OPM will provide notice should it determine that modifications to Open Season dates are necessary. Image: Mark Van Scyoc/Shutterstock.com
By: FEDweek StaffOPM guidance on the now-ended shutdown notes that insurance benefits continued for those who went unpaid, and that the value of premium payments that employees didn’t make while in unpaid status are to be made up from their back pay.
Employees returning to paid status, “will repay their share of FEHB premiums that accumulated during the lapse through payroll withholding. If FEHB premiums are not withheld from retroactive pay, one additional payment in addition to the current pay period amount will be withheld in each subsequent pay period until the employee’s accumulated share of premiums has been paid,” it says.
(Note: Postal employees continued to be paid during the shutdown, so this consideration does not apply to the parallel PSHB program.)
While the first three days of the annual benefits open season—which continues through December 8—fell during the shutdown, it adds, “OPM is not adjusting Open Season dates at this time . . . OPM will provide notice should it determine that modifications to Open Season dates are necessary. OPM encourages agencies to use their belated enrollment authority to accept requests for enrollment or change in enrollment if the employee is unable to make the request before Open Season ends,” it says.
Agencies meanwhile “may use their belated enrollment authority to extend the period for the employee to submit the request for enrollment or change in enrollment” if a deadline for a change due to a life event was missed because of the shutdown.
Unpaid FEGLI, FEDVIP and FLTCIP premiums similarly are to be collected either from back pay or from future pay (in the case of FLTCIP, enrollees may repay from another source directly to the provider).
FSAFEDS will resume processing claims for eligible health care expenses incurred during nonpay status. Claims based on dates of service prior to the start of nonpay status will be paid up to the balance of the employee’s annual election. The remaining FSAFEDS allotments for the year will be recalculated over the remaining pay periods to match the participant’s annual election amount.
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