You may voluntarily cancel your enrollment at any time. However, once your cancellation takes effect, you probably will not be able to enroll again as a retiree. You will not be entitled to a 31- day extension of coverage for conversion to a non-group (private) policy and neither you nor your family members will be entitled to temporarily continue coverage.

You will not be able to reenroll in FEHB except under the following circumstances:

• You have been continuously covered as a family member under another enrollment in the FEHB since the date of your cancellation, and you lose the coverage because the enrollment ends or the enrollee changes from self and family to self only; or
• You suspended your FEHB coverage to enroll in a Medicare Advantage plan (these are Health Maintenance Organization or Fee-for-Service plans approved by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services), or because you are eligible under Medicaid or a similar state-sponsored program of medical assistance for the needy, or because you are enrolled with tricare, tricare For Life or CHAMPVA military program.

For more information on how to suspend your FEHB enrollment, contact your retirement office. Time limitations and other restrictions apply. For instance, you must submit eligibility documentation that you are suspending FEHB to enroll in one of the other programs listed in case you wish to reenroll in the FEHB Program at a later time.

If you have suspended FEHB coverage for one of the eligible programs (and submitted the required documentation) but now want to enroll in the FEHB Program again, you may enroll during Open Season. You may reenroll outside Open Season only if you move out of the Medicare Advantage plan's service area, or you involuntarily lose coverage under one of the eligible programs. If you cancel your coverage for any reason, you cannot reenroll.

If the original Medicare Plan is your primary payer, which is generally the case if you have Medicare and are not working, check the plan brochure to see if the plan waives some of its FEHB cost-sharing (e.g., deductibles, coinsurance, or copayments.

If you are interested in an HMO plan, some FEHB HMOs also offer Medicare Advantage plans. Information on coordinating benefits with other coverage, original Medicare or Medicare Advantage is available in Section 9 of the plan brochures