Panel seeks better health care benefits for federal workers

The House Government Reform Committee Thursday called for the Office of Personnel Management to study and recommend improvements in dental, vision and hearing benefits for federal workers.

The committee unanimously approved legislation calling for the study (H.R. 3751) by voice vote.

The bill requires OPM to submit a study to Congress that describes and evaluates currently available supplemental and additional dental, hearing and vision benefits and the costs of such benefits. Under the bill, OPM must then make recommendations for improvements.

Hearing benefits and the screening for glaucoma to be included under the vision benefits were added to the bill under an amendment by Rep. Jo Ann Davis, R-Va., which passed without any objections. The amendment also established a new deadline of no later than six months after the bill is enacted for the study to be presented to Congress, instead of the original June 30, 2004 date.

Improved benefits are "an issue of great importance to federal employees," Davis said earlier this month when her Civil Service subcommittee marked up the bill. Industry representatives have said that federal dental and vision benefits fall below those offered in the private sector, Davis added.