The FEHB Five Year Requirement and Your Spouse

In this follow up to his article on the FEHB and the five year requirement, FedSmith.com author John Grobe provides clarification based on questions he received from readers asking if the five year requirement also applies to a federal employee’s spouse.

FedSmith recently posted an article of mine that dealt with the requirement that an individual must have been enrolled in Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) for the five years immediately preceding retirement in order to carry said insurance into retirement. (See FEHB and the Five Year Requirement)

One of the points made regarding FEHB follows:

  • The five years refers to your enrollment.  Your spouse does not have to be enrolled for the five years immediately preceding your retirement in order to be covered.  You can bring your spouse on your insurance at any time before retirement, or even after retirement.  Do be aware that if you die after retirement but before bringing your spouse on your FEHB, your spouse will not be able to continue FEHB, even if you have elected a survivor annuity.

I was concerned that many employees who contacted me after the article appeared had been told by their human resources offices and by pre-retirement seminar providers that the five year requirement also applied to the employee’s spouse.  Some other readers said that they were told that their spouse needed to be enrolled at least one day before the employee retired.  Nothing could be further from the truth.

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) clearly lists the requirements for a spouse to continue FEHB coverage after an employee’s or retiree’s death in both the FEHB Handbook and the FEHB FAQS.  The requirements are as follows:

  • The spouse must be enrolled on a self and family plan as of the date of the employee/retiree’s death.
  • The spouse must be entitled to receive a survivor annuity.

That’s it.  OPM lists no further requirements.

As long as the two requirements above are met as of the date of the employee/retiree’s death, it does not matter whether or not the spouse was enrolled at the time of retirement or five years before.

Agencies can request to have John Grobe, or another of Federal Career Experts' qualified instructors, deliver a retirement or transition seminar to their employees. FCE instructors are not financial advisers and will not sell or recommend financial products to class participants. Agency Benefits Officers can contact John Grobe at johnfgrobe@comcast.net to discuss schedules and costs.

About the Author

John Grobe is President of Federal Career Experts, a firm that provides pre-retirement training and seminars to a wide variety of federal agencies. FCE’s instructors are all retired federal retirement specialists who educate class participants on the ins and outs of federal retirement and benefits; there is never an attempt to influence participants to invest a certain way, or to purchase any financial products. John and FCE specialize in retirement for special category employees, such as law enforcement officers.