The Industrial Disability Retirement (ID) process is complicated for safety members. To qualify for an IDR under PERS, a member must show through a medical evaluation and report that they are permanently and substantially incapacitated from duty and that the disability has lasted or is expected to last more than twelve months. Most often, the medical evidence from a safety members workers’ compensation case is relied on to help support the IDR determination. PERS is paying close attention to the details that support the IDR application.

It is critical to understand the stages from workers’ compensation to the Interactive Meeting or IPM to the IDR process are connected. The safety member must have the proper medical evidence so the agency or city can grant the IDR application. The IDR process is complicated and there are recent changes that will impact a member’s ability to navigate to this next stage.

On March 15, 2023, Cal-PERS issued a revised circular requiring pending and future applications to now have additional forms completed to determine whether the safety member will be entitled to an industrial disability retirement. 

Cal-PERS has stated the following documents to process agency determinations. Incomplete or insufficient information will delay processing of the member’s application.

• Physical Requirements of Position/Occupational Title (Local Safety) (PDF) form (New)
• Physician’s Report on Disability (Local Safety) (PDF) form (New)
• Workers’ Compensation Carrier Request (Local Safety) (PDF) form (if applicable) (New)

These new forms are required to be completed when the IDR application is being submitted. If the forms are incomplete, the IDR will be delayed.

What are the new issues and forms facing safety members in the IDR lane? First, PERS requires the medical evidence to support the IDR from a comprehensive medical report- which can be a QME, AME or IME from the work comp case. Now- QME, AME or IME must complete the form- Physician’s Report on Disability. To ensure that the med expert will do it, the form will need to be included into the Joint letter-medical addendum packet explaining that the parties need this form completed. We predict this hurdle may create unnecessary delays if the med expert is not properly educated on the form. 

The additional forms- Physical Requirements and Workers Comp Carrier request must be completed by the City and the work comp carrier- which will require pushing by the member to get the forms completed. If the forms are not completed, the IDR will be delayed. The cities and insurance companies must now understand the new requirements and more importantly complete the forms expeditiously, so the member’s application is not on hold indefinitely.

What is the impact if the forms are not completed?  There are several potential issues that may arise if the IDR application has been stalled. First, what financial benefits are the safety members currently receiving? Typically- at the IDR stage, the member has exhausted 4850 and is either burning accrued sick/vacation or being paid Long Term Disability (LTD). A delay in the PERS process because of the new forms will extend the timeline for the safety members burning their own time or extending the LTD benefits. The safety member will need to be vigilant in securing the PERS forms and further pressing the city to begin Advance Disability Pension Payment to avoid any gap in benefits. It is critically important to make sure the safety members connect with an expert in workers comp and PERS-IDR to make sure their case is on track and their benefits are secure.