If you’re a federal employee and you’ve suffered an injury on the job, there are two key components to filing your CA-2: your Employee Statement and your Medical Report. Providing proper personal accounts and a substantiating medical report can make the difference in filing a successful claim the first time and having it denied and requiring you to make changes and go through the process again.

As the name states, your Medical Report is a report from your treating doctor that substantiates your claim that your injury is related to or aggravated by your duties as a federal employee. It is a good idea to visit your doctor before you begin a claim with the OWCP because it is important to make sure that your treating doctor does in fact believe that your injury is caused by or aggravated by your workload.

It is also important to know that once you receive your Medical Report from your treating doctor, you have 30 days to file your OWCP claim. Without a Medical Report to substantiate the nature of your injuries it is nearly impossible to win a workers’ compensation claim. Make sure you keep copies for your records and it’s always a good idea to keep extra copies just in case something gets lost in the process or additional ones are need.