Monday update

The FEHBlog is vacationing on the Outer Banks of North Carolina this week. He delayed the weekend update until this morning to watch the U.S. Open and the NBA Finals and see if the Supreme Court issued its healthcare decision. It didn't. The last two decision days are next Thursday and next Monday. The Scotusblog live blogs the Court's announcement which is geeky fun.

The House and the Senate are in session this week. Last week, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved a Fiscal Year 2013 financial services and general government appropriations bill. This is the bill that funds the FEHBP. The bill includes the traditional FEHBP related appropriations provisions. Here's a link to the Federal Times article on the bill's broader implications for federal employee compensation.

The Hill reports that Steve Larsen, the CMS executive who runs the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight, is leaving the agency next month. CCIIO is responsible for ACA implementation.

Firehouse.com reports that "A seasonal wildland firefighter with the U.S. Forest Service started an online petition in late May to extend federal healthcare benefits to him and thousands others, and within the last few days it has really begun to pick up some steam."  The problem is that such seasonal employees do not meet the FEHBP's statutory eligibility requirements. Congress addressed a similar problem by extending FEHBP coverage to Indian tribal employers in the Affordable Care Act. There were Indian tribal employees who worked for the federal government (typically the Indian Health Service) for part of the year and the tribe for the other part. Congress could extend FEHBP coverage to seasonal firefighters but the question then becomes where do you draw the line because there are a lot of people who work for the federal government or the Postal Service on a part time basis who are not eligible for the FEHBP.

OPM has been encouraging FEHBP carriers to introduce wellness initiatives in their plans. The AMA News reports on the trend of health insurance carriers that offer their members personal / lifestyle coaching on smoking cessation, weight control, etc.   (Of course the AMA News sees evidence of a nefarious health insurer plot to attract good risks.)  The FEHBlog received an email from DPS Health which provides a virtual weight loss coaching program to a major FEHB plan carrier, GEHA. The FEHBlog was alerted that readers can download a white paper about this program at this link.