How to File a CA-2 Claim for an Occupational Disease
Many federal workers suffer from chronic aches, pains, or permanent damage accumulated over their career. Federal law provides compensation for these types of conditions, referred to as Occupational Diseases. To properly file a claim using Form CA-2, it is critical to follow these three steps:
Step 1: Writing Your Work Narrative (The Foundation)
Your narrative is vital for helping the doctor establish the required causal link. It should be a short, one-page description of an average workday.
- Focus: Explain the physical nature of your work, including physical acts like standing, walking, lifting, reaching, carrying, pushing, and pulling.
- Be Specific: For example, for a shoulder injury, detail the amount of overhead reaching, pulling, and lifting you perform daily.
- Use Conservative Estimates: When describing volumes, weights, distances, repetitions, or time, use cautious terms like “Approximately” or “About.”
- Goal: Provide the doctor with an accurate picture of the work factors appropriate for your diagnosed condition.
Step 2: Obtaining the Doctor’s Narrative (Causal Relationship)
Establishing a Causal Relationship is a medical issue, and requires a rationalized medical opinion from your doctor.
- Rationalized Medical Opinion: This is the medical evidence required by OWCP that explicitly links your diagnosed condition to specific work factors.
- Doctor’s Requirements: The opinion must be:
- Based on a complete factual and medical background of the injured worker.
- Stated with reasonable medical certainty.
- Supported by medical rationale explaining the physiological mechanism by which specific work factors (e.g., standing, carrying) caused the condition.
- Objective Evidence: The diagnosed conditions must be based on objective medical evidence, such as X-rays, MRIs, and tests, and include the proper ICD codes.
- CA-2 Form Awareness: Once you have the medical narrative:
- Request Form CA-2 from your supervisor.
- Question 11 (Date first aware of disease) is usually the date you first sought treatment.
- Question 12 (Date first realized work caused disease) is the date you first understood the employment link.
Step 3: Submitting the CA-2 and Follow-up
Timely submission and organization are key to a faster decision.
- Submission: Complete your portion of the CA-2, make a copy for your records, and hand the original, along with your detailed work narrative, to your supervisor.
- Receipt: Always obtain the signed receipt portion of the CA-2 from your supervisor.
- Agency Requirement: Your employing agency is required to send your CA-2 to the Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs (OWCP) within 10 days of receiving it from you.
- Case Number: Once OWCP receives the CA-2, they will assign a claim number and send you a letter. Use this OWCP Case File Number on all future documents.
- Decision Time: OWCP typically takes 90 days to make a decision on an occupational disease claim. This timeline can be shortened by swiftly and accurately responding to all correspondence.
OWCP Services
OWCP Eligibility
Traumatic Injury and
the CA-1 Form
(FECA Claims)
How to File a CA-2
Claim for an
Occupational Disease
Forms CA-1, CA-2, CA-7,
CA-7A, CA-10, CA-17,
OWCP-957