Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program (EEOICP)
EEOICP Performance Results
Government Performance and Results Act of 1993 (GPRA)
The Department of Labor’s (DOL) Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program (EEOICP) has exceeded its Fiscal Year (FY) 2010 performance goals under the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA). This achievement further maintains DOL’s strong record of meeting its key GPRA goals and commitment to assisting those individuals who have filed claims under the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act (EEOICPA).
Reflecting its status as a “start-up” program, the EEOICP’s early GPRA performance goals focused on improving claims processing efficiency and delivering timely EEOICPA decisions and benefits. For example, the goal in FY 2002, the program’s first full year, was to complete initial processing on 75% of claims filed by Department of Energy (DOE) employees or DOE contractor employees within 120 days, and to complete initial processing on 75% of claims filed by employees of Atomic Weapons Employers and beryllium vendors within 180 days. In FY 2005, the first year Part E benefits were available under the EEOICPA; the goal was to make at least 1,200 payments under that emerging program. EEOICP successfully met, and exceeded that goal, completing 1,535 payments totaling over $194.3 million, to ailing DOE contractor and subcontractor employees and their families. DOL’s implementation of Part E also involved the management of the 25,000+ aged cases transferred to DOL from DOE’s Part D program. DOL met the goal of making an initial determination on all 25,000+ cases by the end of FY 2007 thus eliminating the case backlog.
In FY 2007, EEOICP began to measure average days for completion of initial processing because this measure is a better indicator of overall effectiveness in delivering initial services to claimants. Use of an average days measure also facilitates setting specific targets for year to year improvement, and documents the amount of improvement over time (as indicated in the table below). During FY 2010, GPRA goals were established to process initial claims within 120 days under Part B and 160 days under Part E. Both goals were greatly exceeded with initial Part B claims being processed on average within 97 days and initial Part E claims being processed on average within 125 days.
Timely processing also extends to all final decisions issued by EEOICP’s Final Adjudication Branch (FAB). The FY 2010 GPRA timeliness standard, for both Part B and E claims, was to complete final decisions within 180 days where there was a hearing and within 75 days where there was no hearing. EEOICP’s FAB once again met its FY timeliness standard as it has every year since the program’s first full year.
