1998 Health Benefits Open Season Date: Fri, 06 Nov 1998 07:14:57 -0500 To: "USGS Employees" From: "Cindy S. Wylie" Subject: Health Benefits Open Season Supervisors, Managers, and Team Leaders: Please ensure that employees without access to e-mail receive a copy of this message. In Reply Refer To: Mail Stop 601 MEMORANDUM To: All USGS Employees From: Robert Hosenfeld Personnel Officer Subject: 1998 Health Benefits Open Season A Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) open season will be held from November 9 through December 14, 1998. Before open season begins, your current health plan should send you a copy of its brochure and a notice of its 1999 rates. During open season, any eligible employee who is not currently registered may enroll, and any eligible enrollee may change from one plan or option to another, from self to self and family, or make a combination of these changes. Enrollees who wish to continue their current enrollments do not need to take any action during this open season. However, enrollees whose plans will not be participating in the FEHB Program after December 31, 1998, or whose plans dropped the enrollment code they are enrolled in, MUST enroll in a different plan to continue FEHB coverage in 1999. Because of the large number of health plan changes for 1999, you should refer to http://www.usgs.gov:8888/ops/hro/benefits/hplanchn.html or http://www.usgs.gov:8888/ops/hro/benefits/index.html for a summary of these plan changes. There are three basic types of plans available under the FEHB Program: 1. Managed Fee-for-Service Plans - These plans reimburse you or your health care provider for covered services after the services are received. If you are enrolled in one of these plans, you may choose your own physicians, hospitals, and other health care providers. Most fee-for-service plans have preferred provider arrangements. By using preferred providers, you can reduce your out-of-pocket expenses. Fee-for-service plans include the Blue Cross/Blue Shield Benefit Plan and plans sponsored by unions and other employee organizations. 2. Health Maintenance Organization Plans (HMOs) - These plans provide a comprehensive array of medical services, emphasizing prevention and early detection of disease, through contracted physicians, hospitals, and other providers in particular locations. Each HMO is open to an employee's enrollment area. You cannot enroll in an HMO if you are located outside its enrollment area. 3. Plans Offering a Point of Service (POS) Product - Some FEHB plans blend their features. A number of fee-for-service and HMO plans now offer both forms of health care services, known as "in network" and "out of network." In an HMO that offers a POS product, the POS product acts like a fee-for-service plan; the HMO's enrollees may use non-affiliated providers if they wish, but this increases the out-of-pocket expenses incurred. Conversely, in a fee-for-service plan with a POS product, the POS product acts like an HMO; if the enrollee agrees to let their medical care be managed by a plan-affiliated gatekeeper physician, plan enrollees will get a better benefit in the form of lower copays or coinsurance. If you are considering enrolling or making a change, you should obtain a copy of the 1999 Guide to Federal Employees Health Benefits Plans. These booklets are available from your servicing personnel office. The FEHB Guide contains a comparison chart that gives general information about each plan and shows the biweekly and monthly rates for each health plan. The Guide also provides the results of the 1998 Customer Satisfaction Survey and the accreditation status of those health plans who participated in the national review. If you decide you are interested in making an enrollment change after review of the FEHB Guide, you should consult the plan's brochure for a complete description of the benefits. If you have access to Internet, you should know that all 1999 FEHB Guides and health plan brochures will be available from the Office of Personnel Management's web site at http://www.opm.gov/insure . The guides and brochures will be available in PDF format for downloading and printing. In addition, the web site will contain links from the guides and brochures to health plan web sites for additional information about the plans. If you wish to make an open season change, you must use Employee Express. To make changes by Employee Express, you may either call the toll-free number at 1-800-827-6254 or use the Internet address at http://www.employeeexpress.gov . You will need your Social Security Number and your Employee Express Personal Identification Number (PIN). Employees who need a new PIN in order to use Employee Express may obtain one by calling the PIN Help Desk at (912) 757-3030. You can also reach Employee Express through the USGS Program Support internet address at http://www.usgs.gov:8888/ops/hro/eexpress/index.html . All open season changes through Employee Express must be made no later than midnight of December 14, 1998. New enrollments and changes to current enrollments elected during this open season generally will be effective January 3, 1999. If you change plans, any covered expenses incurred between January 1, 1999 and January 2, 1999, will count toward the 1998 deductible of the plan you are changing from. Temporary Continuation of Coverage (TCC) - You should be aware that if you leave Federal employment, you will probably be eligible for TCC. This can continue up to 18 months for employees who separate from the Government and up to 36 months for dependents who lose eligibility as family members under your enrollment. This includes spouses who lose coverage due to divorce and children who lose coverage because they marry or reach age 22. TCC enrollees must pay the total plan premium (without a Government contribution) plus a 2 percent charge for administrative expenses. Contact your servicing personnel office for additional information on this feature of the FEHB Program. Please note that information you provide by enrolling in the FEHB Program may also be used for computer matching with Federal, State, or local agencies' files to determine whether you qualify for benefits, payments, or eligibility in the FEHB Program, Medicare or other Government benefits programs. Any questions regarding this year's health benefits open season should be directed to your servicing personnel office. Return-Path: WRD-Distribution-Owner@igsrsparc1.er.usgs.gov Received: from igsrsparc4.er.usgs.GOV (igsrsparc4.er.usgs.gov [130.11.48.55]) by qvarsx.er.usgs.gov (Geomail 1.2.3) with ESMTP id IAA08770; Fri, 6 Nov 1998 08:16:16 -0500 Received: from mailrvao1.er.usgs.GOV (mailrvao1.er.usgs.gov [130.11.62.8]) by igsrsparc4.er.usgs.GOV (EMAIL 1.2.1) with ESMTP id HAA29622 for ; Fri, 6 Nov 1998 07:15:01 -0500 Received: from temp.er.usgs.gov (cwylie.er.usgs.gov [130.11.62.187]) by mailrvao1.er.usgs.GOV (Geomail 1.2.3) with SMTP id HAA15583 for ; Fri, 6 Nov 1998 07:13:13 -0500 Message-Id: <3.0.3.32.19981106071457.0084a100@mailrvao1.er.usgs.gov> X-Sender: cwylie@mailrvao1.er.usgs.gov (Unverified) X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Pro Version 3.0.3 (32) Date: Fri, 06 Nov 1998 07:14:57 -0500 To: "USGS Employees" From: "Cindy S. Wylie" Subject: Health Benefits Open Season Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Supervisors, Managers, and Team Leaders: Please ensure that employees without access to e-mail receive a copy of this message. In Reply Refer To: Mail Stop 601 MEMORANDUM To: All USGS Employees From: Robert Hosenfeld Personnel Officer Subject: 1998 Health Benefits Open Season A Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) open season will be held from November 9 through December 14, 1998. Before open season begins, your current health plan should send you a copy of its brochure and a notice of its 1999 rates. During open season, any eligible employee who is not currently registered may enroll, and any eligible enrollee may change from one plan or option to another, from self to self and family, or make a combination of these changes. Enrollees who wish to continue their current enrollments do not need to take any action during this open season. However, enrollees whose plans will not be participating in the FEHB Program after December 31, 1998, or whose plans dropped the enrollment code they are enrolled in, MUST enroll in a different plan to continue FEHB coverage in 1999. Because of the large number of health plan changes for 1999, you should refer to http://www.usgs.gov:8888/ops/hro/benefits/hplanchn.html or http://www.usgs.gov:8888/ops/hro/benefits/index.html for a summary of these plan changes. There are three basic types of plans available under the FEHB Program: 1. Managed Fee-for-Service Plans - These plans reimburse you or your health care provider for covered services after the services are received. If you are enrolled in one of these plans, you may choose your own physicians, hospitals, and other health care providers. Most fee-for-service plans have preferred provider arrangements. By using preferred providers, you can reduce your out-of-pocket expenses. Fee-for-service plans include the Blue Cross/Blue Shield Benefit Plan and plans sponsored by unions and other employee organizations. 2. Health Maintenance Organization Plans (HMOs) - These plans provide a comprehensive array of medical services, emphasizing prevention and early detection of disease, through contracted physicians, hospitals, and other providers in particular locations. Each HMO is open to an employee's enrollment area. You cannot enroll in an HMO if you are located outside its enrollment area. 3. Plans Offering a Point of Service (POS) Product - Some FEHB plans blend their features. A number of fee-for-service and HMO plans now offer both forms of health care services, known as "in network" and "out of network." In an HMO that offers a POS product, the POS product acts like a fee-for-service plan; the HMO's enrollees may use non-affiliated providers if they wish, but this increases the out-of-pocket expenses incurred. Conversely, in a fee-for-service plan with a POS product, the POS product acts like an HMO; if the enrollee agrees to let their medical care be managed by a plan-affiliated gatekeeper physician, plan enrollees will get a better benefit in the form of lower copays or coinsurance. If you are considering enrolling or making a change, you should obtain a copy of the 1999 Guide to Federal Employees Health Benefits Plans. These booklets are available from your servicing personnel office. The FEHB Guide contains a comparison chart that gives general information about each plan and shows the biweekly and monthly rates for each health plan. The Guide also provides the results of the 1998 Customer Satisfaction Survey and the accreditation status of those health plans who participated in the national review. If you decide you are interested in making an enrollment change after review of the FEHB Guide, you should consult the plan's brochure for a complete description of the benefits. If you have access to Internet, you should know that all 1999 FEHB Guides and health plan brochures will be available from the Office of Personnel Management's web site at http://www.opm.gov/insure . The guides and brochures will be available in PDF format for downloading and printing. In addition, the web site will contain links from the guides and brochures to health plan web sites for additional information about the plans. If you wish to make an open season change, you must use Employee Express. To make changes by Employee Express, you may either call the toll-free number at 1-800-827-6254 or use the Internet address at http://www.employeeexpress.gov . You will need your Social Security Number and your Employee Express Personal Identification Number (PIN). Employees who need a new PIN in order to use Employee Express may obtain one by calling the PIN Help Desk at (912) 757-3030. You can also reach Employee Express through the USGS Program Support internet address at http://www.usgs.gov:8888/ops/hro/eexpress/index.html . All open season changes through Employee Express must be made no later than midnight of December 14, 1998. New enrollments and changes to current enrollments elected during this open season generally will be effective January 3, 1999. If you change plans, any covered expenses incurred between January 1, 1999 and January 2, 1999, will count toward the 1998 deductible of the plan you are changing from. Temporary Continuation of Coverage (TCC) - You should be aware that if you leave Federal employment, you will probably be eligible for TCC. This can continue up to 18 months for employees who separate from the Government and up to 36 months for dependents who lose eligibility as family members under your enrollment. This includes spouses who lose coverage due to divorce and children who lose coverage because they marry or reach age 22. TCC enrollees must pay the total plan premium (without a Government contribution) plus a 2 percent charge for administrative expenses. Contact your servicing personnel office for additional information on this feature of the FEHB Program. Please note that information you provide by enrolling in the FEHB Program may also be used for computer matching with Federal, State, or local agencies' files to determine whether you qualify for benefits, payments, or eligibility in the FEHB Program, Medicare or other Government benefits programs. Any questions regarding this year's health benefits open season should be directed to your servicing personnel office.