Open Season Coming Up

By: fedweek

Starting next Monday (November 12) and running through December 10 the government is conducting its annual benefits open season enrollment period, affecting the FEHB, FEDVIP and flexible spending account programs. The open season is when eligible persons can enroll, change plans or change levels of coverage. For most employees and retirees, most of the focus is on FEHB, where premium rates are increasing by about 2 percent on average for the 2008 plan year. However, there is substantial variation within that average and several popular plans are increasing their premiums at a much higher rate. There will be about the same number of plans in 2008 as in 2007, but within that stability, 14 plans are dropping out and 13 new plans are joining. The dropouts have about 29,000 enrollees altogether. Other changes to note are a restructuring of the Mail Handlers fee-for-service offerings and the addition of several high-deductible options.