Office of Workers' Compensation Programs (OWCP)

Q&As – Case ID and CMR

BACKGROUND: On October 07, 2014, the Office of Workers' Compensation Programs 

(OWCP), Division of Coal Mine Workers' Compensation (DCMWC), notified stakeholders of a 

new Case ID numbering system and asked them to mail all incoming correspondence to a 

Central Mailroom (CMR). 

Below are some questions and answers about the new Case ID system and CMR: 

1. QUESTION: Why is the Black Lung Program changing the claim number from the 

coal miner’s Social Security Number (SSN) to the new Case ID? 

ANSWER: Primarily to protect the miner’s privacy. For several years, the Program has been 

using the miner’s or survivor’s name, a portion of the miner’s SSN, and a suffix to differentiate 

types of claims. This system has become obsolete, so we have initiated the new Case ID 

numbering system. 

2. QUESTION: That can’t be the only reason for making people use a new number. 

ANSWER: The secondary reason was that we have begun to collect mail in a central location 

instead of in eight different offices and, to make sure that every document is identified properly 

and gets into the right claimant’s folder, the new system has assigned a Case ID for each 

individual claim. 

3. QUESTION: If a miner has filed more than one claim, how will this new Case ID 

help tell them apart? 

ANSWER: Only one claim can be active at any given time, and Case ID numbers will be 

assigned to active claims. When the current claim is closed, and the miner files a new claim, a 

new Case ID will be assigned. A Case ID will be assigned to every claim from now on, whether 

it is filed by a miner, a surviving spouse, or a surviving child. 

4. QUESTION: So why do you still need the miner’s Social Security Number? 

ANSWER: Although we will not be using the SSN as a claim number, it still identifies each 

individual. The Department of Labor uses it internally for accounting purposes, and the Social 

Security Administration requires it when we ask them for earnings records to help the miner 

prove which coal mine operator s/he worked for. 

5. QUESTION: If the miner’s Black Lung claims office is in Colorado or Pennsylvania, 

won’t sending mail to London, Kentucky slow things down? 

ANSWER: Actually, we have found that using a central mailroom not only speeds up the 

claims process, but saves the government and taxpayers quite a bit of money. The documents 

received in London are scanned in a high-speed, high-resolution scanner and are sorted by 

Case ID. Documents without the Case ID are searched for identifying information (name, 

address, SSN, etc.), and then matched up with the Case ID. The scanned documents are then 

stored in an electronic case folder which is made available to the claims examiner and other 

District Office staff on the following day. There is no need to waste time by making sure that 

paper documents are properly filed in a paper folder. 
6. QUESTION: What happens to the paper? 

ANSWER: Paper documents are saved for 21 days to ensure that they have been scanned and 

identified properly. Quality control of the scanning is done at the mailroom in London, and each 

document is checked by claims staff in the District Office. After 21 days, the original documents 

are destroyed. 

7. QUESTION: What about important or irreplaceable originals, like wedding and 

birth certificates? 

ANSWER: We encourage people to submit certified copies of originals, not the originals 

themselves. However, sometimes the original is all that is available. These valuable items 

should be sent to the District Office that services the claim, where they will be copied and 

returned. As a precaution, Central Mailroom staff have been trained to recognize valuable 

originals and have 21 days to retrieve them after scanning, but sending them to the District 

Office is the safer choice. 

8. QUESTION: What about x-ray films, DVDs of medical records, and other nonpaper items? 

ANSWER: These should be sent to the Central Mailroom. They will be forwarded to the 

District Offices after any accompanying documents are scanned and added to the electronic 

folder. A good example is the package of medical results and reports that a doctor submits after 

examining a miner in connection with his claim. The paper reports and the doctor’s bill will be 

scanned, and the x-ray film or DVD will be sent to the District Office. 

9. QUESTION: What about medical bills? Are those sent to central mailroom? 

ANSWER: Treatment bills should continue to be sent to the medical billing contractor using 

P.O. Box 8202, and all other mail is sent to the Central Mailroom using the P.O. Box 8307 

address. 

10. QUESTION: This sounds really new, and complicated. 

ANSWER: It is new for the Federal Black Lung Program, but similar systems have been in 

place in other worker’s compensation programs for a long time. The savings for everyone in 

time, money, and paper will be substantial. 

11. QUESTION: How do I get a copy of the file, or anything inside it that I need? 

ANSWER: If you are entitled to see the file, because you are the claimant or a party to the 

claim, or because you are the miner’s treating physician and she/he has asked that you be sent 

a copy of the medical reports, copies will be printed either on paper or onto digital media and 

sent to you as they are now. 

12. QUESTION: What’s the downside? What can go wrong? 

ANSWER: In the beginning, there may be a few problems of document recognition and filing. 

However, the Program has been successfully using a similar system for medical bills for ten 

years, we have been testing this system for months, and the other workers’ compensation 

programs in the Department of Labor are using it already. We think that the bugs have already 

been worked out. We are committed to making this change work for everyone, including 

beneficiaries and claimants, the coal companies, and the doctors and lawyers who deal with the 

claims, so we will be monitoring the process at the Central Mailroom and in the District Offices 

to make sure that it is successful. 
All claim forms and pertinent documentation should now be submitted to our Central Mailroom 

address listed below: 

U.S. Department of Labor 

OWCP/DCMWC/CMR Correspondence 

P.O. Box 8307 

London, KY 40742-8307