Yesterday, we heard of a federal employee who was threatened with his job after he went outside of the hospital he worked for to find a doctor who could help him with his OWCP federal workers comp injury. He was threatened that he would be fired. He was also threatened to be reassigned to a job he had never done before. All of this was because he decided to find his own OWCP doctor after he was hurt at work.
First, let’s go ahead and get this out of the way: SUPERVISORS CAN NOT FIRE YOU FOR FILING AN OWCP WORK INJURY AND CHOOSING YOUR OWN DOCTOR. All federal employees have the right to choose their own doctor for an OWCP federal workers comp injury. This is federal law. Federal workers are protected against these threats. In fact, the actual wording of the law is this: “An employee is entitled to initial selection of physician for treatment of an injury.” It goes on to say, “Agency personnel may not interfere with the employee’s right to choose a physician, nor may they require an employee who claims an injury to go to a physician who is employed by or under contract to the agency before going to the physician of the employee’s choice.”
In other words, you can choose your own doctor and your supervisor, HR representative, safety officer, etc can not interfere with this or require you to go to the company doctor. So, please don’t feel scared to file a federal workers comp injury claim and don’t worry about being fired if you go to a doctor that your supervisor doesn’t want you to go to. Initial choice of physician is so critical because most doctors don’t understand OWCP. Great doctors that write bad reports and who don’t know how to handle an OWCP claim will get your case denied and you will lose all of your work injury benefits. Protect yourself and choose a doctor who is an OWCP-trained expert.
Federal Injury Centers has Texas offices in Denton, McKinney, Frisco, and Dallas, and it has Massachusetts offices in the Boston area in Quincy and Worcester. We’re committed to helping federal employees get better and receive all of their federal workers comp benefits in the process.