Although most of the attention on the Treasury-Transportation appropriations bill that
likely will come to a House vote soon after Labor Day has focused on language to
provide a 4.1 percent January 2004 federal pay raise, the measure also contains several
provisions affecting the Federal Employees Health Benefits program. The House
Appropriations Committee said it wants a report from the Office of Personnel
Management on efforts to improve oversight of pharmacy benefit managers, which
manage prescription drugs in the program, and encouraged OPM to “explore options for
empowering federal employee health care consumers to make more informed decisions
when choosing among similar pharmaceuticals.” The committee also encouraged OPM to
quickly compete a study of the effect on premiums of various coverages mandated over
the years. The panel also ordered OPM to produce a report on the numbers of potential
FEHB enrollees who are not enrolled and the reasons why. Another provision urges OPM
to certify that any transfer of background investigation responsibilities from the Defense
Department to OPM, which is under consideration, “will not have a detrimental impact
on the ability of OPM to handle its current caseload.”
