OPM Budget Proposal

• The Obama Administration released its FY 2010 budget proposal on Thursday. Here's what the OPM budget section says about the FEHBP:

  [OPM's Human Resources and Products Services Division] HRPS operates the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP), which offers comprehensive and competitive benefits choices for Federal employees,
  annuitants, and family members, and helps the Federal government recruit and retain a high quality workforce. Through FEHBP, OPM will continue to
  provide customers with a variety of resources to make more informed
  health insurance decisions, including health plan brochures and
  website postings, health plan customer satisfaction survey results,
  web-based comparison/decision tools, and performance results
  for managed care health plans. OPM will work aggressively with
  health insurance plans to hold down premium costs while at the
  same time negotiating expanded coverage.

  The OPM budget section also discusses the Inspector General's FEHBP related activities:

  In 2010, OIG will continue to develop its prescription drug audit program, which includes audits of pharmacy benefit managers. OPM estimates that approximately 26 percent of FEHBP expenses, or between $10 and $11 billion in 2010, will be for prescription drugs. Through these audits, OIG helps the FEHBP recover inappropriate charges, negotiate more favorable contracts,
  control future cost growth, and improve benefits provided to program
  enrollees.
  
  OIG will also continue its FEHBP data warehouse initiative in 2010. This project streamlines and enhances the various administrative and
  analytical procedures involved in the oversight of FEHBP. The purpose of the
  project is to capture data from experience-rated insurance carriers in a
  data warehouse of health care information. The system's software tools support a variety of analytical procedures, including data mining, using the data in the warehouse. The project has facilitated more efficient and effective oversight of FEHB by enhancing the ability of auditors and investigators to identify improper payments.

  Finally, the section includes a projection of participants, which is extremely interesting, because it shows very little growth in active employees / federal employment (note that about 15% of eligible active employees do not enroll for FEHB coverage):
  

  Numbers of participants at the end of each fiscal year are as follows:
  

  
  2008 actual 2009 est. 2010 est.
  Active employees ........................................................... 2,159,000 2,143,000 2,148,000
  Annuitants ....................................................................... 1,867,713 1,896,000 1,923,000
  Total ..................................................................................4,026,713 4,039,000 4,071,000