Choosing and enrolling in a health insurance plan can seem like a daunting task if you’ve never done it before. Between the different options available, the varying costs in monthly premiums, deductibles, and out of pocket maximums, it’s almost enough to make you risk having no insurance at all.
Luckily, that’s what we’re here for. We’ve broken this process down into two simple sections with step by step directions to make the process as easy as possible.
The first section, Picking Your Plan, will show you how to navigate the OPM.gov website to find the list of health plans available to you, and how to compare those plans so you can choose the best one for you.
The second section, Enrolling in a Plan, will walk you through how to take your enrollment code and use it to get the coverage from the plan you decided on.
Picking Your Plan
Step 1:
To start, Google Search ‘Federal Employee Health Plan’, and under the first option for OPM.gov, click on the header ‘Plan Information’.
Step 2
Click on your state or select your state from the list below the State Map.
Step 3
On the left hand side under the Plan Information tab, select ‘Compare Plans.
Step 4
Input your Zip Code, your Enrollee Type which will be ‘Active Federal Employee,’ your Pay Frequency which will be biweekly, and under ‘Your Current Plan’ you can either put in your current plan or leave blank. Hit Search.
Step 5
From here you’ll be given a list of plans with the ability to compare them against each other (you can only select three at one time).
The most popular health plan amongst wildland firefighters seems to be the Blue Cross Blue Shield (BCBS) Service Benefit Plan Basic (111), which is a solid choice with good all around benefits.
However, a few other plans worth looking into are:
- Blue Bross Blue Shield FEP Blue Focus (131)
- A cheaper premium than BCBS (111) by almost half, but with a higher deductible and higher out of pocket maximum.
- GEHA Benefit Plan HDHP (341)
- A monthly premium cost cheaper than BCBS (111), but more expensive than (131), however this plan offers a Health Savings Account (HSA).
- MHBP Consumer Option HDHP (481)
- Close in price to GEHA (341), and also offers an HSA.
My recommendation: use the comparison tool to see which plan fits your lifestyle the best. Simply click the boxes under the Plan Name (remember you can only choose three to compare at one time) and at the bottom of the page click on Compare Plans.
After you’ve chosen your plan, write down the enrollment code on a piece of paper, or open up a seperate window on your computer/phone for the next phase, Enrolling in a Plan.
If you’re unsure what the enrollment code is, it’s the three digit number after the plan name, so if you were choosing Blue Cross Blue Shield Service Benefit Plan (11)-111, the enrollment code would be 111.
Enrolling in a Plan
A note on enrolling in a Federal Employee Benefits Health Plan:
You can only enroll if you’ve met one of the following criteria:
- You were laid off last season and now you’ve been rehired and are onboarding for the upcoming season.
- It is the Open Enrollment period, which takes place November-December each year.
- You’ve had a Qualifying Life Event (QLE).
Step 1
IF you have access to Employee Express, login and on the left hand side of the page under Payroll/Personnel select ‘Federal Emplyee Health Benefits’. Then select Get Started.
If you do not have access to Employee Express, don’t worry, just contact your HR department (if you don’t know who that is, ask you supervisor) and give them the information they’ll need, namely some of your personal information and what plan you’d like to enroll in.
Step 2
From here it is a pretty straightforward process. Confirm your Address, Continue through My Current Enrollment, select Change Enrollment, and input the necessary infromation, and voila, you’re now enrolled in health insurance.
Keep in mind that this can take a while to go into effect. While you will get your new health insurance information and card in the mail shortly after submitting your new health plan, if you enrolled during open enrollment during November/December, you wont see the changes go into effect until mid to late January of next year.
Congratulations!! You have now enrolled in Health Insurance, I’m sure that’s a load off your mind. Be sure to check back in as we cover a whole range of topics related to Wildland Fire and Personal Finance.