AFSA FCS Vice President Update October 19, 2006 AFSAnet

AFSA FCS Vice President Update: November 17, 2006

Special Health Benefits/Dental/Vision, etc. Information

Although AFSA is not directly responsible for information in this area as this is the responsibility of your "serving personnel or human resources unit", we want to be as helpful as possible to our members and be a resource to you in this important benefit area. You should have all received the emails that OFSHR (Sherry Snyder) sent you all on Nov 13 covering this area.

For this reason I as your Vice President have been in contact with my AFSA colleagues, with OFSHR, and with health providers to gather some basic information that may be helpful in addition to Sherry's messages.

You probably all realize how complex this subject area has become with not only many FEHB Health Plans (see http://www.opm.gov/insure/health/ but also the introduction of Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAFEDS - maximum
still $5000 for 2007 and still a great deal! -- see https://www.fsafeds.com/fsafeds/index.asp ), High Deductible Health Saving Accounts (HDHSAs -- again see the FEHB brochure and OPM website -- employees are NOT repeat NOT allowed to have both FSAFEDS and HDHSAs and only a few FEHB plans have the HDHSAs such as GEHA but not Blue Cross/Blue Shield or Foreign Service Benefit Plan), and now for the first time in 2007 Dental and Vision Plans.

I had already started receiving some questions (notably whether the new Dental/Vision plans covered providers of employees overseas as in-networkk or preferred/PPO or not) and so I attended this morning the "health fair" in the Commerce auditorium and started making calls to other agencies such as AID). Unfortunately many of the representatives at the health fair were not "trained" for foreign service (not surprising) and I had to ask them to call their main offices. For one dental provider (AETNA), the response was "only in emergencies" (it wasn't even clear whether this meant covered at all or covered as preferred); however, for another in which I coincidentally planned to enroll (MetLife), I finally got the unofficial answer by calling and talking about their plan brochure (see http://federaldental.metlife.com/Applications/Corporate/FED/CDA/PageGenerator/0,4132,P13212,00.html and then page 8 of the pdf) and overseas coverage. The brochure says yes overseas the dentist would be covered at the "covered percentages" and the customer service rep interpreted this to mean those for in-network or preferred providers, although I pointed out that it didn't unambiguously say this and that there are lower covered percentages for out of network. They promise now to call back and email me in writing the official interpretation/confirmation. (Actually, they did just call back and reversed position, now saying that the "covered percentages" are for out of network providers [lower rates] whether traveling or working overseas.) This shows that unfortunately you may have to contact each plan for this important info (or ask me to!).

I asked by email and phone the Foreign Service Benefit Plan (AFSPA) why they had not offered the HDHSAs and await their reply. In the meantime, I also asked Blue Cross Blue Shield (which does not offer them) and GEHA (which does) why so few HDHSAs are offered and what the pros and cons are. Blue Cross explained that Congress had limited them to two plan offerings so they could legislatively not offer HDHSAs at this time but are considering them and may be allowed in the future. GEHA noted they offer both non-HDHSAs (regular plans) and HDHSAs and that the latter, while having some advantages over FSAFEDS (carryover of the savings into the
future) were limited in amount (about $1200 per individual or $2400 for a couple), such that if you meet the FSAFEDS maximum or even half of it (as I tend to only about halfway through the year) you could get no savings under the HDHSAs and payments are delayed not immediate as with FSAFEDS. In sum, for HDHSAs to work (and Blue Cross noted they haven't worked well for many), one has to be either very very healthy or very very sick! Everyone has to make their own decisions based on their own needs, but it would appear that FSAFEDS combined with non-HDHSA plans remain a good pick for most average people.

Finally, the AFSA retiree website:
http://www.checkbook.org/newhig2/hig.cfm?k=5865BB1380604F6DBB9E2F4785DB4340
contains the Consumer Guide checkbook on various plans, both regular and dental and may well be worth consulting.

Donald Businger
Senior Advisor to the DAS/OIO and
Vice President
American Foreign Service Association (AFSA)
Tel 202-482-9162/Fax 202-482-9087
Web-Site www.export.gov/www.afsa.org

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