Search results for can you save money by enrolling in fehb self plus one
164 articles found
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Can you Save Money by Enrolling in FEHB Self Plus One?
Married couples with no children to cover, and single parents with one child to cover, can enroll as self plus one rather than as a family and, depending on the plan, usually save two or three
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How Retired Couples Can Save Money by Choosing Self-Only FEHB Enrollment
For a husband and wife who are both Federal annuitants and who have no dependent children, it is possible to save on premium costs by enrolling separately as self only rather than together as self
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Should I suspend FEHB coverage and just have Medicare Advantage?
If you join a commercial MA plan, not FEHB Medicare Advantage plans, you can temporarily suspend your FEHB enrollment and stop paying two sets of premiums. Under the suspend option, you pay the Part
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How Much Money Can I Save by Switching FEHB Plans?
Whether your family's circumstances are "average" or unusual, some HMOs, some national plans such as Blue Cross Basic and GEHA Standard option, and several High-Deductible plans offer big savings
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Self Plus One Cheaper
Most, but not all plans, charge a lower premium for a Self plus One enrollment than for a Self Family enrollment for a couple or a single parent with one child.
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How to Save Money on FEHB Coverage and Healthcare Costs
With the average enrollee share of FEHB premium increasing 7.7% next year, most federal employees will pay more for health insurance in 2024. We’ll analyze this premium hike and walk you through
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Expect to see Improved Fertility Coverage from FEHB Plans in 2024
OPM released their annual carrier call letter that outlines the goals and initiatives federal employees can see from FEHB plans in 2024. One of the biggest changes is fertility coverage. From the OPM
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13 FEHB Open Season Tips
Getting "Free" Health Insurance—Some Consumer-Driven and High Deductible FEHB plans provide you a savings account larger than your actual premium cost after taxes. You can end the year with more
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Are Consumer Driven Health Plans the Right FEHB Plan Type for You?
Consumer Driven Health Plans (CDHPs) have been around for a while, but we still get a lot of questions about them. Here’s why they’re one of the lowest-cost plans in FEHB. How CDHPs work CDHPs have
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A Closer Look at 2024 FEHB Premiums
Federal employees and annuitants will, on average, pay 7.7% more in FEHB premiums next year. OPM cites increased cost and use of prescription drugs, emergency room care, and outpatient care as the
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What's New in FEHB for 2024
Every year it’s important to review what’s new in FEHB. As in previous years, there are significant premium, benefit, and plan availability changes that will affect both active and retired federal
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How to Get FEHB Plan Information
The OPM website has plan brochures and a great deal of other useful information. There are three additional ways to get brochures: Attend health fairs Call the plan Visit the plan website You change
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What Federal Annuitants Need to Know about Medicare Part D for 2024
Federal annuitants will have higher healthcare costs in 2024. The enrollee share for FEHB premiums is rising 7.7%, and the standard Medicare Part B premium is increasing 5.9%, or $9.80, to
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FEHB & Medicare Advantage
Federal retirees have Medicare Advantage (MA) plans to consider joining. Our analysis shows that some of these offerings are an outstanding value. Aetna, APWU, Compass Rose, Kaiser, GEHA, MHBP, Rural
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How the FEHB Program Works
The Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHB) is an unconventional government program. Instead of giving you one "take it or leave it" choice, the government authorizes plans to compete for
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How to Coordinate a FEHB Plan with Other Insurance
You cannot use our cost rankings directly if you have health insurance coverage from another source. The best FEHB plan for you depends on the cost and benefit structure of the other plan, though
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Big Changes in How Federal Annuitants Receive Prescription Drug Benefits in 2024 and Beyond
Major Medicare Part D reforms were enacted in the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA). Some of the legislation’s provisions seek to lower prescription drug costs for both Medicare beneficiaries and
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What You Need to Know About Vision Care in the FEHB Program
All FEHB plans pay for medically necessary care of your eyes, such as cataract surgery. Many pay for annual refractive examinations to determine your prescription for eyeglasses or contact lens, and
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What You Need to Know About Dental Care in the FEHB Program
Plans' dental benefits differ widely in details, and many of the brochures use technical terminology such as "gingival" (gum, in English), "alveolar" (the part of the jawbone that holds teeth in
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Should I Purchase a FEDVIP Dental or Vision Plan?
The Federal government offers standalone "FEDVIP" dental and vision plans, separate and distinct from the FEHB program. The FEDVIP program shares the same Open Season dates as the FEHB program, but
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Should Federal Annuitants Stay Enrolled in the FEHB program after Age 65?
You could drop FEHB coverage once you enroll in Parts A and B. But this would be a bad decision. Medicare Part B requires you to pay 20 percent of the cost of doctors’ fees, and deductibles, with no
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TRICARE
Would it be advantageous for me to enroll in TRICARE (I am retired military) rather than remaining with my FEHB plan? In general, TRICARE is a better choice than any FEHB plan, because its benefits
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Should I Use Non-Preferred Providers With My FEHB Plan?
You face far higher costs if you use non-preferred providers in most plans, though many plans remove this cost if you have Medicare Parts A & B. Plans not only charge you more for deductibles,
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FEHB Plan Brochures
You can download PDF copies of plan brochures at the Checkbook, OPM, and plan websites, and either use them online or as print copies. Plan brochures are necessary to determine what benefits each
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What Federal Employees Need to Know About FEHB Premium Conversion
Federal employees shelter their share of the FEHB plan premium from income taxes through what is called "Premium Conversion." Employees have the right to opt out of this program. This increases very
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What Part-Time Employees Need to Know About the FEHB Program
Many career Federal employees work part-time schedules. In these cases, most government agencies do not pay the regular share of the premium. Instead, employees receive a pro rata amount based on
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Limitations on FEHB Enrollment
Many plans are open to all employees. However, HMOs require that you live or work in their service area, and a few plans require that you work for a particular agency or join a specific union. Most
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High Deductible Health Plans
I am confused regarding the difference between a consumer directed health plan with a health reimbursement account and a high deductible health plan that can have a health savings account. What sets
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How to use Checkbook's Guide to Health Plans for Federal Employees
We prepared the Guide because we know that choosing the right plan can be difficult, even if you have time to read hundreds of pages in plan brochures. The coverage details are hard to understand and
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FEHB Plan Quality
For traditional fee-for-service insurance plans, service quality used to be a minor issue. The main service concerns were how easily you could get help from plan representatives regarding coverage
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FEHB Plan Catastrophic Limits
The most important reason for buying health insurance is to protect you against financial catastrophe. You may, therefore, wish to approach plan selection by comparing plans based on potential
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Nursing Care Benefits in the FEHB Program
There are four kinds of nursing care: Skilled care while in a hospital. Skilled care in a special extended or skilled care facility. Care in your own home provided by visiting nurses. Custodial care
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Hearing Aid Benefits in the FEHB Program
All plans cover medical problems, such as infections, that affect any part of your body, including your ears. All plans cover routine hearing testing for children. Almost all will pay most of the
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Outpatient Mental Benefits in the FEHB Program
OPM has long required that plans pay the same benefits for physician visits or hospital stays whether due to either physical or mental illness. This requirement is called "parity," and, at face
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Medicare
I'm a retired Federal employee with FEHB health insurance. My insurer is telling me I have to use Medicare part A. I don't want to use it because that's taxpayers money. I paid for insurance coverage
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Why FEHB Premiums Vary
The General Schedule (GS) employee and retiree share of the annual premium varies widely among plans. In national plans it ranges from about $1,400 to almost $4,000 for individuals, and from about
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What the End of the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency Means for FEHB Coverage
On May 11, 2023, the Department of Health and Human Services ended the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency (PHE). As a result, some FEHB benefit provisions enacted by OPM will change going forward. OPM
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When is the 2024 FEHB Open Season?
The 2024 FEHB Open Season will run from November 13, 2023 through December 11, 2023. Open Season starts every year on the Monday of the second full work week in November and ends on the Monday of the
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Spousal Insurance
My husband is retiring and we are trying to decide if he should be put on my insurance plan. My concern is, if I were to pass away would he still be covered or would he have to find his own? Any
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Why Every Federal Employee Should Have a Flexible Spending Account (FSA)
Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs) provide a way to shelter even more health care spending from taxes. FSAs allow you to shelter the out-of-pocket costs that you incur for copayments, coinsurance,
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Deductibles, Copayments, and Coinsurance in the FEHB Program
You can use cost sharing details to assist you in choosing a plan by pinpointing strengths and weaknesses for items of particular importance. If you are especially concerned about a broad area of
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FEHB Tax Savings for Federal Employees
There are major tax advantages for health insurance. The employer share of health insurance—paid by agencies for employees and by OPM for retirees—is part of employee compensation but by law is
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FEHB Plan Accreditation
We report whether or not plans are accredited by NCQA, URAC, or AAAHC. These organizations have procedures to determine whether plans meet the organizations accreditation standards. The standards
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Disputed Claims for FEHB Plans
Along with the customer satisfaction survey results, we have another indicator of service quality for fee-for-service plans. We checked disputed claims on file at OPM. A disputed claim is a case in
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Why Every Federal Employee Should Consider a Health Savings Account
High Deductible Health Plans (HDHP), which include Health Savings Accounts (HSA), are one of the cheapest health plan options available to federal employees. With an increase in HSA contributions for
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Should I Use Preferred Providers With My FEHB Plan?
We rate plan costs based on the assumption that you will always or almost always want to use preferred providers, also known as staying in network. Your cost is always lower, usually far lower, when
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How to Choose the Best FEHB Plan For You and Your Family
There are three important steps to follow to narrow down the selection of plans: Use the Guide's yearly cost comparisons, which are personalized based on the information you tell us, to find the
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Should I Join an HMO in the FEHB Program?
HMO plans provide not just insurance, but also a different approach to health care delivery from traditional fee-for-service medicine. Therefore, although cost and benefit comparisons are the key
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Advice for Persons Who Pay Full FEHB Premiums
The FEHB program also provides coverage for former spouses, former employees, children turning age 26, and others. In each of these cases, the covered enrollee must pay the full premium without
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What's the Difference Between a HSA and a HRA?
There are two different savings accounts associated with HDHP and CDHP plans, HSA and HRA. Here's how they compare: