On August 6, 1999, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) issued FEHB Program Carrier Letter 1999-034 to clarify who is responsible for notifying the plans of certain FEHB Program enrollment changes.

In the letter, we stated that enrollees are responsible for telling plans about certain changes to self and family enrollments that do not affect premium withholdings. These include:

• addition of certain dependents (such as natural children);
• addition of a spouse;
• removal of a spouse due to death or divorce.

The plans are to accept these changes and additions directly from the enrollees without a completed SF 2809 Health Benefits Election Form or any other agency verification. We told the plans that we support agency attempts to reduce their workload by not producing the "information only" SF 2809s many plans requested.

At the recent Fall Festival of Training, employees of several agencies indicated that many plan representatives are unaware of Carrier Letter 1999-034 and are still requesting agencies to complete a SF 2809 to add family members in these situations.

Attached is a copy of Carrier Letter 1999-034 for your information. Please refer plans to the Carrier Letter whenever they request an unnecessary "information only" SF 2809. In addition, feel free to FAX a copy of the Carrier Letter if necessary. A copy of the Carrier Letter may convince plan representatives to stop seeking these SF 2809s.

Abby L. Block, Chief Insurance Policy    and Information Division

Attachment

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