EEIOICPA Procedure Manual Changes – Part 2 Industrial Hygienists Exposures

The Department of Labor’s Division of Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation (DEEOIC) revised its Procedure Manual on November 21, 2019.  Cold War Patriots has reviewed the changes and will provide a summary and how they may affect your claim. This is Part 2 of a 5 part series explaining the policy changes and addresses the ability for industrial hygienists to speak directly to claimants.

The new Procedure Manual incorporates a recommendation by the Advisory Board on Toxic Substances and Worker Health in Chapter 15.11d that DOL staff or consulting Industrial Hygienists (IH) be able to interview claimants directly. This new procedure is:

1. Claims Examiner (CE) frames question in complex case.
2. The IH determines if clarification from worker is necessary regarding circumstances of work that brought worker into contact with specific toxic substance, including occupational roles and responsibilities, proximity to work processes or specific materials, frequency of occurrences, knowledge of work with specific materials, or clarification of information.
3. The IH will email IH Team Lead with need for clarification and request phone call with claimant, with claim file #, explanation of specific information needed and justification for request.
4. The IH Team Lead will coordinate with CE to set up call with claimant and staff IH to provide the requested information.
5. After call, CE will prepare Memo to File describing outcome of additional information, including detailed narrative of conversation with worker.
6. CE will forward the memo to requesting IH for consideration in IH report being written.

This is a really good idea and will be helpful to claimants because the worker will be able to explain the work process which would have exposed him or her to a toxic substance.

If you have any questions or concerns about this policy change our Help Center is here for you, 888-903-8989.