Office of Workers' Compensation Programs (OWCP)

Division of Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation (DEEOIC)

On This Page Coordination With Part E Award Settlement of Claim

State Workers' Compensation Benefits

Below are the head notes for the final FAB decisions relating to the topic heading, State Workers’ Compensation Benefits. The head notes are grouped under the following subheadings: Coordination with Part E award, and Settlement of claim. In order to view a particular decision in its entirety, click on the hyperlink for that decision at the end of the head note.

Coordination With Part E Award

• Under Chapter E-1000.4 (September 2005) of the Federal (EEOICPA) Procedure Manual, no coordination of benefits payable under Part E to the surviving spouse is required to account for state workers’ compensation benefits previously received by the employee for the same covered illness but not by the surviving spouse. EEOICPA Fin. Dec. No. 53489-2006 (Dep’t of Labor, December 14, 2005).
• Part E survivor benefits must be coordinated with the amount of any state workers’ compensation benefits that the survivor received for the same covered illness or illnesses of the deceased employee. Generally, Part E survivor benefits need not be coordinated if the only recipient of the state workers’ compensation benefits was the deceased employee. EEOICPA Fin. Dec. No. 70540-2005 (Dep’t of Labor, October 26, 2005).
• Where employee had filed a Part E claim but died before payment could be issued for his lung cancer, Part E medical benefits awarded to the survivor needed to be coordinated with the amount of the state workers’ compensation benefits that the employee had received for the same covered illness since the Part E medical benefits were based on the employee’s entitlement to Part E benefits. EEOICPA Fin. Dec. No. 70540-2005 (Dep’t of Labor, October 26, 2005).
• State workers’ compensation benefits in the form of medical benefits are not coordinated with an award to a claimant under Part E. EEOICPA Fin. Dec. No. 10000947-2006 (Dep’t of Labor, June 2, 2006).
• When an employee’s spouse receives state workers’ compensation benefits due to the employee’s death and the spouse subsequently dies, Part E benefits payable to the employee’s child are not coordinated with the amount of state workers’ compensation benefits received by the spouse. EEOICPA Fin. Dec. No. 10002848-2005 (Dep’t of Labor, July 27, 2005).

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Settlement of Claim

• On March 10, 2006, a judge issued an order approving a settlement of a state workers’ compensation claim that the employee filed for asbestos-related lung disease, the same covered illness that DEEOIC approved in his Part E claim. Although the order contained language implying that the settlement was also for a “non-malignant respiratory injury,” the medical evidence of file only established that the claimant had been diagnosed with asbestos-related lung disease. Thus, the amount of the settlement of his state workers’ compensation claim was coordinated with the Part E award because the claimant did not receive state workers’ compensation for an actual non-covered illness in addition to a covered illness. EEOICPA Fin. Dec. No. 10013372-2006 (Dep’t of Labor, May 9, 2007).