open to being surveiled 24/7, 365 both at work and at home while on OWCP. Make sure your doctor makes clear that you have one set of restrictions for 8 hours work and another set for personal life that will help you avoid atrophy. That being said, you DONT want to be filmed doing things that you will later state you are unable to do for a scheduled award. Many here have learned that one the hard way.

If you are having another surgery, that “resets the game clock” on MMI, and the schedule award can not be done for a year. You can not be rated for impairment until you reach MMI. Returning to work, or retiring is optimal for doing the schedule award, as you can not receive it at the same time as you are collecting weekly wage loss from OWCP. If you are fast approaching a year on LWOP from the USPS I would talk to your union workers comp rep at either the state or national level to discuss what is happening lately with injured employees, and 365 lwop. Some offices are cutting workers loose and separating, and some haven’t and are doing reasonable accommodation. There is no consistency from one district to another. Good luck.