Thread: FEHBP 2009 Open Season

I have Humana HMO for the past four years. Although some doctors are not part of the plan, most are. The payroll deduction is 50% of the Blue Cross amount. THere is no deductable and the co-pays are extremely low. I had surgery and only had to pay a $125 co pay. Office visits cost $25, and drugs are low.

The final day to make FEHB changes is Monday!

I did all my final comparisons and after the yellow haze from the highlighter pen subsided, my final picks are:

- Aetna for my primary insurance (changing from BCBS because of the premium raises and benefit reductions)

- MetLife for my dental

- FEB Blue High Option for my vision

It was all a matter of cost/benefit ratios but everybody is different in their particular needs. I can't believe the kilowatts of computer time and acres of trees that died before I finally had my answer!

Now I'm going to get the changes done this weekend before the websites get too backed up. Good luck with your decisions!

Lady

Originally Posted by XL-entLady

The final day to make FEHB changes is Monday!

From Federal Soup message board____originally posted by sam8:

Because of the dust-up over BCBS Standard's 2009 change re: non-participating surgeons (the $7,500 out of pocket), OPM has announced, in essence, an extension of Open Season for health plans and an intent to provide additional protection for using out of network surgeons. Please see Breaking News at the OPM site: http://www.opm.gov/news/opm-to-provi...eons,1443.aspx and Joe Davidson's Dec. 5 Federal Diary column in the Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...120502782.html
RECOMMEND CHECKING FOR DETAILS BEFORE ANYONE DELAYS TAKING OPEN SEASON ACTION, especially as OPM announcement (currently) does not reference retirees.[/QUOTE]rom Federal Soup message board:

For those of you who may not have visited Squale's home thread for a few days (and if you haven't, you're missing out, he's one of the very best) I just wanted to make sure that you get a chance to see this article on the change in coverages that BCBS is proposing for 2009.

Pay special attention to the information at the very bottom of the article that starts out, "Other noteworthy changes...."

http://www.tsptalk.com/mb/showpost.p...postcount=2670

Lady

The latest (that I can locate) in the continuing saga:

http://blogs.govexec.com/fedblog/200...tle_longer.php

http://www.opm.gov/news/opm-to-provi...eons,1443.aspx

Note that the possibility of late enrollment changes is mentioned:
"Subscribers who want to change carriers after reviewing any additional information about plan benefits will have until the end of January 2009 to select a health plan but must first go to their personnel office and complete an enrollment request form and fill in “belated open season enrollment/change.”

Not sure how retirees like me would accomplish this. Does the extention apply to retirees?

“I am very pleased to see that OPM has heeded our advice and extended the open enrollment period. Federal employees and retirees need this extra time to reevaluate their health plans, and I appreciate that they will be given it,” stated Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD)."

Rep. Cummings thinks so.

So am I going to stick with Blue Cross? I DON"T KNOW YET! If things like doubling the out-of-pocket cost for prescription drugs remains the same for 2009, I'm still switching to Aetna. And I'm still not sure that retirees have the Open Season extension. But I will be scrambling to find out before COB today.

I'll try to keep you all informed. Good luck,

Lady

P.S. If anyone gets any additional information, PLEASE share with us!

I switched to Mailhandlers this morning, if for no other reason than just to SPITE BCBS. Now they may change the $7,500 penalty to make it more visible or some other BS change. The 13% raise along with the rest of the cuts did it for me. I had Mailhandlers before (after Postmasters raised their prices) but they raised the price back then so I went with BCBS, I've gone 360 now!! Kinda like selling High and Buying Low.

http://www.opm.gov/insure/openseason/index.asp

Here is the official OPM notification that Open Season has been extended. It is my impression that this extension applies to employees and retirees alike.

I still switched my insurance over the weekend and I have not switched it back. I don't plan to switch back to BCBS unless they cancel their premium increases and their doubling of out of pocket drug costs and I don't think that will happen.

Interesting Open Season this year. They wait until 3 days before the closing date to start addressing these things? Ya' think they figured we weren't paying attention?

Well they found out they were wrong!

Lady

I need to do better on the cost benefit analysis with regards to my health insurance. Right now I use BCBS, but only because I have been since day 1.

I wish there were some online planning tool that took the different expenditure types coupled with the different plan premiums and output the best cost plan for those expenditures.

I have had Blue Cross for my entire federal career and for the past three years in retirement. I switched to GEHA standard coverage because its less than 50% Blue standard. I just hope I do not need hospitalization because then I would likely pay more out of pocket.

I could not find the typical cost for semi-private hospital room and and board. I needed this to do a fair comparison. With GEHA I pay 15%, after $350 deductable, and with Blue Cross Standard $200 per admission, and $100X5 for Blue Cross Basic (max $500). I did a GOOGLE on "cost for hospital room semi-private", but cannot find anything.

Originally Posted by ChemEng

I need to do better on the cost benefit analysis with regards to my health insurance. Right now I use BCBS, but only because I have been since day 1.

I wish there were some online planning tool that took the different expenditure types coupled with the different plan premiums and output the best cost plan for those expenditures.

https://www.plansmartchoice.com/registration.aspx

This may be what you're looking for. Hope it helps.

Lady

Originally Posted by EW_ret

I have had Blue Cross for my entire federal career and for the past three years in retirement. I switched to GEHA standard coverage because its less than 50% Blue standard. I just hope I do not need hospitalization because then I would likely pay more out of pocket.

I could not find the typical cost for semi-private hospital room and and board. I needed this to do a fair comparison. With GEHA I pay 15%, after $350 deductable, and with Blue Cross Standard $200 per admission, and $100X5 for Blue Cross Basic (max $500). I did a GOOGLE on "cost for hospital room semi-private", but cannot find anything.

I wonder if that is because costs vary so wildly from place to place that there is no median cost?

I probably didn't pay as much attention to that as I should have. My medical costs are always prescription drugs and tests (like 3 hours in an MRI tube a couple of times a year ).

Please let us know if you find out anything. Thanks!

Lady