Fall 2010 Benefits Timeline for Postal Employees

The 2010 Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) Open Season is scheduled for November 8 through December 14, 2010, 5 p.m. Central Time (CT). Many open season changes may be made via self-service on PostalEASE. During this open season, eligible employees may make any one, or a combination of, the following changes:

• Enroll if not enrolled.

• Change from one plan to another plan.

• Change from one option to another option.

• Change from Self Only to Self and Family.

• Change from Self and Family to Self Only.

• Cancel enrollment.

• Change from pre-tax to post-tax payment of health insurance premiums, or vice versa.

Enrollment changes and new enrollments made during the 2010 Open Season will be effective January 1, 2011 (Pay Period 2-11).

Changes to FEHB Program Dependent Eligibility Rules Under the Affordable Care Act

Children	Effect of ACA
Between ages 22 and 26	Children between the ages of 22 and 26 are covered under their parent’s Self and Family enrollment up to age 26.
Married children	Married children (but not their spouse or their own children) are covered up to age 26. This is true even if the child is currently under age 22.
Children with or eligible for employer-provided health insurance	Children who are eligible for or have their own employer-provided health insurance are eligible for coverage up to age 26.
Stepchildren	Stepchildren do not need to live with the enrollee in a parent-child relationship to be eligible for coverage up to age 26.
Children incapable of self-support	Children who are incapable of self-support because of a mental or physical disability that began before age 26 are eligible to continue coverage. Contact the Human Resources Shared Services Center (HRSSC) at 877-477-3273 option 5; TTY 866-260-7507 for additional information.
Foster children	Foster children are eligible for coverage up to age 26.

Children do not have to live with their parent, be finan­cially dependent upon their parent, or be students to be covered up to age 26. There is also no requirement that the child have prior or current insurance coverage. FEHB pro­gram plans will send notice to all their enrollees of the cov­erage eligibility changes as a part of that plan’s Open Season communications.

In cases where children have employer-provided health insurance and are covered under their parent’s Self and Family enrollment, the children’s employer-provided health insurance will be the primary payer. FEHB will be the sec­ondary payer.

What you must do if you want to add your newly eligible child to your enrollment.

• If you currently have a Self and Family enrollment and you do not change to another health plan or option during Open Season, contact your FEHB plan and give the information on your newly eligible child. Do not complete a PostalEASE FEHB Worksheet or enter dependent information in PostalEASE to add your child to an existing Self and Family enrollment. Your child will be covered on January 1, 2011.

• If you currently have a Self Only enrollment and you have newly eligible children, you must change your enrollment from Self Only to Self and Family if you want your children to be covered. You must complete a PostalEASE FEHB Worksheet and enter enrollment information in PostalEASE to make this change.

• If you are not currently enrolled and you want FEHB coverage since your children are now eligible, you must enroll for Self and Family coverage to provide coverage for your children. You must complete a PostalEASE FEHB Worksheet and enter enrollment information in PostalEASE to make this change.

Important: If you are enrolling or changing your enroll­ment, be sure to include all children up to age 26 when completing your PostalEASE FEHB Worksheet or using PostalEASE.

Distribution of Open Season Materials

Employees

The 2010 Guide to Benefits for (1) Career employees (RI 70-2); (2) Postal Inspection Service and Office of Inspector General (OIG) employees (RI 70-2IN); and (3) Certain tem­porary (noncareer) employees (RI 70-8PS) will be mailed from the national level to each employee’s address of record. Each 2011 Guide to Benefits includes:

• An overview of FEHB Program eligibility require­ments and election choices during open season.

• Overviews of the Federal Employees Dental and Vision Insurance Program (FEDVIP), Flexible Spend­ing Accounts Program (FSA), Federal Employees’ Group Life Insurance Program (FEGLI), and Federal Long Term Care Insurance Program (FLTCIP).

• A comparison of biweekly premium costs of partici­pating plans.

• An explanation of the pre-tax payment feature, including a current listing of qualifying life events.

• FEHB member survey results provided by the individ­ual health plans.

• Information about plans that are committed to the use of health information technology and healthcare quality and price/cost information.

• PostalEASE FEHB Worksheet and PostalEASE Health Savings Account (HSA) Worksheet for employees enrolled in High Deductible Health Plans (HDHP) who wish to make pre-tax payroll contribu­tions to their HSAs.

Employees will also receive the 2011 Guide to Federal Employees Dental and Vision Insurance Program (FEDVIP BK-1).

Installations

To assist in publicizing this FEHB Open Season, all installations are asked to post on bulletin boards the open season notice provided on page 49 of this Postal Bulletin and leave it posted through December 14, 2010.

The Federal Employees Dental and Vision Insurance Program (FEDVIP) open season notice provided on page 51 of this Postal Bulletin should be posted on bulletin boards through December 13, 2010.

The Material Distribution Center (MDC) will make an automatic distribution of most fee-for-service brochures to all customer service district offices, processing and distri­bution centers, airport mail centers, and bulk mail centers, or, if you wish to elect a different Self and Family plan or option than the one you currently have, the Office of Inspector General, selected Postal Inspection Service divi­sions, and selected Headquarters field units.

The Rural Carrier Benefit Plan brochure will be distrib­uted automatically only to district and area Human Resources offices. Additional copies may also be requisi­tioned from the MDC.

The following items may be requisitioned from the MDC:

• RI 70-2, 2010 Guide to Benefits for Career USPS Employees — PSN 7690-03-000-3774.

• RI 70-2IN, 2010 Guide to Benefits for USPS Inspec­tors and Office of Inspector General Employees — PSN 7690-09-000-9077.

• RI 70-5, 2010 Guide to Federal Benefits for Tempo­rary Continuation of Coverage and Former Spouse Enrollees — PSN 7690-03-000-3772.

• RI 70-8 PS, 2010 Guide to Benefits for Certain Tem­porary (Non-career) USPS Employees — PSN 7690-03-000-3754.

• FEDVIP BK-1, 2010 Guide to Federal Employees Dental and Vision Insurance Program for USPS employees (including law enforcement) — PSN 7610-09-000-9112.

Order these items directly from plan sponsors:

• Brochures for health maintenance organizations (HMOs), point-of-service (POS) plans, and high deductible and consumer-driven health plans.

These two forms are available on the Postal Ser­vice™ PolicyNet website:

• PS Form 8201, Pre-Tax Health Insurance Premium Waiver/ Restoration Form for Career Employees.
• PS Form 8202, Pre-Tax Health Insurance Premium Election/Waiver Form for Noncareer Employees.

To find these forms, go to http://blue.usps.gov; under “Essential Links,” click Forms, or contact the Human Resources Shared Service Center at 877-477-3273, option 5; TTY 866-260-7507.

Additional Information

Publication 12, Health Benefits Open Season Adminis­trative and Processing Information (November 2010), addresses FEHB Open Season administrative issues. It contains the following information:

• Open season materials, including details of when and how to requisition a residual supply of materials.

• Eligibility requirements for coverage.

• A list of FEHB health plan withdrawals and other sig­nificant plan changes.

• Comprehensive medical plan (HMO) contact information.

• Personnel processing information.

• Open Season publicity materials.

Publication 12 will be available on the Postal Service PolicyNet website:

• Go to http://blue.usps.gov.

• Under “Essential Links” in the left-hand column, click PolicyNet.

• On the PolicyNet page, click PUBs.

— Compensation, Human Resources, 11-4-10