A review of the program’s finances is widely expected to result in an increase in premiums, at least for future enrollees. Image: Panchenko Vladimir/Shutterstock.com
By: FEDweek StaffOPM has sent out a reminder that the Federal Long-Term Care Insurance Program is not accepting new applications to enroll nor requests by current enrollees to increase coverage, and that “current enrollees remain covered during the suspension period, with the benefit package they selected, as long as they pay their premiums.”
The “benefits administration letter” follows a rule OPM published last fall suspending new applications to enroll or increase benefits effective December 18, 2022 pending a review of the program’s finances—a review that is widely expected to result in an increase in premiums, at least for future enrollees. That suspension currently is scheduled to remain in effect until December 2024 although it could be shortened or lengthened, the notice says.
The notice also calls attention to a change that will affect newly hired employees and their family members once that period ends. The FLTCIP “is a medically-underwritten program. Underwriting is the process of reviewing medical and health-related information provided in an insurance application to determine if the individual presents an acceptable level of risk to be considered insurable,” it says.
The program traditionally has required newly hired employees and their spouses to use a shortened form of underwriting if they apply within the 60 days. Once applications again are allowed, fuller underwriting always will apply except if the program conducts a “special application period.”
That term will be used instead of “open season” to “reduce confusion between a FLTCIP abbreviated underwriting opportunity and the annual federal benefits open season,” the notice says. The FLTCIP does not conduct such periods regularly but rather only when connected to pending increases in premiums.
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