Last Updated on September 30, 2022
Often, in preparing, formulating and filing a Federal Disability Retirement application under either the CSRS or FERS retirement system, one must selectively choose, based upon the medical reports received from one’s requested health care providers, the chronic health conditions upon which one’s OPM Disability Retirement application will be based.
Sometimes, there is confusion as to which medical conditions should be listed, how it should be “prioritized” (how can one prioritize multiple medical conditions when any or all of them may have debilitating symptomatologies?) and whether some should be relegated to mere peripheral, ancillary discussion, as opposed to retaining a centrality of focus and prominence.
For example, “Secondary Depression” is a term which often will accompany chronic and debilitating pain. It may, over time, become a primary source of debilitating disability, but the reason why it is initially, and for some time thereafter, characterized as “secondary” is precisely because it is contingent upon the existence of the primary medical condition — that which results in the chronic and debilitating pain. As such, if the secondary depression is listed as the primary basis for a Federal or Postal Disability Retirement application, but sometime later the originating medical condition which is the foundational cause of the depression gets better, then there is the potential ramifications that the secondary medical condition (“secondary depression”) will resolve itself.
Such considerations can be important in determining which medical conditions to list, inasmuch as in a future time, if one is found to be disabled by the U. S. Office of Personnel Management for a secondary condition or disability and is asked in a future Medical Questionnaire to have one’s doctor determine the disability status at a later time, it may become an important issue.
Linking potential future problems to thoughtful preparation in the present time is important in preparing, formulating and filing a Federal Disability Retirement application under CSRS or FERS.
Sincerely,
Robert R. McGill, Esquire