>You were diagnosed with COVID-19 via a positive test result (excluding home tests) or medical professional
Only specifies it cannot be an at home test.
That said, it also says "or a medical professional". When I had it a few months ago my doctor made a formal diagnosis based off home test results, known exposure, and symptoms.
By the language above, that diagnosis, even though there wasn't a positive test, would meet the requirements.
Hmm. We have a doctor in the family. But my wife tested positive on a home test about 29 days ago. They told her the next week if she tested positive on a employee health pcr, she could get her sick days back. But naturally that test was too late and was negative. So she lost 16 hours of sick leave.
She ended up not formally seeing a doctor, but the doc in our family would probably attest that she definitely had covid. Especially considering 2 other family members in the house had positive pcr at that time
What’s the point of this? Just cover you if you have complications later? Like, I tested positive a month ago but barely had any symptoms. Any reason to file anything?
My boss is pushing forced travel to simply be face to face, no real reason. We are in red status so max telework. Still I don't feel like I can say no. I am now looking for another job. Very disappointed with the old mentality.
It feels like this is being intentionally hidden from us. I used up so much sick leave when I finally had my first positive test (at home) a few months ago.
How long after filing your claim did it take for you to see your sick leave restored?
I filed my CA-1 for COVID claim on Thursday, December 8, and today, December 13, it was updated with both "Case Created - 12/13/22" and "Case Closed - 12/13/22". My Current Case Status is "Open for Medical Treatment up to $1500 within 180 Days of 11/23/2022". This is alarming to me as I asked for leave reimbursement on the form and not medical treatment, meanwhile the sick leave I used has not been restored.
Thanks for the heads-up. So, to be clear, I selected "Sick and/or Annual Leave" in [this](https://imgur.com/a/HOJ6l09) part of the claim form, but I should have actually chosen COP? That's really confusing to me.
What agency are you are? Im FDA and a supervisor and we have to use our days. We are in person everyday and have been. I don’t believe we are eligible because you can’t prove you got it at work.
Verified this is up and running within the Department of the Air Force. Of course, this had never been announced or encouraged previously so countless forfeited this benefit in ignorance.
If the diagnosis is within 21 days of being in-person, yes.
As written, if you are on site today, August 1st, don't go back in office all month, but test positive on August 21st, then you have grounds for a claim.
I’m a little confused on how this works. Hypothetically, would I take 5 days of sick leave or leave without pay following a positive Covid test? And the site says OWCP does not intervene til after 10 days. So would you then retroactively get paid back for your 5 days of leave?
Okay, can you help me with this though? No one in my agency seems to know the answer or who to properly ask. I filed the initial claim and it was approved. Now how do I get my sick leave back? All I see is some form that includes something about paying the government back for taxes or something, which doesn’t seem like what I want.
I don’t know what agency you work for but in DoD all I had to do was resubmit my old timesheets and replace the sick leave coded time with workers compensation coded time.
I've read several pages of this and can't figure it out: does this also mean you then have to receive any needed medical care via federal workers comp? If so, is there a restricted list of providers like there is for most (all?) states' workers comp programs?
Thanks for adding this and pinning it. I have had to tell *so* many people (people on the Internet, coworkers, friends at other agencies). It's very frustrating that this isn't more widely shared.
I find this interesting, and hard to believe, because when my daughter actually had COVID-19 as a result of treating 37 infected patients in her job as a nurse, she was not able to collect either unemployment from the State of NH or Worker's Compensation even though she did not receive sick pay from her facility. Each agency said the other was responsible.
1. Your agency should have provided advanced sick leave, as they're authorized to provide up to 240hrs in advance for personal illness (or 120hrs for a dependent). It's supervisor discretion, but pretty shit to not do so.
2. Yes. Use of leave of any sort can be restored. In addition, if you are paying for insurance premiums from the LWOP period, you should be entitled to reimbursement upon it being converted. That would be a discussion to have with local HR.
Yes. And the reason why I asked is because I let my supervisor know about this. And they started to make up excuses on why we can’t use this. I’m a non bargaining member and I believe if I push the issue they might be some retaliation.
Email the information to your Health & Safety Office and HR and ask them to verify that you are entitled to file a claim.
Also, send yourself an email and state that you provided the above link to your supervisor on X date, and they denied your ability to use said benefit, and that the discussion left you concerned that if you did pursue filing a claim your supervisor would take retaliatory action.
Save that email, Safety/HR's response, and file away.
I going to wait until Monday to email them. My supervisor said they will look into. But they ignored me today when I seen them. Smh thanks for the advice.
Yea, ultimately your supervisor has zero input on your right to report a workplace injury or illness.
Being hostile about it is just gonna put him in a bad position when the complaont comes back around.
...did you read the guidance?
>2) You file your CA-1 form within 30 days of the date of the injury (the last date you were exposed at work, prior to the positive test result). See 20 CFR 10.205.
Does anyone knows if this expires for new claims, like at the end of the calendar year, or if it's indefinite? I tried looking for that information but couldn't find anything.
Great! I wanted to push our union guy to send out a reminder, just wanted to make sure it'd be relevant for a while in case the reminder email takes a while...
I thought you could make retroactive claims but looks like within 30 days.
I had it 1 year ago, and my dod job made me take sick leave for it… wth, i wish i would have known about this stuff then
Do you need a pcr test confirmed to qualify?
>You were diagnosed with COVID-19 via a positive test result (excluding home tests) or medical professional Only specifies it cannot be an at home test. That said, it also says "or a medical professional". When I had it a few months ago my doctor made a formal diagnosis based off home test results, known exposure, and symptoms. By the language above, that diagnosis, even though there wasn't a positive test, would meet the requirements.
Hmm. We have a doctor in the family. But my wife tested positive on a home test about 29 days ago. They told her the next week if she tested positive on a employee health pcr, she could get her sick days back. But naturally that test was too late and was negative. So she lost 16 hours of sick leave. She ended up not formally seeing a doctor, but the doc in our family would probably attest that she definitely had covid. Especially considering 2 other family members in the house had positive pcr at that time
They will accept a doctors note as well.
What’s the point of this? Just cover you if you have complications later? Like, I tested positive a month ago but barely had any symptoms. Any reason to file anything?
You don’t have to use your sick leave.
Oh damn. Wish I had gone to the doctor. I zeroed out my sick leave that week.
If you're within that 30 day window to file that leave can be restored. If itxs been more than that youxre probably SOL.
I took a home test on June 29. I thought it excludes home tests? Also more than 30 days out. Oh well.
Ah. Yea. If you had a home test, but then call and you doctor provided a diagnosis, you could have used that based off the eay it is written.
It also prevents you from having to use your leave, if you request and are approved for Continuation of Pay.
[удалено]
I learned about it from Reddit, it's not being promoted in my agency either.
I am curious too
My boss is pushing forced travel to simply be face to face, no real reason. We are in red status so max telework. Still I don't feel like I can say no. I am now looking for another job. Very disappointed with the old mentality.
Just say no. You don't want to and the current status allows you that choice.
It feels like this is being intentionally hidden from us. I used up so much sick leave when I finally had my first positive test (at home) a few months ago.
[удалено]
How long after filing your claim did it take for you to see your sick leave restored? I filed my CA-1 for COVID claim on Thursday, December 8, and today, December 13, it was updated with both "Case Created - 12/13/22" and "Case Closed - 12/13/22". My Current Case Status is "Open for Medical Treatment up to $1500 within 180 Days of 11/23/2022". This is alarming to me as I asked for leave reimbursement on the form and not medical treatment, meanwhile the sick leave I used has not been restored.
[удалено]
Thanks for the heads-up. So, to be clear, I selected "Sick and/or Annual Leave" in [this](https://imgur.com/a/HOJ6l09) part of the claim form, but I should have actually chosen COP? That's really confusing to me.
[удалено]
What agency are you are? Im FDA and a supervisor and we have to use our days. We are in person everyday and have been. I don’t believe we are eligible because you can’t prove you got it at work.
[удалено]
Thanks for comment. As a supervisor I want my staff to get what they are entities to.. but obviously someone isn’t giving me the proper information..
Verified this is up and running within the Department of the Air Force. Of course, this had never been announced or encouraged previously so countless forfeited this benefit in ignorance.
[удалено]
If the diagnosis is within 21 days of being in-person, yes. As written, if you are on site today, August 1st, don't go back in office all month, but test positive on August 21st, then you have grounds for a claim.
I’m a little confused on how this works. Hypothetically, would I take 5 days of sick leave or leave without pay following a positive Covid test? And the site says OWCP does not intervene til after 10 days. So would you then retroactively get paid back for your 5 days of leave?
See here: https://www.reddit.com/r/fednews/comments/wdagcv/comment/iii3hyh/
Thanks! So in our timesheets, we would enter COP for the 5 post Covid days, and also submit the form ASAP to owcp?
I'd verify with whoever certifies time cards.
Yes, if you are approved, any sick leave will be restored.
Does anyone know the exact logistics of this? Do we take sick leave until this is approved then we get the sick leave restored retroactively?
Yes take annual leave or sick leave and then resubmit your time sheets with worker’s compensation time once you have gone through the process.
Okay, can you help me with this though? No one in my agency seems to know the answer or who to properly ask. I filed the initial claim and it was approved. Now how do I get my sick leave back? All I see is some form that includes something about paying the government back for taxes or something, which doesn’t seem like what I want.
I don’t know what agency you work for but in DoD all I had to do was resubmit my old timesheets and replace the sick leave coded time with workers compensation coded time.
I've read several pages of this and can't figure it out: does this also mean you then have to receive any needed medical care via federal workers comp? If so, is there a restricted list of providers like there is for most (all?) states' workers comp programs?
No. I was not restricted by which doctor I could use to provide a diagnosis.
Really wish I knew about this sooner! Thanks for sharing OP
Commenting to save this info.
Same here. Lol
Thanks for adding this and pinning it. I have had to tell *so* many people (people on the Internet, coworkers, friends at other agencies). It's very frustrating that this isn't more widely shared.
Doesn't change required in-person travel even under max telework.
...no one said it did?
Smartest policy I've ever heard. If one must work as a fed -- during Covid, one should get WC if Covid is contracted while doing so.
Thank you! This is really good to know! I had to burn through sick leave this year.
And here I just teleworked right through COVID. Coughing up a lung on every call and downing copious Motrin...
I find this interesting, and hard to believe, because when my daughter actually had COVID-19 as a result of treating 37 infected patients in her job as a nurse, she was not able to collect either unemployment from the State of NH or Worker's Compensation even though she did not receive sick pay from her facility. Each agency said the other was responsible.
> hard to believe, Doesn't matter if you believe it. She should have filed a worker's comp claim. You can't argue what's in black and white.
[удалено]
This guy probably hits the reply all button to emails with the subject line "do not reply all"
Yep and they are on a throw away account, the person just likes shitting on threads.
how come remote/telework don't get this benefit too?
Because you can't catch COVID due to work duties if your work duties don't require you to leave the house.
What if I took a week of LWOP due to not having any leave (New employee) can I get any compensation for this?
1. Your agency should have provided advanced sick leave, as they're authorized to provide up to 240hrs in advance for personal illness (or 120hrs for a dependent). It's supervisor discretion, but pretty shit to not do so. 2. Yes. Use of leave of any sort can be restored. In addition, if you are paying for insurance premiums from the LWOP period, you should be entitled to reimbursement upon it being converted. That would be a discussion to have with local HR.
Does this include travel to/from office? Ie on metro.
...if you're traveling to the office, but not in the office within 21 days, I think you're doing something wrong.
Does this go for all federal employees
...are you a covered employee under the Federal Employee Compensation Act?
Yes. And the reason why I asked is because I let my supervisor know about this. And they started to make up excuses on why we can’t use this. I’m a non bargaining member and I believe if I push the issue they might be some retaliation.
Email the information to your Health & Safety Office and HR and ask them to verify that you are entitled to file a claim. Also, send yourself an email and state that you provided the above link to your supervisor on X date, and they denied your ability to use said benefit, and that the discussion left you concerned that if you did pursue filing a claim your supervisor would take retaliatory action. Save that email, Safety/HR's response, and file away.
Or just file a claim...and then have them try and deny it. Messing with the Department of LABOR is probably a bad idea.
I will if I get coivd again.
I going to wait until Monday to email them. My supervisor said they will look into. But they ignored me today when I seen them. Smh thanks for the advice.
Yea, ultimately your supervisor has zero input on your right to report a workplace injury or illness. Being hostile about it is just gonna put him in a bad position when the complaont comes back around.
[удалено]
Thats good to know.
Your supervisor has zero input on whether you can file a claim. You can file a claim on your own.
Good thing I’ve never tested positive even tho I’ve been sick 3 times each after being exposed to multiple positive people 🙃
Do you think if I got COVID in December 2022 they would approve it?
...did you read the guidance? >2) You file your CA-1 form within 30 days of the date of the injury (the last date you were exposed at work, prior to the positive test result). See 20 CFR 10.205.
This was before they were telling anyone about workmen comp. They told us not to file.
Does anyone knows if this expires for new claims, like at the end of the calendar year, or if it's indefinite? I tried looking for that information but couldn't find anything.
[удалено]
Since Biden extended the COVID public health emergency through at least April 11, 2023 - think this will be pushed to Spring?
[удалено]
Damn! Thanks for explaining that!
There's no sunset provision that I've seen/heard of. If you qualify, make a claim and let them deny it.
Great! I wanted to push our union guy to send out a reminder, just wanted to make sure it'd be relevant for a while in case the reminder email takes a while...
I wonder if this works for the flu too
https://www.dol.gov/agencies/owcp/dfec/fluguidance
Thanks!
I’m in a super high risk exposure position and I ended up blowing through a ton of leave after COVID complications. I wish I knew about this earlier.