Gabriel Peru, finance reserve technician, receives assistance from Bettie Hines and Ofelia Ramirez, representatives from Blue Cross and Blue Shield, Monday at the health fair held in William Beaumont Army medical Center. Photo by Daniela Vestal.
Bliss plans for open enrollment
Daniela Vestal, Monitor Staff
Representatives from the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program offered the first of two health fairs for government employees Monday. The representatives will be available again from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday at the Fort Bliss Museum and Air Defense Artillery Museum and Study Center.
Both fairs are designed to allow employees to explore their health insurance options in preparation for the open enrollment season, Nov. 12 through Dec. 10.
At the fair, employees can get personal, detailed answers to their insurance benefit questions, such as who is eligible for the different plans, explanations of the different kinds of plans, which plans are worldwide, and how plans work with things such as VA benefits and pre-existing conditions. Representatives will also be able to answer questions for people on, or preparing for, Medicare.
The first thing a person should do is assess what their health care needs are, said Rick DeMello, Government Employees Health Association representative. People need to look at what they have needed medically in the past year and take into consideration things like having accident-prone children or higher drug maintenance costs for conditions like diabetes or high blood pressure, he said.
“Don’t pay attention only to premiums,” he said. “Lower premium, all other things being equal, is a good thing, but pay attention to copays, coinsurance and deductibles.”
Employees need to consider the whole cost of what they think their medical requirements will be, he said.
“Employees need to pay close attention to summary of benefits so they understand what they are going to pay,” said Sandy Esquivel, Mail Handlers Benefit Plan representative. “They can go to (www.opm.gov) or the individual Web sites. They can get several health plans, tear out the summary of benefits of each plan and then decide in their minds, ‘What are my goals?’ and, ‘Are they filled by this coverage?’ and find out what health care plans cover the most for their premium dollars.”
The important thing to know is that all of the programs in the FEHB are good, solid programs, DeMello said. With a little research, a person can find the one best suited to their personal needs, he said.
“Coming here was very helpful,” said Gabriel Peru, finance reserve technician, who attended Monday’s fair. “It was very informative to talk to somebody face-to-face, and now I might change my benefits options.”