Kansas City Postal Service Employees: OWCP Claim Basics

By Dr. Matt Gianforte, DC · Federal Injury Centers of Kansas City · Updated October 2026

You know your route or your section of the plant like the back of your hand. Then one day you slip on an icy step, or a shoulder that’s ached for months finally won’t lift a tray. Now you’re facing a claims system you’ve never had to learn.

This is our main guide for Kansas City area Postal Service employees: carriers, clerks, mail handlers, drivers and maintenance staff. It covers how an OWCP claim works for postal workers from start to finish, with the deadlines that matter and the rules that are different for USPS.

The deadlines at a glance

  • Tell your supervisor: right away, and in writing.
  • CA-1 for a traumatic injury: within 30 days to keep continuation of pay (COP).
  • Any claim (CA-1 or CA-2): within 3 years, with some exceptions.
  • Medical evidence to USPS for COP: within 10 calendar days of filing your CA-1.
  • Your supervisor’s part of the CA-1 or CA-2: within 10 working days of your notice.
  • CA-7 if you’re out past COP: given to you by day 30 of COP and sent to OWCP by day 40.
  • Appeals: 30 days for a hearing or review of the written record, 1 year for reconsideration, 180 days for the Employees’ Compensation Appeals Board (ECAB).

Step 1: Report it, the right way

Verbal reports don’t replace formal filings. Telling your supervisor on the workroom floor is a good start, but your claim begins with the written form.

  • CA-1 (traumatic injury): a specific event or series of events within a single workday or shift. A fall on ice, a dog bite, a strain lifting a heavy parcel.
  • CA-2 (occupational disease): a condition produced by your work over more than one workday or shift. Carpal tunnel from years of casing, or a back worn down by repeated lifting.
  • CA-2a (recurrence): an accepted condition that flares up on its own after you went back to work, without a new injury.

Many agencies take these forms through ECOMP, DOL’s online filing system. Ask your supervisor or your district’s injury compensation office how it works where you are. Get your Receipt of Notice and copies of the form, and keep them at home.

Your supervisor may also complete USPS accident paperwork. That’s an internal record. It doesn’t replace your CA-1 or CA-2.

For the form itself, see our CA-1 guide.

Step 2: Get medical care, from a doctor you choose

Here’s what you need to know: you have the right to choose your first treating physician. USPS should tell you about that right and about any physicians OWCP has excluded. Any qualified physician who isn’t excluded can treat you. Providers enroll with OWCP to be paid and bill OWCP directly.

  • CA-16: for a traumatic injury, USPS issues Form CA-16 to authorize your first exam and treatment. It should be issued within four hours of the claimed injury and is good for up to 60 days from the date of injury, unless OWCP ends it sooner.
  • Referrals: if your doctor sends you to a specialist, you don’t need OWCP’s approval.
  • Changing doctors: switching on your own later requires a written request to OWCP. USPS can’t approve a change of physician.
  • Second opinions: OWCP, not USPS, decides whether you need an exam by another doctor, and you must attend if it schedules one.
  • Bigger treatment: things like ongoing therapy, tests and surgery may need OWCP authorization. Your provider requests it.

One limit to know about chiropractors: under FECA, chiropractic care is covered only for manual manipulation of the spine to correct a subluxation shown by x-ray.

Step 3: Continuation of pay, postal style

COP means USPS keeps paying your regular pay, for up to 45 calendar days, after a traumatic injury. It’s paid by USPS, not OWCP. The postal rules:

  • No COP for the first 3 days. Postal employees aren’t entitled to COP for the first 3 days of temporary disability. Use sick leave, annual leave or leave without pay. If the disability lasts more than 14 days, or becomes permanent, that leave can be restored.
  • CA-1 within 30 days and lost time starting within 45 days of the injury.
  • Traumatic injuries only. CA-2 conditions don’t get COP.
  • Regular pay, not overtime. And COP is taxable like any paycheck.
  • USPS can controvert. Your employer can keep paying COP while it disputes the claim. OWCP decides.
  • If the claim is denied, COP you received is charged to sick or annual leave, at your choice, or treated as an overpayment.

Step 4: The medical evidence

This is the part people underestimate. OWCP decides claims on evidence, and the medical side has to do two things:

  1. Give a clear diagnosis, not just “pain.”
  2. Explain, in the doctor’s own reasoned opinion, how your work event or work duties caused or worsened that condition.

That opinion has to rest on an accurate history. So tell your doctor exactly what you do: how much you lift, how many hours you walk, how often you reach, twist or climb steps. A doctor can’t explain a connection to a job they don’t understand.

For COP, make sure medical evidence of disability, including when you can return to your job, reaches USPS within 10 calendar days of filing your CA-1. Medical reports go to OWCP as soon as possible after each exam. You or your physician can send them, and you can upload documents to your case through ECOMP.

Step 5: Duty status and going back to work

While you’re recovering, USPS will usually ask for Form CA-17, a duty status report. Your supervisor fills in the physical demands of your job, and your doctor fills in your current restrictions. Those restrictions drive what work USPS can offer you.

If USPS offers you a limited-duty job, it must be in writing and describe the duties and physical requirements. Show it to your doctor. Refusing a job OWCP finds suitable can end your wage-loss compensation, though medical benefits continue. Our USPS guide to COP, light duty and job offers covers this in depth.

Step 6: Wage-loss compensation (CA-7)

If you’re still unable to work after COP, or you have a CA-2 condition, you claim wage loss on Form CA-7.

  • Rate: 66 2/3% of your pay rate with no dependents, or 75% with at least one dependent.
  • Overtime isn’t counted in the pay rate.
  • Taxes: FECA compensation isn’t taxable. COP is.
  • Timing without COP: file as soon as your pay stops, and no more than 14 calendar days after.
  • Ongoing: file a CA-7 every two weeks while you’re disabled, unless OWCP tells you otherwise. USPS forwards it within 5 working days.
  • Return to work: tell OWCP right away when you go back, part-time or full-time, and report any earnings.

Step 7: Mileage to appointments

Travel to authorized medical care can be reimbursed on Form OWCP-957. A round trip of up to 100 miles is generally considered reasonable, and longer non-emergency trips need OWCP’s written approval first. DOL says these forms must be mailed, not uploaded to ECOMP.

Step 8: If OWCP says no

A denial isn’t always the end of the road. Read the decision closely. It explains why and lists your appeal rights. Your options:

  • Oral hearing or review of the written record: within 30 days of the decision. You must ask for this before any reconsideration on the same decision.
  • Reconsideration: within 1 year, usually with new evidence or argument.
  • ECAB appeal: within 180 days.

Our appeals guide walks through each one.

Who to call

  • OWCP’s FECA call center: (202) 513-6860, for questions about your case.
  • Your supervisor or USPS injury compensation office: for the employer side of your forms, COP and CA-7s.
  • Your union steward: for workplace issues like assignments, limited duty and contract questions. Clerks and maintenance workers can also read our post for APWU members.
  • A representative: you can hire one. OWCP must approve any fee before it’s collected.

How we can help

Postal workers carry a lot, literally. When a work injury slows you down, we provide care and complete the medical documentation OWCP and USPS rely on: CA-17 duty status reports, CA-20 attending physician’s reports and causal-relationship narratives that explain our medical findings. We’re a medical clinic in Shawnee, not a law firm, so we don’t give legal advice or represent claims. Under FECA, chiropractic coverage is limited to manual manipulation of the spine to correct a subluxation shown by x-ray, and we’ll tell you plainly if you need care beyond that.

Request a consultation or call (913) 355-6648.

Sources

This article is general information, not legal or medical advice. For decisions about your claim, contact OWCP or your representative.

About Dr. Matt Gianforte, DC

Dr. Matt Gianforte is a graduate of Palmer College of Chiropractic and the founder of Federal Injury Centers of Kansas City in Shawnee, Kansas. His team treats injured federal employees under FECA and provides the medical documentation OWCP requires.