The U.S. senators from Washington state are calling on the Department of Energy’s inspector general to assess the safety environment at the Hanford, including investigating its third-party administrator for workers’ compensation claims. The request comes after DOE notified the administrator, Penser North America, that it would end its contract without exercising all options for extensions. The agency said the decision was based on its overall contracting strategy.
Democratic Sens. Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray said Hanford personnel and union officials have complained that claims for workers exposed to dangerous materials are not adequately addressed. “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,” wrote the two senators in a letter sent on Wednesday to acting DOE Inspector General April Stephenson.
The letter requested a follow-on assessment of Hanford’s safety environment following a November 2016 IG special report that looked at DOE’s actions to address workers’ concerns about tank farm chemical vapors. An investigation is particularly timely after the Trump administration’s January freeze on new regulations, including additional whistleblower protections, the senators said: “We fear that halting this regulation would discourage whistleblowers from stepping forward with safety concerns and workers from raising concerns with health and safety practices.”
The Department of Energy contracted Penser to manage workers’ compensation claims submitted to the Washington state Department of Labor and Industries, which approves or denies the claims. Specifically, Penser processes, investigates, adjusts and pays workers’ compensation claims on behalf of DOE at Hanford.
Although Washington state law dictates the terms of the workers’ compensation program, DOE is responsible for selection and oversight of its administrator, the senators said. “We believe the department has a responsibility to review the performance of that administrator,” they told Stephenson.
The lawmakers are asking the Office of the Inspector General to review any allegations of harassment or intimidation of workers who have filed claims due to workplace-related injuries or illnesses at Hanford. They also requested a breakdown of claims both approved and denied related to chemical vapors associated with the Hanford waste storage tank farms. Their letter lists several questions they want the IG to answer, including whether doctors selected by Penser are qualified to determine whether health conditions are caused by exposure to chemicals at Hanford.
The Department of Energy in February notified Penser that it would not exercise the remaining two single-year options on the company’s contract, the second five-year contract it awarded to Penser. DOE said in a statement that the decision was related to the expiration of the three major cleanup and mission support contracts in 2018 and 2019 at the former plutonium production site. The contract now ends on Sept. 30 of this year.
“To better align this acquisition strategy with services at Hanford such as the administration of workers compensation, it has been determined that it is in the best interest of the government to compete the third party administrator contract for workers’ compensation services,” DOE said. The third-party administrator contract should be in place before any new cleanup contracts, it said.
Penser said Thursday it welcomed an IG investigation.
“We are confident that a review of the claims process and procedures that Penser works through will help clarify and provide an accurate representation of the facts,” the company said in a prepared statement.
Penser rejected allegations that it uses unfair tactics to deny claims. Only the state Department of Labor and Industries has that authority, it pointed out. “The system within which Penser administers claims is a state-run system with checks and balances in place to provide oversight of self-insured employers, and the lack of similar allegations from other sources supports this position,” according to the statement.
Penser has been in business since 1968 and does not have a history of similar complaints.
