{"id":26354,"date":"2023-04-05T17:04:05","date_gmt":"2023-04-05T17:04:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/federaltimes\/uncategorized\/2023\/04\/05\/insurers-sought-for-us-postal-service-health-insurance-plans\/"},"modified":"2026-08-18T20:45:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T20:45:08","slug":"insurers-sought-for-us-postal-service-health-insurance-plans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/federaltimes\/fedlife\/benefits\/2023\/04\/05\/insurers-sought-for-us-postal-service-health-insurance-plans\/","title":{"rendered":"Insurers sought for US Postal Service health plans"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Office of Personnel Management will be seeking applications from insurance companies in preparation of enrolling U.S. Postal Service employees in their own health program, separate from the one offered to the rest of the federal civilian workforce, according a new interim rule.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As of 2021, there were 915,000 USPS enrollees who used the Federal Employee Health Benefits plan, which covers a total of 8.2 million individuals who are federal civilian employees, retirees and family members.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The USPS is getting its own program because it will help reduce expenses for the agency, it has said. It\u2019s one cost-saving measure of several spurred by the Postal Service Reform Act signed in 2022. The agency is trying to avoid a predicted loss of billions of dollars by 2030, and some features of the Postal Service Health Plan will allow it to integrate with Medicare and eliminate pre-funding requirements for retiree benefits that the agency says cost it 6.4 cents of every revenue dollar.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The interim rule issued by OPM this week lays out preliminary costs, deadlines and regulations for how the program will work. According to the document, startup costs are expected to be roughly $100 million. In addition to creating a USPS-only health insurance system, the project also includes a centralized enrollment system that will consolidate data from USPS, the Social Security Administration, Veterans Affairs and others to verifying eligibility and allow digital enrollment.<\/p>\n\n\n\t