Changing Enrollment During Open Season
Each year, in early November, your current health benefits
plan sends you a brochure, and your retirement office
sends you instructions for ordering brochures and
making Open Season changes. It is very important that you
keep your address up to date to ensure that you receive your
Open Season materials each year. If you move, please be sure
to let your retirement office know your new address. Any
address request sent to OPM must have your CSA or CSF claim
number so that we can identify you.
Your new plan will mail you an identification card. If you
need services before you receive your new
card, contact your new plan at the member
services number in your brochure.
If you decide not to change your enrollment,
do not respond to the Open Season material.
Your coverage under your current health plan
continues automatically.
Cancellation - You may voluntarily cancel
your enrollment at any time. If you cancel,
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 a
temporary continuation of coverage (TCC). Once your
cancellation takes effect, you will not be able to enroll
again as a retiree unless 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.
Suspension - You may suspend your FEHB enrollment
for any of the following reasons:
- to enroll in a Medicare Advantage plan (these are
Health Maintenance Organizations or Fee-for-Service
plans approved by the Centers for Medicare and
Medicaid Services);
- because you are eligible under Medicaid or a similar
state-sponsored program of medical assistance for the
needy; or
- because you have coverage under Peace Corps,
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 from one of those
eligible programs for any reason, you cannot reenroll in
FEHB until Open Season.
Coordination of FEHB benefits with Medicare or
other coverage - If the original Medicare Plan is your
primary payor, 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