Changing FEHB Enrollment During Open Season
Each year, an Open Season is held for FEHB Program enrollees to change health
plans and/or the type of enrollment they have. For information on the 2010 FEHB open
season click
here.
Eligible employees may also enroll during this time. Open Season runs from
the Monday of the second full workweek in November through the Monday of the
second full workweek in December
There are limited opportunities to enroll, cancel your enrollment, or change
your enrollment outside of an Open Season.
Each year, in early November, your current Federal Emloyee Health Benefits
plan provider sends you a brochure, and your retirement office sends you
instructions for ordering brochures and making Open Season changes.
It is very important that you keep your address up to date to
ensure that you receive your Open Season materials each year. If you move,
please be sure to let your retirement office know your new address. Any address
request sent to OPM must have your CSA or CSF claim number so that we can
identify you
Your new plan will mail you an identification card. If you need services
before you receive your new card, contact your new plan at the member services
number in your brochure.
If you decide not to change your enrollment, do not respond to the Open
Season material. Your coverage under your current health plan continues
automatically.
Cancellation
You may voluntarily cancel your enrollment at any time. If you cancel, you
will not be entitled to a 31-day extension of coverage for conversion to a
non-group (private) policy and neither you nor your family members will be
entitled to a temporary continuation of coverage (TCC). Once your cancellation
takes effect, you will not be able to enroll again as a retiree unless you have
been continuously covered as a family member under another enrollment in the
FEHB since the date of your cancellation, and you lose the coverage because the
enrollment ends or the enrolle changes from self and family to self only.
Suspension
- You may suspend your FEHB enrollment for any of the following reasons:
- to enroll in a Medicare Advantage plan (these are Health Maintenance
Organizations of Fee-for-Service plans approved by the Centers for Medicare and
Medicaid Services):
- because you are eligible under Medicaid or a similar state-sponsored program
of medical assistance for the needy; or
- because you have coverage under Peace Corps, TRICARE, TRICARE For Life, or
CHAMPVA military program
For more information on how to suspend your FEHB enrollment, contact your
retirement office. Time limitations and other restrictions apply. For instance,
you must submit eligibility documentation that you are suspending FEHB to enroll
in one of the other programs listed in case you wish to reenroll in the FEHB
Program at a later time.
If you have suspended FEHB coverage for one of the eligible programs (and
submitted the required documentation) but now want to enroll in the FEHB Program
again, you may enroll during Open Season. You may reenroll outside Open Season
only if you move out of the Medicare Advantage plan's service area, or you
involuntarily lose coverage under one of the eligible programs. If you cancel
your coverage for any reason, you cannot reenroll.
Coordination of FEHB benefits with Medicare or other
coverage
If the original Medicare Plan is your primary payer, which is generally the
case if you have Medicare and are not working, check the plan brochure to see if
the plan waives some of its FEHB cost-sharing (e.g., deductibles, coinsurance,
or copayments.)
If you are interested in an HMO plan, some FEHB HMOs also offer Medicare
Advantage plans. Information on coordinating benefits with other coverage,
original Medicare or Medicare Advantage is available in Section 9 of the plan
brochures.
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