Individual carriers will likely weigh the costs and benefits of offering FEHB plans and PSHB plans. Image: dennizn/Shutterstock.com
By: FEDweek StaffOPM’s notice of interim rules for the Postal Service Health Benefits program, which starting in 2025 will replace the FEHB for postal employees and retirees, notes that the law creating the new program includes some special provisions for that transition—but only for the first year.
That law generally requires that plans with at least 1,500 postal enrollees as of 2023 would have to be available for the initial plan year of 2025. The rules do not specify how many of the current FEHB plans would meet that criterion, though.
That law also “requires that carriers offering PSHB plans will, to the greatest extent practicable, offer benefits and cost-sharing (e.g., deductibles, copayments and coinsurance) equivalent to the benefits and cost-sharing for FEHB plans for that carrier in the initial contract year.”
They further make no mention of coverage term requirements or participation requirements for plans meeting the enrollment criterion for years after 2025. They add, though, that plans may decide to drop out.
“Individual carriers will likely weigh the costs and benefits of offering FEHB plans and PSHB plans,” they say. “Shifting enrollment numbers and additional implementation costs may lead some carriers to scale back or discontinue participation in one or both kinds of plans. This would impact the number of available plan options for both PSHB and FEHB enrollees, as well as the likelihood that they would be able to keep their current plans.”
Also, those being moved from the FEHB to the PSHB who do not make an election during the fall 2024 open season will continue with the same carrier and with the same type of enrollment they had in the FEHB, if a parallel plan is being offered in the PSHB. If one isn’t offered, they will automatically be enrolled in the lowest-cost national plan that is not a high-deductible plan and that does not impose a membership or association fee.
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