Government Healthcare Policy, Business and Technology

Feds under-evaluate healthcare options, leave up to $11k on table

Federal News Network: Every year during Open Season, only about 6% of federal employees change their health plan. Are the other 94% just that satisfied with their current plan? Possibly, but the Office of Personnel Management consistently says 20-30% of feds can and should be changing their plans. So why don’t they?

“Federal employees have what’s called a passive renewal, in that if they don’t want to change any plans, they don’t have to do anything,” said Gavin Toner, manager of the Federal Employee Benefit Plans at Kaiser Permanente. “Generally, we find that for federal employees, unless they get a premium shock, or unless there’s a significant change in benefits, or unless maybe they lose some doctors that they had seen in network, they don’t have the incentive to examine what their options are.”

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