NIOSH Program Update

Stuart Hinnefeld

Director 

Division of Compensation Analysis and Support

March 2015

Richland, WA
Program News

 Additional work with Department of Labor (DOL)

 Worker outreach

• Feb 2015 – Carlsbad, NM

• Mar 2015 – Denver, CO

 Yearly meeting with advocates, DOL, Department 

of Energy (DOE), and NIOSH

 Plain writing efforts for documents, reports, 

letters

 NIOSH internal blind dose reconstruction (DR) 

review process
NIOSH Blind DR Review Process

 One case is randomly selected every week

• Cases that have not had initial DR completed

 Cases are assigned to individual DCAS Health 

Physicists

 DR performed using existing technical 

documents and tools when available

 Reviews are documented in a table

 Actual DR report is not generated
Blind DR Review Process 

 Reviews compared actual approved DRs by

an independent DCAS reviewer after the 

official DRs are completed and approved

 Results of the blind review are compared to 

the approved DRs

 Comparison documented

 Team lead reviews inconsistencies 
Example 

Quality 

Assurance 

(QA) Form
Example QA Form
Blind Review Results

 198 cases selected to date

 94 cases assigned to DCAS HPs for blind 

review

 49 cases completed

 44 found consistent with official DR

 5 submitted with different compensation 

decision
Blind Review Results

 In all 5 cases, the QA review found the official 

DR was correct and the blind reviewer erred
Conclusions 

 The official dose reconstructions, which include 

peer review and multiple additional reviews and 

approvals, are more accurate than blind reviews, 

which receive no additional reviews

 The person-hours required to complete blind 

DRs prevents timely completion of randomly 

chosen DRs

 Accessing the DR tools limited to only a few 

individuals at any given time, which adds delays
Overall Initial Claim Information

(as of March 19, 2015)

 43,125 cases have been referred to NIOSH for Dose 

Reconstruction (DR)

 41,014 cases have been returned to DOL

• Cases submitted with a DR report 36,277

• Cases currently pulled from DR by DOL 1,379

• Cases pulled for Special Exposure Cohort (SEC) 3,358

 1,386 cases remained at NIOSH for DR

 725 cases were administratively closed
Overview of Active Cases

(as of March 19, 2015)

 Of the 1,386 cases remain at NIOSH for DR

• 248 cases in DR process

• 208 initial draft DR reports with claimants (NIOSH is 

awaiting the return of the OCAS-1 form)

• 930 cases in DR development 
Probability of Causation (PoC) 

Summary for Completed DRs

(as of March 19, 2015) 

 Of the 36,277 DRs sent back to DOL for final 

adjudication: 

• 10,223 cases had a PoC ≥ 50% 

• 26,054 cases had a PoC < 50%
Submittals vs. Production

(as of March 19, 2015)
Status of First 5,000 Claims

(as of March 19, 2015) 

 4,894 claims at DOL

• 264 pulled for DOL issues

• 393 pulled for SEC

• 4,237 submitted with DR

 87 claims at NIOSH

• 82 administratively closed

• 2 DRs with claimants (DOL reworks/reinstated within past 

year)

• 3 DRs in process (DOL reworks/reinstated within past year)

 19 claim numbers deleted
Status of First 10,000 Claims

(as of March 19, 2015) 

 9,807 claims at DOL

• 439 pulled for DOL issues

• 1,027 pulled for SEC

• 8,341 submitted with DR

 163 claims at NIOSH

• 146 administratively closed

• 5 DRs with claimants (0 initial; 3 DOL reworks within past year)

• 12 DRs in process (1 initial; 11 DOL reworks within past year)

 30 claim numbers deleted
DOE Response to Requests 

for Exposure Records

(March 20, 2015) 

 Outstanding requests 343 

 Outstanding requests > 60 days 57 
Questions?