EEOICPA benefits in Nevada
A federal programme pays former nuclear-weapons workers for illness caused by that work, and it has been running since 2000. In Nevada it reaches the people who worked at the Nevada Test Site and the Tonopah Test Range — in any job. Most of what it is worth is not the cheque.
Two payments and a medical benefit, and the medical benefit is the one that lasts.
The Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act has two parts. Part B is a fixed lump sum with lifetime medical coverage. Part E adds compensation for impairment and lost wages, for contractor and subcontractor employees.
The medical coverage is the part that changes daily life. Most families call it the White Card. It pays providers directly for care tied to the accepted condition, and it is what covers skilled nursing and home health aide care at home.
Three things have to be true, and the job title is not one of them.
Coverage turns on where the work was, when it was, and what the illness is. It does not turn on what the work was.
Department of Energy contractor and subcontractor employees are covered the same as federal employees, and the job title does not matter. Craft and construction, security, drivers, cooks, clerks, custodians and warehouse staff worked at a covered facility exactly as the scientists did.
The Special Exposure Cohort skips the hardest step.
Proving an individual radiation dose from decades-old records is where claims stall. The Special Exposure Cohort removes that step: membership in a class, plus one of 22 listed cancers, and the exposure is presumed.
The Nevada Test Site has two classes. The second covers all employees of Department of Energy contractors and subcontractors and asks nothing about radiation monitoring.
Twenty-two cancers are on the list. The 22 are: bone cancer; renal cancer; leukemia other than chronic lymphocytic leukemia; lung cancer; multiple myeloma; lymphomas other than Hodgkin’s disease; and primary cancer of the bile ducts, brain, breast (male and female), colon, esophagus, gall bladder, liver, laryngeal, ovary, pancreas, pharynx, salivary gland, small intestine, stomach, thyroid or urinary bladder. Some carry a latency rule — leukemia needs onset at least two years after first exposure, multiple myeloma and the lymphomas at least five.
The claim and the care are two different offices.
The Department of Labor runs the programme, decides every claim, and authorizes the care. Claim-filing help is available at no charge from a Department of Labor Resource Center, and from authorized representatives.
Alara is a Nevada-licensed home health agency. It does not file claims and does not represent claimants. What it does is the care side: assess the patient, coordinate the physician documentation and the home-health authorization, and provide the authorized care in Clark and Nye Counties.
The Department of Labor decides every claim. Alara assesses the patient, coordinates the physician documentation and the home-health authorization, and provides the authorized care. It does not file claims and nothing here is a determination of eligibility.
If the problem is the claim itself, start here → The full Nevada Test Site guide →
What people ask first.
What does EEOICPA pay?
Part B pays a lump sum of $150,000 and lifetime medical coverage for the accepted condition. Part E pays compensation for whole-body impairment and for wage loss caused by the covered illness, up to a combined maximum of $250,000, for Department of Energy contractor and subcontractor employees. The medical coverage has no lifetime dollar cap.
Who qualifies for EEOICPA in Nevada?
Department of Energy employees and contractor and subcontractor employees who worked at a covered facility and have a covered illness linked to that work. In Nevada the covered facilities include the Nevada Test Site, covered for work from 1951 on, and the Tonopah Test Range. The job title does not decide it.
What is the Special Exposure Cohort?
A route into Part B that skips radiation dose reconstruction. A covered employee in a designated class who has one of 22 specified cancers has the exposure presumed. The Nevada Test Site has two classes: 27 January 1951 through 31 December 1962 for workers who were monitored or should have been, and 1 January 1963 through 31 December 1992 for all contractor and subcontractor employees with no monitoring requirement. Both need at least 250 aggregate work days.
Does the White Card cover home health?
The medical benefit covers care that is medically necessary for the accepted condition and authorized by the Department of Labor. Skilled nursing and home health aide care at home are among the services it authorizes. What a specific card covers is a Department of Labor determination.
Is there a deadline to file?
EEOICPA has no filing deadline of the kind RECA has. A claim can be filed now, and a claim denied years ago can be reopened — the programme has expanded since it began.
A nurse reads it, not a form.
A case review takes a few minutes and needs no records, no claim number and no appointment. Nothing here is a determination of eligibility.
Nevada Test Site White Card guide → What the White Card is → Start a case review →