Federal government employees have a variety of health insurance options.
The Office of Personnel Management administers the health care benefit options for federal sector employees. The federal government provides its employees with dozens of health care insurance options to select from once the employee has worked for 60 days and enrolls within an open enrollment period.
Health Insurance Plans
Federal employees choose their insurance plan through the Federal Employees Health Benefits program. The program provides several different health care options including Health Maintenance Organization and Preferred Provider Organization plans. Employees may choose from several different premium and deductible options including lower premium options with higher deductibles or out-of-pocket fees. Employees must enroll in the program within 60 days from the beginning of their employment. Employees who do not enroll within this timeframe must wait for the government's open-season enrollment periods provided annually. The health care premiums are deducted from the employee's paycheck and subsidized by the federal government. Generally, all federal employees are eligible to receive Federal Employees Health Benefits coverage with one of its participating providers unless specifically disallowed by law according to the agency's rules.
Health Insurance Options
Within the Federal Employees Health Benefits program, the federal government offers over two dozen health care provider options. Choices include Aetna, SAMBA, Blue Cross and Blue Shield and Kaiser Foundation plans. Participants choose from different coverage providers depending upon where the federal employee lives. Most of the Health Maintenance Organization plans only provide access to doctors and hospitals near the employee's state of residency. The federal government provides a website and searchable database through the Office of Personnel Management for employees to select and compare the differences between each program. Typically, health care plans charge more for family coverage than coverage for the employee alone. The federal government selects the different insurance plans based on employees' requests, cost-savings benefits for employees and the ease of the plan's administration.
Health Flex Spending Plans
The federal government provides flexible spending account programs allowing government employees to pay for their out-of-pocket healthcare costs using pretax money. Government employees may opt into this plan within a 60-day period from employment. However, the government provides employees with an annual open enrollment season to join in the program.
Federal Vision and Dental
The vision and dental program, also known as FEDVIP, provides employees with dental and vision coverage if they enroll in a government health insurance program. There is no government subsidization for this vision and dental coverage unlike the health insurance subsidization. Employees must fund 100 percent of the monthly premiums, but may automatically pay for costs through pretax paycheck withdrawals.
Long-Term or Palliative Care
The federal government provides its employees with long-term health care options to cover the costs of skilled nursing facilities or palliative care hospices. Employees may choose coverage at any point since there is open enrollment all year long. Many employees nearing retirement choose to participate in the long-term care coverage since Medicare insurance plans typically pay only limited amounts of skilled nursing care. The federal government does not subsidize costs for participating in the long-term care program.
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