How Much Will FEHB Premiums for Federal Employees Rise in 2022?

FEHB Premiums for 2022

The Office of Personnel Management has revealed the prices for the Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) insurance plans for 2022. In 2022, the average percentage of FEHB premiums paid by federal workers and retirees will rise by 3.8%.

According to the Office of Personnel Management, the overall price increase for non-Postal federal workers and retirees under FEHB will be 2.4% in 2022. According to the Office of Personnel Management, this is the second-lowest premium rise in the recent 24 years, which may be pleasant news after premiums increased by 3.6% in 2021 and 4% in 2020. Premiums increased by 1.3% on average in 2019, which was a lesser rise than previous years.

With the cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) predicted to be about 6% in 2022 due to increasing inflation, this news may come as a comfort to federal retirees in particular. When the main CPI numbers are revealed in October, the COLA for 2022 will be announced. At that time, FedSmith will publish a post informing our readers of the final COLA for 2022.

As of the most recent action on the yearly pay rise process, existing federal workers are on schedule to get a 2.7% average pay boost. For 2022, FEHB offers 275 health plan options. In response to the opioid crisis, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) encouraged FEHB carriers to concentrate on COVID-19, mental health, and drug use disorder services. On OPM’s website, you may get complete sets of rate charts for all health insurance plans describing the FEHB rates for 2022.

FEDVIP Premiums for 2022

Premiums for dental and vision plans in the Federal Employees Dental and Vision Insurance Program (FEDVIP) will rise by 0.81% on average in 2022 and 0.95% for vision plans. In 2022, FEDVIP will provide 23 dental plan choices and ten vision plan options.

“Quality health insurance has never been more essential, and the Office of Personnel Management is ensuring that all eligible enrollees have the information they need to make educated choices about their coverage,” said Kiran Ahuja, Director of the United States Office of Personnel Management. “The worldwide pandemic highlights an employer’s obligation to offer excellent, cheap, and trustworthy healthcare alternatives to its employees.” The federal government, as the country’s biggest employer, is happy to set an example by offering a diverse range of health insurance plans via the FEHB and FEDVIP that provide the high-quality coverage that every employee deserves.”

The 2022 FEDVIP premiums are based on the weighted average of all plan costs across all carriers, with assigned weights assigned to each carrier, so there may be some variation among plans. Plans with an initial or final projected loss have higher weight given to their costs. Premiums are adjusted according to the national medical trend rate for health care services and the annual trend rate for dental services. The average increase in FEDVIP premiums for dental plans is 0.81%, while vision premiums will rise by an average of 0.95%. For federal employees, the share of FEDVIP premiums paid by enrollees falls between 14-18%, depending on which plan they select. The government pays the remaining portion 85-86% of premiums. According to OPM, federal employees pay an average of 16% of premiums for their FEHB plans, while the government pays 84%.

The 6-month open season begins on November 12, 2019, and ends on January 10, 2020. The open season period allows enrollees to review their coverage options before changing to current benefit elections during the Open Season or an opportunity period. OPM said that high turnover among enrollees and the new information available on healthcare plans presented challenges for designing a benefit-selection survey. “While we attempted to stay as close as possible to our previous open season design, we made some changes to reflect current enrollment practices and the availability of data about FEHB plan benefits,” said the notice.

In addition to federal employees and retirees, a person covered by FEHB must be a current spouse of a federal employee, retiree or annuitant, former spouse who hasn’t remarried, a child under age 26 for whom an eligible adult is entitled to enroll as a family member under the plan rules, or an individual who was previously eligible for FEHB, but whose eligibility terminated due to a break in service. The number of people covered by FEDVIP is not broken out.

The one-year increase in Maximum Allowable Insurance (MAI) and the 10% threshold for employer-sponsored insurance (ESI) remain unchanged from the 2019 FEHB premiums. MAI limits the total employee and agency premium contributions to a formula based on plan offerings and geographic location. Still, it only applies if employees seek coverage above the statutory FEHB program benefit entitlement. 

Contact Information:
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 8139269909

Bio:
For over 30-years Flavio “Joe” Carreno of The Retirement Advantage has been a Federal Employee Retirement System specialist (FERS) as well as a Florida Retirement System specialist (FRS) independent advocate. An affiliate of PSRE (Public Sector Retirement Educators), a Federal Contractor & Registered Vendor to the Federal Government, also an affiliate of TSP Withdrawal Consultants. We will help you understand your FERS & FRS Benefits, TSP & Florida D.R.O.P. withdrawal options in detail while recognizing & maximizing all concurrent alternatives available.Our primary goal is to guide you into retirement with no regrets; safe, predictable, stable, for life. We look forward to visiting with you.

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