Are Federal employees losing their health care benefits? Not really, FEHB is still in place. However, some of the Health Plans currently offered to Federal employees will not be around in 2015. The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has announced that 5 health insurance plans are dropping out of the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHB). Employees covered under those plans will have to evaluate other plans for coverage.
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The plans that will be dropping out of the program are Optima Health Plan and Anthem. These plans will no longer offer coverage in Virginia. Coventry Health Care will also no longer be a part of the FEHB coverage discontinuing services in Maryland. Total Health Care USA will stop service in Michigan followed by United Healthcare of the Midwest discontinuing service in Missouri and Illinois.
There are a number of new plans that will be joining FEHB providing a continued and vast array of plans from which to choose. The most significant number of new plans joining FEHB will be HMOs offering service plans in Texas, Virginia, Florida, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Illinois, the District of Columbia and Georgia. This is great news for OPM inasmuch as one of its health care goals is to expand the number of health care maintenance organizations (HMOs) in the Federal plan throughout the nation.
Carriers are traditionally rushing to participate as providers of Health Care Benefits to the largest workforce in the world. However, there is speculation that the new pricing method might have something to do with participation. If I had to wager a bet, I would say it has more to do with enrollment numbers. The number of employees enrolled in the plans that are dropping out of participation probably did not have the kind of participation anticipated. For example, Anthem’s services were primarily offered to Virginians not living within Northern Virginia.
The bottom line is that OPM has always gathered a number of high quality carriers from which Federal employees could choose. OPM will continue to offer that kind of quality service for the Federal workforce. Some carriers are dropping out of the plan but OPM has no shortage of great health care coverage for individuals and their families within the Federal government.
P. S. Always Remember to Share What You Know.
Dianna Tafazoli
