Weekend Update / Miscellany

The Senate Finance Committee completed its mark up of Chairman's Baucus's proposal on Friday afternoon as reported in Business Insurance. The amended version has been posted on the Committee website. I should clarify that the Grassley amendment approved last week would exclude members of Congress and all Congressional employees from the FEHB Program begining in 2013 --

Enrollment by Members of Congress and Congressional Employees. Notwithstanding
any other provision of law, beginning July 1, 2013, Members of Congress and
congressional employees would be required to use their employer contribution
(adjusted for age rating) to purchase coverage through a state-based
exchange,rather than using the traditional Federal Employees Health Benefits
Plan (FEHBP).

The Committee awaits Congressional Budget Office scoring of the bill and a Committee vote this coming week. The Washington Post noted in an editorial today that

[The Senate Finance Committee bill] lays claim to passing Mr. Obama's
test of not raising the deficit but manages to do so only by failing to pay for
increases in Medicare physician reimbursement rates that everyone knows that
Congress will approve -- about $230 billion over 10 years. This is akin to
announcing that you have fully paid for renovating your house when one room has
a big blue tarp where its roof should be. As House Majority Leader Steny H.
Hoyer (D-Md.) put it, this may "look better, but it's a facade of looking
better."

The Politico reports that there's a lot more backroom work to be done on the three House Committee versions of the leadership's bill, HR 3200, and the two Senate Committee bill before the respective final versions appear for floor consideration.

Business Insurance reports on the 137 page regulation implementing the Genetic Information Non-Discrimination Act. This interim final rule applies to plan years that take effect on or after December 7, 2009, so as noted last week the rule applies to the FEHB Program on January 1, 2010. The rule, which I have not read yet, appears primarily to impact plans that collect family health information for purposes of health risk assessments, which is not a standard practice in the FEHBP.

Govexec.com reports on changes in the voluntary Federal Employees Long Term Care Insurance Program that took effect on October 1, 2009, following a re-bidding of the insurance carrier contract. OPM issued a benefits administration letter on the change on September 25:

By law, the FLTCIP operates on a seven-year contract cycle. Last year, the
Office of Personnel Management issued a Request for Proposals for the FLTCIP’s second contract term (2009-2016). After a competitive procurement process, OPM awarded the contract to John Hancock Life and Health Insurance Company to provide insurance coverage to all current and new FLTCIP enrollees. The transition to John Hancock as the sole insurer of the second contract term will occur on October 1, 2009. Until that date, insurance will continue to be provided by the John Hancock and MetLife consortium that provided insurance for the Program during the first contract term.

John Hancock is offering new enrollees a new benefit package called FLTCIP 2.0 and is changing premiums for certain FLTCIP 1.0 coverages as detailed in this letter. The Federal Employee Dental and Vision Insurance Program also operates on the same seven year contract cycle which if my arithmetic is right means that the FEDVIP contracts will be rebid in 2013.