Healthy Choices

The Federal Employees Health Benefits Plan will offer expanded dental and vision coverage to government workers and retirees beginning in the summer of 2006, according to a letter sent Tuesday from the Office of Personnel Management to health insurance companies involved in the FEHBP.

"In response to the Federal Employee Dental and Vision Benefits Enhancement Act of 2004, OPM will implement supplemental dental and vision programs for federal employees, annuitants and their dependents, beginning in July 2006," the letter said. "OPM is currently evaluating various benefit and plan design options. We anticipate that we will issue a request for proposals by late summer, [and] select dental and vision carriers by the end of the year."

The dental and vision bill was approved by Congress last December and signed into law. The legislation-sponsored by Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, chairwoman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee-set out the framework for enhanced dental and vision benefits.

The offerings will be voluntary, and the federal government will not make a premium contribution to them. The bill specifically ordered that the new dental and vision offerings supplement the existing options. The OPM letter anticipates that some confusion will arise between existing FEHBP dental plans and supplemental ones.

OPM officials anticipate holding an open season in spring 2006 for federal workers and retirees who wish to enroll in the supplemental programs.

The letter to health insurance carriers emphasized several Bush administration priorities, such as an emphasis on consumer choice in health care. The letter also, however, asked for an explanation of pay-for-performance initiatives that health insurance companies are undertaking within their own ranks.

The Defense and the Homeland Security departments are overhauling their personnel systems, including scrapping the General Schedule pay system and replacing it with a performance pay framework.

"Pay-for-performance plans in the health industry incorporate a financial reward system for providers that demonstrate good and safe care," the OPM letter said. "Such plans could also provide incentives to reduce errors and waste and have great potential for improving patient care and cost savings. We ask that you provide us with information on those pay-for-performance incentives that you are currently offering and those you have planned for next year."

Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas, introduced a bill Wednesday to repeal the Windfall Elimination Provision. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, is scheduled to introduce a similar bill in the Senate on Thursday.

The Windfall Elimination Provision is a section of a 1983 law that reduces the Social Security benefits of a retired federal worker who has contributed to Social Security and also receives a government pension. It applies to Civil Service Retirement System retirees who have spent the bulk of their careers working for the government and part of their careers working in a job covered by Social Security.

Federally Employed Women, a nonprofit advocacy group that has fought for the repeal of WEP, applauded the move.

"FEW appreciates this initiative by both Rep. Brady and Sen. Hutchison and their desire to fix this unfair provision," said FEW President Patricia Wolfe.

The organization lamented the fact, however, that the bill does not address the Government Pension Offset, which prevents government retirees from collecting both a government annuity based on their own work and Social Security benefits based on their spouse's annuity.