Permanently Losing Your Medical and What Happens Next

TheGirlinPurple

Well-Known Member
Hey everyone, as many of you are aware I lost my medical clearance in May of 2014 and was permanently disqualified in April 2015. In July of this year I was approved for SSDI and last Thursday my Disability Retirement was approved by OPM.

I wanted to take the time to write about my experience and give some advice.

I would like to start with two key things:

1. Your health should always be your #1 priority. Not seeking medical attention in an attempt to save your ATC career is a serious mistake. Stay healthy and get whatever treatment you need. The job is not worth your health.

2. If you are a NATCA member (and if you are not in management, I strongly encourage you to join NATCA) please sign up for their Long Term Disability (LTD) Insurance as soon as you can. If your a new controller, you can sign up now. If you have been around for a while, I believe you have to wait for the open enrollment. After you sign up there is a waiting period for being able to get benefits(I believe two years), so enrolling as soon as possible is a necessity.

This plan covers you no matter what if you lose your medical and experience a 20% loss in pay. It saved my hide big time.In August 2014 I was able to stop working and completely concentrate on my health issues thanks to this. I have absolutely no idea what I would have done without it.



Ok, with all that said here is my story:

I have had some health issues for quite a while. In April 2014, I could no longer work through them and had to get treatment. This caused me to lose my medical. I used up all my remaining sick leave and annual leave very quickly then was quickly using up advanced sick leave and advanced annual leave. I actually wish I had used advanced leave more liberally because come to find out, if you do wind up leaving service for health reasons, you do NOT have to pay it back.

I was on annual and sick leave for all of May 2014. In June 2014, I came back to work to do Admin duty and started applying for benefits with Unum (NATCA's LTD carrier). If you are on paid leave or do admin duty, you do not have the 20% income loss you need to qualify for a claim, so I also started taking one day a week of LWOP, 1 day of advanced sick leave, and worked 3 days of admin duty a week (which I was barely able to do anyway because of my health).

In July of 2014 my Unum claim was approved and I started LWOP in August 2014. My first Unum check came in September 2014 and my last check came in Aug 2015. While Unum benefits can last up to 5 years, my medical condition was only covered for one year.

All this time I was planning to get my medical back and get back to work. I was getting better, but wound up needing surgery for another medical condition so I got that in Oct 2014. Everything started to look really good after that, but sadly I took another turn for the worse in Nov 2014. By December 2014, I started having the first of many hospitalizations for my original issue.

Now I want to stress to you that if your having major health issues and your medical is pulled, you DO NOT have to update the flight surgeon about every little detail. He/she will ask for periodic updates, but if your energy level/health can't handle it, don't worry about contacting them. All they really need to know is: "are you getting any better and want to come back?" Tell them if you are getting better and want to come back, but otherwise they don't need to know anything until you are at the point where you feel you are healthy to come back or have decided coming back just isn't going to happen. Check in with your sup or ATM every once in a while and they will tell you if the flight surgeon needs to talk to you. SAVE YOUR HEALTH and concentrate on getting healthy, don't worry about flight surgeon one bit......

My health deteriorated very badly in January of 2015 with several life threatening periods in Jan and Feb and I made the mistake of holding off some treatments. I did this because I thought I had to inform the flight surgeon immediately and couldn't handle both the treatment and the fall out of informing the flight surgeon. Luckily I had enough support people in my life who convinced me to do treatment and deal with the flight surgeon later.

So I fought through treatment and in April started getting to the point I could talk to the flight surgeon. By this time, I already knew and had come to terms that my career was over. I applied for SSDI at the same time I spoke to the flight surgeon and started prepping for retirement. I was permanently disqualified in April 2015 and I received the paperwork for it in May. My health took a downturn again in May so I was delayed doing anything more until June.

I submitted my Disability retirement in June 2015.

So here comes the part I'm sure would be be on many of your minds: What happened next?

Well I will tell you........it wasn't simple and easy, but it was manageable. The stress of all this though led to hospitalizations for most of June. When I got out of the hospital I was able to refocus and get everything together.

After I applied for disability retirement, further steps had to be taken. The region had me submit a resume along with any restrictions I had due to my illness. I prepped that and they started a job search. I concentrated mostly on getting my SSDI taken care of in July. At the end of July I was approved for SSDI, which while no one will admit it helped speed anything up, it definitely didn't hurt and gave me a way to support myself financially when Unum stopped paying me.

The job search was completed in August and the FAA submitted my application to OPM shortly after. I received my CSA number(Case number) for my Disability retirement from OPM in September. After I received it, I periodically checked in on the status of my application while trying not to be a pest about it. I would just periodically come up with questions and call.

On my last call yesterday I was notified that my application has been approved and as soon as the FAA sends in a last document I will start receiving my annuity on an interim basis until they finalize everything.

The only frustrating thing left is that OPM will not send funds to my insurance company until the retirement is finalized. So for the next few months I have to pay $800/mo for TCC for my FEHB benefits and get reimbursed the government portion after everything is complete.

Also two important details to remember: once you go on LWOP, do NOT return to pay status for ANY reason unless you know you will come back to your job. Your separation date will be the last day you received pay. You will receive back pack pay from FERS all the way back until that date. So if you return to work after you start LWOP, even for just 1 hour or 15 minutes, you will not get back pay for that LWOP. You will only get back pay for the LWOP after that 1 day, 1 hour, or 15 min.

Another important piece of advice is when you go on LWOP, do NOT select to pay your FEHB premium while on leave unless you have to. Have them pay your premium and if you come back to work they will just take it out of your check, otherwise you do NOT have to pay back your premiums for FEHB if you separate for health reasons.

I'll update this thread to let you all know how everything has worked out when my retirement is finalized.

So to summarize:

1. The most important thing: THIS CAREER IS NOT WORTH YOUR HEALTH. Never let the flight surgeon have any effect on treating what ails you. If your sick, your sick, GET TREATMENT NOW, before you get worse.

2. If you are a NATCA member, sign up for Long Term Disability Insurance ASAP.

3. If you do lose your medical permanently, you most likely are NOT completely screwed. As long as you have 18 months of service, you probably can get a FERS disability retirement. If you have 5 years of continual FEHB coverage, you can keep your FEHB coverage.

4. If you do foresee the possibility of having your medical permanently revoked, get on LWOP as soon as you financially can.

Last, you are not alone if you have to go through this process. Make sure you keep a support network of friends and family to help you get better. Reach out to your NATCA reps for help. Utilize all the tools you can come up with to get you through the rough times.

Feel free to contact me or ask me any questions you may have. My energy level is severely limited, so my reply may be delayed, but I have no problem helping where I can. If I don't have an answer, I'll try to find ot for you. I check my PM box periodically so if you don't want to ask a question in this thread, PM me.
 
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