Check if your preferred physicians and other care providers remain available in networks under the plan. Image: MedstockPhotos/Shutterstock.com
By: FEDweek StaffIn practice during annual federal benefits open seasons, only low single-digit percentages of enrollees annually change plans, levels of coverage within plans that have more than one, or type of enrollment (between family coverage and self plus one, for example).
Experts advise that enrollees also should, at the minimum:
* review their plan’s new premiums (while the enrollee share of FEHB premiums on average is increasing by 13.5 percent and the average PSHB increase will be 11.1 percent in plans there compared with their 2024 FEHB versions, within those averages there are variations among plans, including some decreases);
* review their plan’s benefits package (plan brochures contain a page highlighting changes from the prior year);
* understand what is happening with out-of-pocket costs such as deductibles and copays;
* check if their preferred physicians and other care providers remain available in networks under the plan; and
* look into the costs and terms of other plans available to them at least enough to see whether they merit a closer look.
Another issue to watch is that in some plans, self plus one coverage is more expensive than family coverage (although in many cases the difference is minor).
That anomaly is largely due to the high rates of enrollment of late-career employees and retirees—who on average are older and consume more health care—in self plus one.
An enrollee who is seeking coverage for just one other individual is free to choose the family option.
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