What Federal Employees Need Prior To Open Season

Open Season Requirements

Open Season can be a very tense time for federal employees because of the many decisions to be made. Circumstances and conditions in families change and employees need to be ready to address those changes. Having information available prior to the beginning of the Open Season assists employees with making critical decisions. Personnel charged with facilitating the Open Season and who work with Federal Benefits are responsible for providing the employees within their agency with certain materials both in hard copy and on the agency’s internal mechanism for agency-wide communication.

It is recommended that a Check List be provided so that employees will have the benefit of checking off what they need in order to get prepared for the changes that might take place for them individually in Open Season.

A list of resources is also recommended to be available for employees and the specific benefits they are interested in or are seeking relevant and additional information.

An easy to understand explanation of how the benefits offered to Federal employees work in tandem to cover the entire health care needs of employees and their families – FEHB, FEDVIP and FSAFEDS is also recommended.

It is very important that employees take advantage of this pre-preparation time and talk to the benefits office to make certain they have all the information needed to make critical and sound decisions about their health care needs. Making changes involving health care needs are simplest during Open Season. However, if an employee needs to make changes after the Open Season period ends, there are circumstances by which this can happen so classified as a Life Event.

Work with your Benefits Office so that you understand what your options are for you and your family. Write down a list of questions and check them against your Open Season Checklist to make certain you are ready to protect the most important asset you and your family will ever own – Your Good Health.

P. S. Always Remember to Share What You Know.