OPM said it was granting the extension because “reduction in force and reorganizations may impact an employing office’s ability to timely submit the report.” Image: MR.DEEN/Shutterstock.com
By: FEDweek StaffOPM has issued instructions to agencies on auditing FEHB enrollments of their employees for potentially ineligible persons being covered while giving them an additional month, through August 31, to submit the results.
In a benefits administration letter, OPM said it was granting the extension because “reduction in force and reorganizations may impact an employing office’s ability to timely submit the report.”
The “family member eligibility verification” process requires a random sample of self plus one and self and family enrollments, and verification of all family members under the enrollment. The requirement follows reports from GAO and the inspector general’s office at OPM saying that ineligible persons being covered as family members could be costing the program—and ultimately, both enrollees and the government, which share the premium cost—some $1 billion a year.
“Employing offices may conduct the FMEV in the most suitable manner to randomly select enrollees for verification. For example, it may be advantageous for employing offices or headquarters to perform one random sampling of all enrollees. Alternatively, it may be expeditious to have subagencies or employing offices perform random sampling,” it says.
The letter also includes instructions for enrollments of employees who have been reinstated after separation. That would be a consideration for some agencies who reinstated probationary employees who were fired en masse earlier this year but then were required to reinstate them under a court order.
While that order is no longer in effect, many of those employees remain on administrative leave pending their possible separation in an upcoming layoff, although in some cases agencies have returned them to the job after deciding they needed those employees after all.
For reinstated employees, “premium withholdings and contributions must also be made retroactively as if the suspension or removal of FEHB coverage had not taken place. The FEHB coverage is considered to have been continuously in effect. Consequently, the employee and any eligible covered family member is retroactively entitled to full plan benefits,” it says.
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