2025 Plan Year
The annual Federal Benefits Open Season for the 2025 plan year will be held from November 11 through December 9, 2024. This Open Season will include the Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) Program, the new Postal Service Health Benefits PSHB) Program, the Federal Employees Dental and Vision Insurance Program (FEDVIP), and the Federal Flexible Spending Account Program (FSAFEDS).
The FEHB and PSHB Programs (Programs) provide enrolled and eligible persons with choice and competition. For 2025, the FEHB Program has 42 participating Carriers offering 64 Plans and a total of 130 plan options. For 2025, the PSHB Program has 17 participating Carriers offering 30 Plans and a total of 69 plan options.
The overall average increase in rates for FEHB for 2025 is 11.2% and the overall average increase in rates for PSHB for 2025 is 6.9%. Cost drivers of our Programs generally align with those in the commercial market. For 2025, these drivers include price increases by providers and suppliers, increased utilization of specialty medications and certain prescription drugs (such as weight loss drugs), increased utilization of outpatient services, and behavioral health care spending.
2025 marks the launch of the PSHB Program, a new health benefits program for eligible United States Postal Service (USPS) employees, USPS annuitants, and their eligible family members that was established by the Postal Service Reform Act of 2022. To ensure that all USPS individuals currently enrolled in a FEHB plan will be transitioned to a new PSHB plan on 1/1/25, they will be automatically enrolled into a PSHB plan.
o More than 90% of USPS members will be automatically enrolled into the corresponding PSHB plan, that most closely resembles their current FEHB plan, if
the FEHB carrier is offering that plan in PSHB. If USPS enrollees like that plan, they do not have to do anything further during this year’s Open Season.
o If they wish to choose a new plan, they can do so during Open Season in the new
Postal Service Health Benefits System (PSHBS).
If there is no corresponding PSHB plan to a USPS’s enrollees FEHB plan, they will be automatically enrolled in the PSHB Program’s lowest cost nationwide plan that is not a high deductible health plan (HDHP) and does not have a membership fee, which is Blue Cross Blue Shield Service Benefit Plan’s FEP Blue Focus.
The new PSHBS is an online portal for PSHB plan enrollment activities that was developed for the implementation of the PSHB Program. Key features include: (1) Serves as the single point for USPS enrollees to enroll in a plan, make changes to their plan, and be able to look at their Medicare eligibility; (2) A decision support tool that enables more informed enrollee choices due to access to detailed information on doctor and hospital availability in-network, premiums, and cost-sharing; and (3) the ability for enrollees to upload family member eligibility documentation for review, improving enrollment integrity and accountability, reducing improper claims payments associated with erroneous enrollment, and lowering costs for USPS (and other federal agencies when the funding is available to expand the system to FEHB as a whole).
OPM continues to improve the scope of covered health benefits (such as fertility care) in the FEHB program and the PSHB program in response to enrollee needs and innovations in health service delivery options