Challenge: A claim for workers’ compensation under the Division of Federal Employees and Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation program (DFELHWC) requires proof of insurance. For decades this required the submission of a paper insurance card providing the employer’s name, the employer’s insurance carrier, and the insurance policy date, among other information. As a result, the Office of Workers’ Compensation Program (OWCP), which administers the DFELHWC program, accumulated more than 400,000 physical cards, some dating back to the 1950s. In 2022, these insurance cards were still stored in disparate OWCP locations nationwide and were not readily accessible or searchable. The OWCP wanted to centralize and digitize the cards in three months’ time.

Solution: As part of its work providing National Operational Support Services (NOSS) to the Department of Labor (DOL), TDEC had already digitized millions of documents for other OWCP programs — including the Federal Employee Compensation Act, Coal Miners Workers Compensation, and Energy Employee Occupational Illness Compensation — when the OWCP approached TDEC to do the same for these insurance cards.

TDEC associates traveled to eight OWCP locations across the United States to collect, box, and ship 425,000 insurance cards to TDEC’s secure facility in Lebanon, VA. There, the index card-sized documents were scanned into images using specialized scanners, and each image was indexed by three fields (employer name, policy start date, and insurance carrier).

Results: TDEC’s depth of experience and nimbleness allowed the work, including document collection, to be completed within the requested three-month timeframe. Images and indexes were delivered to DOL where they were imported into its system. The Longshore Workers’ insurance cards are now searchable and available for easy access by both onsite and remote government workers.