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EEOICPA BULLETIN NO. 04-07
Issue Date: February 2, 2004
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Effective Date: February 2, 2004
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Expiration Date: February 2, 2005
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Subject: Revised ECMS Employment Verification Coding.
Background: This bulletin supplements EEOICPA Bulletin 03-07, “Employment Verification Codes.” Unless otherwise discussed herein, all coding information provided in that Bulletin remains applicable (particularly the use of the “DE”, “EC”, “EX” codes). When requesting employment verification from the Department of Energy, the claims examiner (CE) forwards the EE-5 form(s) directly to the appropriate DOE Operations Centers. In ECMS, to this point, the CE enters an “ES” (Employment Ver Sent to DOE) when sending the request to the Operations Center, and then an “ER” (Employment Ver Rec’d from DOE) upon receiving the EE-5 back from DOE. By entering just these claim status codes, there has been no linkage between the “ES” and “ER” in relation to a particular DOE Operations Center, especially when there are multiple EE-5 forms sent out. Presently it is not possible in ECMS to determine which EE-5 form is outstanding for which Operations Center, or to calculate precisely how much time elapsed from the date the EE-5 is sent to a particular Operations Center to the time it is received.
References: ECMS FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) on the DEEOIC shared drive, and EEOICPA Bulletin 03-07, “Employment Verification Codes.”
Purpose: The purpose of this bulletin is to introduce instructions for capturing more specific information about ECMS coding applicable to sending and receiving EE-5 forms to and from DOE Operations Centers. The claims examiners will now be required to select a DOE Operations Center in conjunction with the “ES” and “ER” claim status codes in ECMS.
Applicability: All staff.
Actions:
When an EE-5 form requesting employment verification from a DOE Operations Center is sent, the CE enters an “ES” (Employment Ver Sent to DOE) in ECMS. The status effective date is equal to the date the request is sent to DOE. Upon receipt of an EE-5 from the DOE Operations Center, the CE enters an “ER” (Employment Ver Rec’d from DOE). The status effective date is equal to the date stamp of receipt of the EE-5 in the district office. This has not changed from previous guidelines.
2. There is a new field in ECMS on the Claim Status screen called the “reason cd” (reason code). This field is a drop-down box that corresponds with the “ES” and “ER” claim status codes. Included in the reason cd field is both the full name and a two-digit code representing each DOE Operations Center.
3. The CE selects the DOE Operations Center from the reason cd field that corresponds with the “ES” or “ER” claim status code being recorded in ECMS. The two-digit code and the DOE Operations Center are included on the same line, so only one selection will be made from the drop-down box. For example, if the EE-5 form is sent to the Chicago Operations Center, the CE selects “CH – Chicago Operations Center” from the reason cd drop-down menu. This field is required in order to save the “ES” and “ER” claim status codes.
| DOE Operations Center Code | DOE Operations Center |
|---|---|
| AL | Albuquerque Operations Center |
| CH | Chicago Operations Office |
| GE | Germantown Facility |
| GR | Grand Junction Office |
| ID | Idaho Operations Office |
| KA | Kansas City Plant |
| LO | Los Alamos Site Operations |
| NE | Nevada Operations Office |
| OR | Oak Ridge Operations Office |
| OF | Ohio Field Office |
| PA | Pantex Plant |
| RI | Richland Operations Office |
| RO | Rocky Flats Field Office |
| SA | Savannah River Operations Office |
4. The CE must enter an “ES” for each EE-5 that is sent to each Operations Center. The CE must also enter a corresponding “ER” for each EE-5 received from the Operations Center. For example, if a CE sends an EE-5 to the Richland Operations Office and to the Ohio Field Office, he/she enters the “ES” code with reason code “RI” for Richland, and a separate “ES” code with reason code “OF” for the Ohio Field Office. When the EE-5 forms are returned from each, the CE enters the “ER” code with the appropriate Operations Office from the drop down box.
5. If a CE sends one EE-5 to one Operations Center, and that Operations Center sends a copy of the EE-5 to more than one facility for response, the CE enters one “ES” code for the appropriate Operations Center. The CE is notified by DOE concerning how many copies were sent from the Operations Center to the facilities. Only after all EE-5 forms from that Operations Center are returned, the CE enters one corresponding “ER” code. For additional guidance concerning when to enter the “ER” code, please refer to item number four in Bulletin 03-07.
6. Back-fill will not be required. Effective the date of this bulletin, the use of the reason code field is required for both the “ES” and “ER” codes, regardless of whether the DOE Operations Center was entered initially in the reason code field for the “ES” prior to the issuance of this bulletin.
Disposition: Retain until incorporated in the Federal (EEOICPA) Procedure Manual.
PETER M. TURCIC
Director, Division of Energy Employees
Occupational Illness Compensation
Distribution: Distribution List No. 1: (Claims Examiners, Supervisory Claims Examiners, Technical Assistants, Customer Service Representatives, Fiscal Officers, FAB District Managers, Operation Chiefs, Hearing Representatives, District Office Mail & File Sections.)