Federal Workers' Compensation & OWCP Care in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida

OWCP is the Office of Workers' Compensation Programs, an agency within the U.S. Department of Labor. Its Division of Federal Employees' Compensation (DFEC) administers the Federal Employees' Compensation Act, which provides medical care and wage-loss benefits to civilian federal employees who are injured or become ill because of their job.

Effectively, yes. "Federal workers' compensation" is the benefit; FECA is the law that creates it; OWCP is the Department of Labor office that administers it. Federal employees use the terms interchangeably, and a claim is often referred to as an "OWCP claim," a "DOL claim," or a "FECA claim."

Yes. Under 5 U.S.C. § 8103 you may initially select your own treating physician. Your agency can send you for an initial exam or request a second opinion, but it cannot force you to keep its physician as your treating provider. If you want to change treating physicians after you've begun care, you submit a written request to your OWCP claims examiner explaining why.

For total disability, OWCP pays 66⅔% of your pay rate if you have no eligible dependents, or 75% if you have at least one eligible dependent. For partial disability, compensation is 66⅔% of the difference between your pre-injury pay and your current wage-earning capacity. Before OWCP compensation starts on a traumatic injury, your agency may pay up to 45 days of Continuation of Pay.

COP is up to 45 calendar days of your regular pay, paid by your employing agency rather than OWCP, after a traumatic injury. You must file a CA-1 within 30 days of the injury to be eligible, and it does not draw down your sick or annual leave. COP does not apply to occupational disease (CA-2) claims.

Nothing on an accepted claim. Authorized medical care for the accepted condition is billed directly to the U.S. Department of Labor under your case number. There is no copay, no deductible, no coinsurance, and no balance billing to you.

Generally, a FECA claim must be filed within three years of the date of injury — or, for an occupational disease, within three years of the date you became aware of the condition and its relationship to your federal employment. The deadline can be satisfied earlier if your employer had actual knowledge of the injury within 30 days or written notice was given within 30 days. If you're near or past a deadline, call us — the rules have more nuance than the headline number suggests.

Yes. A CA-16 issued by your employing agency guarantees payment for initial examination and treatment — typically for up to 60 days — even before OWCP formally accepts the claim. We start care under that authorization so your condition doesn't deteriorate during adjudication.

You have three post-decision options under FECA: request an oral hearing or a review of the written record before the Branch of Hearings and Review (within 30 days of the decision), request reconsideration by the district office with new evidence or argument (within one year), or appeal to the Employees' Compensation Appeals Board. Most denials are evidentiary rather than final — commonly a missing rationalized medical opinion on causal relationship. Bring us the denial letter and we'll identify the gap at no cost.

Often, yes — that's exactly what a CA-2 occupational disease claim is for. Cumulative conditions like a letter carrier's shoulder, a nurse's low back, or a correctional officer's knees are frequently compensable when the medical evidence links the condition to identified work factors. The filing clock generally runs from when you became aware of both the condition and its work relationship.

No. Civilian federal employees are covered exclusively under FECA through the U.S. Department of Labor. Florida's state workers' compensation system does not apply to federal employment injuries, and a doctor who takes Florida state comp is not automatically set up to treat and bill an OWCP claim.

Yes. Our case management team prepares the medical documentation and coordinates CA-1, CA-2, CA-7, CA-7a, CA-16, CA-17, CA-20, and OWCP-5c filings, tracks OWCP development-letter deadlines, and communicates with your agency's injury compensation specialist. You should not be assembling a federal claim file on your own while you're hurt.

Better Life Physical Therapy & Wellness | Federal Injury Center is at 3944 Florida Blvd #103, Palm Beach Gardens, FL 33410. We're open Monday through Friday 7:00 AM to 7:00 PM and Saturday 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM, closed Sunday. Call (561) 782-5868. Early and late appointments are available specifically so federal employees on shift work can be seen.

Most federal employees do not need an attorney to file or win an initial FECA claim — claims are decided on medical evidence, not adversarial argument, and OWCP does not use a defense-attorney model the way state systems often do. What claims almost always turn on is the quality of the medical documentation. We are a medical provider and case management team, not a law firm, and we do not provide legal advice; if your situation involves an EEO matter, an MSPB appeal, or a third-party liability claim, an attorney is appropriate.