‘Tis the season to make decisions. All of you will have to make them about your health benefits coverage. The Federal Benefits Open Season is now open and runs through December 10. So you’ll have a little over four weeks to make up your mind about what you’re going to do. For example, if you are already enrolled in a Federal Employees Health Benefits plan, are you going to stay with it or change to another provider? It might be time to change if you are dissatisfied with the quality of service you are receiving or the premium and out-of-pocket costs. If you aren’t enrolled in the FEHB—for example, because you are on a spouse’s health insurance through his or her employer–is this the time to do so? It might be if you are approaching the end of your federal career and want to meet the five-year requirement to carry that coverage into retirement.
If you are covered by Medicare, it will be your primary payer, with your FEHB plan being secondary. So it will be worth your while to compare the costs and benefits of any FEHB plan you are considering with what will already be covered at no cost to you by Medicare Part A hospital insurance. That comparison becomes even more important if you have (or considering enrolling in) Medicare Part B, which covers physicians’ services and related services—and which is not only expensive but has premiums that increase with your adjusted gross income.
Then you’ll need to decide if you want to enroll in the one-year-old Federal Employees Dental and Vision Insurance Program or, if you’re already enrolled, whether to continue that coverage. Either way, you’ll need to compare the coverage you already have through any FEHB plan you are considering, and, if you are eligible, Medicare.
The best source of information about the FEHB and FEDVIP programs is OPM’s website. At http://opm.gov/inusre/health/index.asp you can download brochures, check premium costs, and get the answers to frequently asked questions.
While everything I’ve said so far applies to employees, retirees and survivors alike, there’s one area of decision making that applies only to employees. That’s the Federal Flexible Spending Account program, known as FSAFEDS. The selling point of this program is that it allows an employee to set aside pre-tax dollars to pay for certain health care and dependent care expenses. The big decision facing most of you is not whether you should set something aside but how much should you set aside? Fortunately, OPM has an on-line savings calculator that can lead you through the decision-making process. To access it, go to http://www.fsafeds.com/fsafeds/fsa_calculator.asp. There’s also a wealth of information on its website that can help you answer questions as they come to mind at www.FSAFEDS.com.
Let me close with one piece of housekeeping information. If you are an employee, your coverage begins of the first day of the first pay period beginning after January 1, 2008. For most agencies that will be January 6. On the other hand, if you are a retiree, your coverage begins on January 1.