Tuesday Tidbits

Unfortunately, Congress has not yet reached an agreement on a continuing resolution funding the federal government and a partial shutdown affecting 800,000 federal employees has taken effect. OPM has updated its furlough guidance (no change to the FEHBP discussion quoted in Sunday's post), and the Washington Post discussed the shutdown's limited impact on federal annuitants. The shutdown should come to a head within a couple of weeks as the Government hits its no turning back debt ceiling on October 17 according to the Treasury Secretary.

OPM did post a new webpage about the availability of the multi-state plan in thirty state exchanges and DC. A map identifies the states where the MSP is available.

Also yesterday, OPM released the final rule on exchange coverage for members of Congress and their official staffs in 2014. OPM has decided that these 11,000 folks will receive coverage in the District of Columbia SHOP / small business exchange from a gold (80% actuarial value level) plan. Also OPM (happily in the FEHBlog's view) decided that members of Congress and their official staffs can receive their annuitant coverage in the FEHBP rather than on the exchanges (as stated in the proposed rule.)  A OPM fact sheet on the rule is available here.