Category Archives: FEHB

Most Feds to pay 10.6% FEHB rate hike in 2016

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FEHB OPM Health Care Rates 2014

Happy Open Season, everyone!

OPM announced its Federal Employee Health Benefit (FEHB) rate hikes for 2016 FEHB Open Season.

OPM states that the average rate hike is 6.4 percent, which does not sound that bad.

…But the real news is not quite this good- Since none of the ‘averages’ are participation-weighted (that is, they pay no attention to what FEHB plans Feds actually select), the averages provided by OPM, GovExec, and FedTimes are essentially useless.

I’ll give you the only statistic that matters here, the one that applies to 40 percent of Feds. Continue reading →

Up to 4 in 10 Feds hit by Anthem Breach – Actions to Take

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LegoMafiaMan

 

Recently Anthem announced the biggest Identity Breach yet.  It affects over 80 million people- including as many as 4 in 10 Feds.

This one makes the Home Depot and Target breaches look like small potatoes.

According to Anthem’s own webpage of FAQ (https://www.Anthemfacts.com), the breach affects all current and former Anthem customers, as well as customers who have used ANY Blue Cross/Blue Shield provider (includes Feds enrolled in  FEHB) in any of the states where Anthem does business: Continue reading →

OPM announces FEHB Premium Hikes for 2015

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FEHB OPM Health Care Rates 2014

Happy Open Season, everyone!

OPM announced its Federal Employee Health Benefit (FEHB) rate hikes for 2015 FEHB Open Season.

OPM states that the average rate hike is 3.2 percent, which is not too bad.  The real news is not quite this good-  Since none of the ‘averages’ are participation-weighted (that is, they pay no attention to what FEHB plans Feds actually select),  the averages provided by OPM, GovExec, and FedTimes are essentially useless.

I’ll give you the only statistic that matters here, the one that applies to 40 percent of Feds.  Continue reading →

ObamaCare- Veterans Should Not Apply?

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Land Mines to avoid when leaving an HSA

Here’s an update to one of my more popular posts regarding Veterans and ObamaCare.

As of 2014, the Affordable Care Act (ACA), aka ObamaCare (I will use the more popular nickname for the rest of the article) is being listed as an option on the military’s Tricare website.

There’s no neon sign at the top of the Tricare page alerting you to this fact. It’s not listed as a disclaimer, waiver, footnote, or disclosure on the page. You have to read between the lines and click around to figure this out.

On Tricare’s page about ObamaCare, it states that any of the Tricare plans (plus the ‘US Family Health Plan’) meets the Obamacare ‘Minimum Essential Coverage’ standard as of 2014. In other words, if you’re enrolled in one of the Tricare plans, you ‘don’t need to take any action at this time’.

For those who feel like they need to dig deeper (and I always do), there is yet another link on the right to the ‘Tricare and the Affordable Care Act’ Fact Sheet , which states (last paragraph):  Continue reading →