Washington Watch
NARFE Submits Comments on PSHB Interim Final Rule
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n April, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) published its interim final rule establishing the Postal Service Health Benefits (PSHB) program. The rule outlined
how PSHB will be created and provided important dates for OPM, insurance carriers and all other stakeholders assisting in the creation of PSHB before it is set to begin in January 2025. The rule largely follows the specifics set in the Postal Service Reform Act of 2022, with some discretion left to OPM to administer the program.
NARFE submitted a comment letter to OPM in response to the interim final rule highlighting areas in need of clarification, providing questions gathered from NARFE members and detailing actions that OPM can take to provide a more seamless transition to PSHB for postal workers and annuitants. The letter encouraged OPM to limit insurance plan changes to prevent disruptions to enrollee coverage and requested hardship exceptions to maintain coverage for postal employees and annuitants covered by some smaller plans, such as health maintenance organization (HMO) plans, that may decline to offer PSHB plans. The letter 8
NARFE MAGAZINE AUGUST 2023
also requested further details on the six-month special enrollment period for Medicare Part B and requested OPM to encourage carriers to provide reimbursement accounts to cover Medicare-related costs (as
some FEHB plans already do). The letter is posted on NARFE’s website and NARFE will share responses from OPM once they become available. Based on the rule, the PSHB, like FEHB, will be operated by the Office of Personnel Management, and, to the greatest extent practicable, the program will offer a PSHB plan from each FEHB carrier that has a plan with 1,500 or more Postal Service employees or annuitants enrolled in 2023. OPM may exempt certain HMO plans from this requirement, and the PSHB will be permitted to include plans offered by other carriers as deemed appropriate by OPM.
AUGUST MONTH ACTION ALERT: SOCIAL SECURITY FAIRNESS ACT OF 2023 Visit NARFE’s Legislative Action Center at www.narfe.org to send a message to your lawmakers urging them to cosponsor the Social Security Fairness Act of 2023, H.R. 82/S. 597. This bill would repeal the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO) policies that unfairly reduce Social Security benefits for federal, state and local civil servant retirees who earned a pension from their civil service career separate from benefits earned from employment covered by Social Security.