Federal employees and retirees will want to take note of a number of upcoming changes that will impact some plans under the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHB) in 2022.
The Office of Personnel Management announced the changes last week. Included among them are a number of plans that are leaving the FEHB.
FEHB plans getting dropped in 2022 and the locations impacted are the following:
- UnitedHealthcare Advantage (all contiguous states and Washington, DC)
- Union Health Service (Illinois in Cook, DuPage, Kane, Kendall, Lake, and Will counties)
- True Health New Mexico (New Mexico)
- GlobalHealth (Oklahoma)
- Quartz Health Benefit Plans Corporation (Wisconsin South Central Wisconsin: Adams, Buffalo, Columbia, Crawford, Dane, Dodge, Fond du Lac, Grant,Green, Green Lake, Iowa, Jackson,Jefferson, Juneau, La Crosse, Lafayette, Marquette, Monroe, Richland, Rock, Sauk, Trempealeau, Vernon, Walworth, Waukesha, and Waushara counties)
Federal employees under these plans must enroll in a new plan during open season. If they do not enroll in a new plan, their employing agency will enroll them in GEHA Indemnity Benefit Plan Elevate (the lowest-cost nationwide plan option for 2022 as determined by OPM).
Any federal employees who are currently under FEHB plans reducing service areas and terminating enrollment codes (table 2 in OPM’s memo) must also enroll in a new plan during this year’s open season.
One new plan is entering the FEHB in 2022. HealthKeepers, Inc. will be available in Virginia as a high deductible health plan (HDHP).
Among the other changes announced by OPM are FEHB plans reducing service areas and terminating enrollment codes, plans terminating options and enrollment codes, and plans adding options and new enrollment codes. See OPM’s document outlining all of the changes for complete details.
This year’s open season will run from Monday, November 8 through Monday, December 13, 2021. Open season is the time for federal employees and retirees to ensure that they have the right health, dental or vision insurance coverage for themselves and their families and make any changes needed to their insurance benefits.
FEHB premiums will increase on average by 2.4% in 2022. The share of FEHB premiums paid by federal employees and retirees will increase by an average of 3.8% in 2022.
