Postal Service annuitants who retire and become Medicare-eligible after December 31, 2024, and their Medicare-eligible family members, will be required to enroll in Medicare Part B. Image: Picturesque Japan/Shutterstock.com
By: FEDweek StaffAn inspector general audit has said that OPM is meeting its milestones toward standing up a new health insurance program in 2025 for postal employees and those who retire starting in that year, although cautioning that it “is a large program to implement within a limited timeframe.”
The report comes with less than a year left before OPM will have to conduct an initial open season for the new Postal Service Health Benefits program, which will replace the FEHB for some 1.7 million enrollees and covered family members. The PSHB is to generally mirror the FEHB, at least in its early years, although the two populations will form their own premium pools with what OPM has conceded will be an uncertain impact on premiums for each.
Also, with limited exceptions, Postal Service annuitants who retire and become Medicare-eligible after December 31, 2024, and their Medicare-eligible family members, will be required to enroll in Medicare Part B as a condition of eligibility to enroll in the PSHB.
The IG cited OPM’s creation of a program management plan for carrying out the changes, ordered by a 2022 postal reform law, including assigning responsibility for the pieces of the project and covering topics such as risk management. However, OPM did not have a fully developed schedule and a tool to track progress in meeting milestones until mid-2023.
The report also noted that under the law, OPM must put in place policies including a process for members to be informed timely of the enrollment requirements; provisions for enrolled members to request a belated change to their plan and be prospectively enrolled in a plan of their choice; and provisions for members to cancel their coverage because they choose not to enroll in or to disenroll from Medicare part B.
Also still ahead, it said, is setting up a new “Carrier Connect” system for carriers to apply to the program and record applications and communications between carriers and OPM, with later features to include negotiating rates and holding information on provider networks, prescription drug formularies and more.
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