This notice is intended to inform the public about the availability of appropriations in FY 2024 for the payment of War Hazards Compensation Act (WHCA) claims. This also is to advise stakeholders about improvements being developed to streamline the processing of WHCA claims.
Funding: OWCP expects funding to be sufficient to pay all approved claims for reimbursement under the WHCA through the end of fiscal year 2024.
Upcoming Improvements: While we have substantially increased the value of reimbursements in recent years through process changes, and even more recently with the temporary deployment of additional staff, we also are currently considering a variety of additional process-improvement changes that will increase reimbursement rates even further, to include: 1) Modernizing the file submission process for insurance carriers to be fully digital, if desired; 2) Streamlining the drafting of decisions by OWCP Claims Examiners by templatizing the information insurance carriers provide; 3) Incentivizing the single submission of one fully consolidated claim including all expenses, which also streamlines the work of OWCP Claims Examiners; and 4) Expanding the use of statistical sampling for the processing of reimbursements.