Pay & Benefits
OPM has new tools to fight improper health insurance enrollments
Watchdog agencies and Congress have previously chided the federal government’s HR agency for the lack of internal controls ensuring that family members of federal workers and retirees remain eligible for the federal workforce’s health insurance program.
Pay & Benefits
Justice Department outlines benefits rule for Havana syndrome victims
A new interim final rule details how the department would compensate employees and dependents with qualifying brain injuries from anomalous health incidents.
Pay & Benefits
Bill wants to solve the coverage gap for National Guard and reservists by extending VA eligibility
Legislation from Rep. Joe Neguse, D-Colo., proposes to expand VA health care benefits to personnel in the reserve components when not on active duty to help ensure “force readiness.”
Pay & Benefits
Resigning instead of retiring
How you leave the federal government matters when it comes to benefits.
Oversight
VA claims appeal board errors are the target of a new House bill
The Veterans Claims Quality Improvement Act seeks to mitigate errors made by the Board of Veterans’ Appeals with new training, performance evaluations and required reports to Congress.
Workforce
Give administrative leave to veterans for VA appointments
COMMENTARY | This is a necessary step in honoring our veterans in federal service.
Updated
Pay & Benefits
House panel advances bills to improve FEHBP oversight and fix CBP retirement snafu
A 2022 Government Accountability Office report estimated that ineligible family members covered through the federal government’s employer-sponsored health care program could cost the government between $250 million and $3 billion per year.
Pay & Benefits
Here's what federal employees need to know about their dental benefits
Navigating your dental benefits shouldn't be like pulling teeth
Pay & Benefits
The federal government will now offer its employees generous fertility benefits
The nation's largest employer will offer plans that cover a broad menu of fertility services, including up to $25,000 annually for IVF procedures.
Pay & Benefits
What USPS annuitants need to know about the Medicare Part B special enrollment period
Some postal annuitants may be able to avoid paying a penalty.
Pay & Benefits
Public Service Loan Forgiveness passes $60 billion in erased debt
Since a series of tweaks to make the program easier to access, more than 850,000 Americans have had their loans forgiven in exchange for a decade of public service.
Pay & Benefits
OPM taps insurance carriers to service new USPS benefits exchange
The federal HR agency conditionally selected 32 carrier applications to provide health coverage to U.S. Postal employees, annuitants and family members starting in 2025.
Pay & Benefits
Veterans Affairs expands IVF access to unmarried and same-sex veterans
Up to now, the VA has only provided IVF care for married veterans who were able to use their own eggs or sperm during the process, but the new announcement allows veterans to use donor eggs, sperm and embryos.
Workforce
FLRA: CBP owes backpay to officers denied nightwork premium pay
The chairwoman of the body that oversees federal sector labor issues also expressed an openness to revisiting the legal definition of repudiating a union contract.
Pay & Benefits
The Postal Service Health Benefits program, prescription coverage and Open Season 2025
The federal health care enrollment period is months away, but you can start preparing now.
Pay & Benefits
OPM makes it easier for ex-military feds to access paid parental, medical leave
The tweak, which allows federal workers to count past military service toward the 12-month service requirement of parental and Family and Medical Leave Act leave, stems from a provision of the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act.
Pay & Benefits
Lawmakers urge OPM to update parental leave policy docs
The federal government’s HR agency’s self-imposed deadline of the end of 2024 to ensure the federal employee handbook and public-facing web pages reflect the enactment of 12 weeks of paid parental leave should be “a floor and not a ceiling.”
Pay & Benefits
GAO: 4% of feds used paid parental leave in the benefit’s first 22 months
In 2022, 81% of federal workers who responded to an annual Office of Personnel Management survey and said they used the then-newly implemented program said they took all 12 weeks of paid parental leave.
Pay & Benefits
GSA could soon update some relocation expense reimbursement caps more regularly
It’s been more than a decade since the agency updated the maximum amounts of payments for miscellaneous relocation expenses that don’t require itemized receipts.
Pay & Benefits