Senators call for investigation of Hanford worker compensation

Washington state’s senators are asking the Department of Energy Office of Inspector General to investigate how worker compensation claims are being handled at Hanford.

“Multiple accounts of workers’ compensation claims being dismissed on arbitrary grounds, tactics bordering on intimidation and actions taken to discredit claims have been shared with us,” said Democratic Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell in a letter sent Wednesday to acting Inspector General April Stephenson.

“These allegations are very troubling,” they said.

They asked the review to include an investigation of the treatment of workers and their claims in the years Penser North America has served as the administrator for Hanford worker compensation claims, gathering and submitting information on worker claims to the Washington State Department of Labor and Industries.

The Department of Energy is self-insured for worker compensation claims at Hanford, contracting most recently with Penser to administer claims. If the Department of Labor and Industries approves a worker’s claim, DOE pays medical expenses and a portion of wages lost while a worker recovers from a workplace injury or occupational disease.

The senators want inspector general investigators to review any allegations of intimidation or harassment of workers who have filed claims.

They have asked for a tally of the number of claims approved and denied related to possible exposure to chemical vapors associated with the waste held in Hanford’s underground tanks.

Proving a claim for an illness caused by exposure to vapors can be impossible when even DOE does not know what chemicals workers may be exposed to from chemical vapors, said workers and former workers who testified in February before a state Legislature committee to change related state laws.

The senators asked for the Office of Inspector General to obtain answers to multiple questions:

Is there any DOE oversight of Penser? To what extent does DOE work with Penser? Are the doctors selected by Penser qualified to determine health conditions caused by chemical exposures? Are they provided all relevant information to make determinations?

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health briefly addressed issues with the worker compensation system in a November 2016 report issued after its independent review of tank farm safety and health programs.

Workers feel the compensation system is onerous, with an extensive burden on workers to demonstrate that health conditions are related to work and are frustrated when the insurer determines that there is not sufficient proof that workplace exposure caused an illness, it said.

“Unlike injury, attribution of a health condition/chronic illness to work is challenging and diagnosis is often difficult as symptoms experienced may be nonspecific and can mimic those associated with non-work-related causes,” the NIOSH report said.

Penser, a business based in Lacey, Wash., has been DOE’s third-party administrator since 2009. It was awarded an initial five-year contract and then competed for and won a new contract in 2014.

The latest contract, valued at $4.4 million in 2014, was for a two-year base period with three one-year extensions.

Penser is working under the first extension now and DOE recently notified it that it did not plan to approve another extension when the current one expires in September.

DOE released a statement saying that the end of its contract was part of a plan to put the contract out to bid again to align the worker compensation administration with three major Hanford contracts that expire in 2018 and 2019.

However, it declined to say whether it was just Penser or whether other small DOE contracts at Hanford would be part of the new contracting strategy. The occupational medicine contract for Hanford expires in 2018.

“DOE will be conducting market research this year to determine what is in the best interest of the government, with regards to timing of the third-party administrator contract recompete,” DOE said in a statement.

DOE indicated it planned to have the third-party administrator contract in place before contracts were awarded to replace those held now by three of Hanford’s large contractors — Washington River Protection Solutions, CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Co. and Mission Support Alliance.

Issues with third-party administration of worker compensation at Hanford date back to at least 2002, before Penser held the contract.

DOE heard complaints then about poor communications and slow decisions. Workers called the program impenetrable and frustrating at several public meetings.

DOE paid for a state review in 2005, which concluded the program met minimum legal standards, although it had customer service issues. DOE responded by providing a new incentive for good customer service in the first contract that Penser won.

This story was originally published March 8, 2017 at 8:56 AM with the headline "Senators call for investigation of Hanford worker compensation."