Federal Workers Compensation: Filing, FECA Benefits, and Appeals

Federal workers’ compensation, provided under the Federal Employees’ Compensation Act (FECA), pays civilian government employees who are injured or become ill because of their jobs. It covers all reasonable medical treatment with no copays or deductibles and replaces up to 75% of lost wages, and it applies uniformly across every federal agency. The Department of Labor’s Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs (OWCP) runs the program, and filing through it replaces any right to sue the government for a workplace injury.

Who Is Covered

FECA covers civilian officers and employees in every branch of the federal government, including agencies and entities wholly owned by the United States.¹ Postal Service workers are among the largest groups of claimants.

The core requirement is that the injury or illness happened while you were performing your job duties. That reaches work on federal premises, official travel, and any task your agency authorized. A personal errand during the workday that has nothing to do with your job falls outside coverage.

Some at-work injuries are still disqualified. FECA excludes injuries caused by the employee’s willful misconduct, an intent to injure yourself or someone else, or intoxication that proximately caused the injury.² The burden of proving one of those exclusions falls on OWCP, not on you.³

The Two Deadlines That Matter

FECA runs on two separate clocks, and each one costs you something different.

The first is a 30-day rule for Continuation of Pay. If you had a traumatic injury and want your regular paycheck to continue while OWCP reviews your claim, you need to file Form CA-1 within 30 days of the injury. Miss that window and you lose COP entirely, though you can still pursue other benefits.⁴

The second is the overall statute of limitations: three years from the date of injury or death. If you don’t file within three years, your claim is barred unless your supervisor had actual knowledge of the injury within 30 days, or you gave written notice within 30 days. For occupational diseases that develop gradually, the three-year clock doesn’t start running until you become aware, or reasonably should have become aware, that your condition is connected to your work. The statute also pauses for minors under 21 who lack a legal representative and for individuals who are mentally incompetent.⁵

How to File a Claim

Which form you file depends on how your condition developed. A traumatic injury is one caused by a specific event during a single work shift; it goes on Form CA-1.⁶ An occupational disease develops over more than one work shift and goes on Form CA-2. If a previously accepted condition flares up or you need treatment after being released, you file Form CA-2a to report the recurrence.⁷ All three forms are filed electronically through ECOMP, the Department of Labor’s free web-based portal for FECA claims.

Once you submit your section, the system notifies your supervisor, who logs in and completes the employer section by confirming your employment status and describing the injury circumstances. When the supervisor submits the finalized package, OWCP assigns a claim number that tracks all medical bills and correspondence.

Medical Evidence

Claims succeed or fail on the medical file. A doctor’s note saying “the injury happened at work” is not enough. OWCP wants a rationalized medical opinion: a written report from your physician explaining the biological mechanism connecting the workplace event to your specific diagnosis. The doctor needs to bridge the gap using clinical reasoning, not just your description of events.

Objective findings strengthen the claim. Imaging studies, lab results, and clinical measurements give OWCP something concrete to weigh. Your physician should also document specific physical limitations and work restrictions, since those directly affect what benefits you receive.

Choosing Your Doctor

You have the legal right to choose your own treating physician. Your agency may have contract doctors available, but that does not override your choice, and your agency cannot delay your treatment to run its own medical examination first.⁸

For traumatic injuries, your supervisor should issue Form CA-16 to authorize medical treatment, ideally within four hours of your request. The CA-16 guarantees payment to the treating physician and any referred specialists for 60 days from the date of injury. A supervisor who doubts the injury is work-related can note that doubt on the form, and if more than a week has passed since the injury, the supervisor may decline to issue CA-16 at all, on the theory that genuinely urgent treatment needs would have surfaced sooner.⁹

Continuation of Pay

Continuation of Pay bridges the early weeks after a traumatic injury. If you file Form CA-1 within 30 days and become unable to work, your agency continues paying your regular salary for up to 45 calendar days.⁴ COP is not charged against your sick or annual leave. The purpose is to keep your income going while OWCP decides whether you qualify for ongoing wage-loss compensation.

COP applies only to traumatic injuries. Occupational diseases filed on Form CA-2 do not qualify, so employees with gradual-onset conditions may face a waiting period before compensation payments begin.

What FECA Pays After Approval

Once OWCP accepts your claim, several categories of benefits open up depending on the severity of your condition.

Medical Benefits

FECA covers all medical services, medications, hospitalization, and related treatment prescribed by a qualified physician for your accepted condition. There are no deductibles, no copays, no monetary caps, and no time limit on treatment as long as the need is substantiated and related to the work injury.¹⁰

Wage-Loss Compensation

If your injury keeps you from working after COP expires, or from the outset for occupational diseases, FECA pays wage-loss compensation at two-thirds of your regular pay if you have no dependents, or three-quarters if you have one or more dependents.¹⁰ These payments are generally exempt from federal income tax, which narrows the practical gap between compensation and your former take-home pay more than the percentages suggest.

Compensation is capped. The current maximum is $2,346.23 per week ($10,167 per month), which corresponds to 75% of the GS-15, Step 10 pay rate.¹¹ High earners whose 75% rate would exceed that ceiling receive the capped amount instead.

Schedule Awards for Permanent Impairment

If you have permanent loss or permanent loss of use of a body part, FECA pays a schedule award based on a fixed number of weeks assigned to that member. Schedule awards are paid at the same compensation rate as wage-loss (66 2/3% or 75% of pay) and run independently of wage-loss benefits. Key entries on the schedule:¹²

Arm: 312 weeks
Leg: 288 weeks
Hand: 244 weeks
Foot: 205 weeks
Eye: 160 weeks
Complete hearing loss (both ears): 200 weeks; one ear: 52 weeks
Thumb: 75 weeks

Partial loss of use earns a proportionate fraction of the full award.

Death Benefits for Survivors

When a federal employee dies from a work-related injury or disease, FECA pays monthly compensation to surviving dependents as a percentage of the deceased employee’s pay:¹³

Surviving spouse, no children: 50% of monthly pay
Surviving spouse with children: 45% plus 15% per child, combined maximum 75%
Children with no surviving spouse: 40% for one child plus 15% for each additional child, up to 75%, divided equally
Dependent parents, no spouse or children: 25% if one parent was fully dependent, or 20% each if both were

Payments to a surviving spouse continue until death or remarriage before age 55. Payments for children end at age 18 unless the child is a full-time student, in which case benefits continue through enrollment.¹³

Return to Work

If you are permanently disabled but capable of some employment, the Secretary of Labor can direct you into vocational rehabilitation, including counseling, retraining, and placement assistance, at government expense. While you are in the program, you continue receiving your regular compensation rate, minus any earnings from employment obtained through it.¹⁴

The return-to-work obligation has teeth. If you are partially disabled and refuse to seek suitable work, or refuse or neglect to perform suitable work that has been offered or arranged, OWCP will terminate your wage-loss compensation and your entitlement to schedule awards on all claims where the injury occurred before the termination decision. Medical benefits continue, but income replacement stops.¹⁵ OWCP must send two written notices before terminating benefits, giving you a chance to accept the position or explain why the work is not suitable.

FECA or Federal Retirement, Not Both

Federal employees often don’t realize until it’s too late that FECA wage-loss compensation and a federal retirement annuity cannot be collected simultaneously for the same injury. The statute forces you to elect one, and the election is generally irrevocable.¹⁶ You have one year from the date of injury to decide, though the Secretary of Labor can extend that deadline for good cause.

FECA is usually the better deal because the rate is higher and the payments are tax-free. But FECA can be terminated if your condition improves or you refuse suitable work. If that happens and you never applied for OPM disability retirement, you can end up with no income and no health insurance. Many injured employees apply for OPM disability retirement within one year of separating from federal service as a fallback, even while receiving FECA benefits, so there is something to fall back on if FECA stops.

Third-Party Recoveries

If your workplace injury was caused by someone other than the federal government, FECA requires you to pursue a claim against that third party.¹⁷ This comes up with car accidents during official travel, injuries caused by defective equipment from a private manufacturer, or assaults by non-government individuals on the job.

If you recover from the third party through settlement or lawsuit, you must refund the government for FECA benefits already paid. You deduct your litigation costs and attorney fees first, then reimburse the United States, and any surplus is credited against future FECA payments. The law guarantees you keep at least one-fifth of the net recovery plus a proportionate share of attorney fees.¹⁸ No court, insurer, or attorney may distribute settlement proceeds to you without first satisfying the government’s interest.

If Your Claim Is Denied

A denied claim is not the end. You have three review options, and picking the right one matters.

You can request a hearing before the Branch of Hearings and Review within 30 days of the OWCP decision, filed by mail or through ECOMP.¹⁹ A hearing lets you present testimony and new evidence to an OWCP representative. This is generally the strongest first move if you have additional evidence to submit.

You can ask OWCP to reconsider its own decision. There is no cap on the number of reconsideration requests, and you can submit new evidence each time.¹⁹ Reconsideration works best when you have a new medical opinion or document that directly addresses the reason for denial.

You can appeal to the Employees’ Compensation Appeals Board (ECAB), an independent body within the Department of Labor separate from OWCP. ECAB appeals must be filed within 180 days of OWCP’s final decision. The catch: ECAB reviews only the evidence already in the record at the time of OWCP’s decision. New evidence is not allowed. ECAB decisions are final, subject only to a petition for reconsideration filed within 30 days of the Board’s decision.²⁰

Fraud

Filing a false or exaggerated FECA claim is a federal crime. Anyone who knowingly makes a false statement or conceals a material fact to obtain or keep FECA benefits faces up to five years in prison and a fine. If the total amount fraudulently obtained is $1,000 or less, the maximum drops to one year.²¹ A fraud conviction also terminates all current and future FECA benefits.⁷

1
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 5 USC 8101 – Definitions
2
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 5 USC 8102 – Compensation for Disability or Death of Employee
3
U.S. Department of Labor. Basic Elements of a Claim
4
U.S. Department of Labor. Federal Employees Notice of Traumatic Injury and Claim for Continuation of Pay/Compensation
5
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 5 USC 8122 – Time for Making Claim
6
U.S. Department of Labor. Filing for a Traumatic Injury
7
U.S. Department of Labor. Notice of Recurrence
8
U.S. Department of Labor. a href=”https://www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/owcp/dfec/icstraining/initialauthorizationofmedicalcare/initialauthorizationofmedicalcare.pdf” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>Initial Authorization of Medical Care
9
U.S. Department of Labor. Initial Authorization of Medical Care
10
Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs. Benefits Available
11
U.S. Department of Labor. Active FECA Bulletins
12
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 5 USC 8107 – Compensation Schedule
13
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 5 USC 8133 – Compensation in Case of Death
14
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 5 USC 8104 – Vocational Rehabilitation
15
eCFR. 20 CFR 10.517 – Penalties for Refusing to Accept Suitable Work
16
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 5 USC 8116 – Limitations on Right to Receive Compensation
17
U.S. Department of Labor. Responsibility for FECA Third-Party Cases
18
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 5 USC 8132 – Adjustment After Recovery From a Third Person
19
U.S. Department of Labor. Review Process
20
U.S. Department of Labor. ECAB – Processing an Appeal
21
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 1920 – False Statement or Fraud to Obtain Federal Employees Compensation