I am writing on behalf of the National Postal Mail Handlers Union. We represent over 50,000 postal employees and annuitants who are participating in the new Postal Service Health Benefits Program (“PSHBP”).
As you know, PSHBP Open Season started Monday, November 11th. From that beginning, participants have experienced numerous technical issues with its online Open Season resources. These issues have impeded the ability of participants to access the online site and to submit their registration for the upcoming year.
The most significant problem has been the inability of Postal employees to utilize Login.gov and, in particular, that Login.gov has failed in many instances to link employees’ postal and OPM identities and accounts. As a result, even ignoring incomplete or inaccurate plan information, employees are unable to enroll in any PSHBP plan electronically. The work-around the Postal Service has devised of calling PSHB Helpline is itself going to add uncertainty and delays to the enrollment process which negatively impacts the PSHBP carriers being able to complete their work before January 1st.
These serious and persistent problems are preventing postal employees and annuitants from enrolling in PSHB plans. Indeed, OPM has announced another round of system updates to Login.gov for this coming weekend. This situation is unacceptable, and we are calling for a brief extension to Open Season to ensure that employee have sufficient time to effectuate their enrollment. OPM has extended Open Season in prior years for far less impactful issues. Where, as here, the problems are literally preventing participant enrollment, extending Open Season for PSHBP participants is both necessary and warranted.
We therefore strongly urge OPM to extend Open Season for PSHBP participants by one week from Monday, December 9th to Monday, December 16th.
Paul V. Hogrogian
President
National Postal Mail Handlers
Extending Open Season for Postal Employees to December 16th (pdf)