Health insurance through FEHB?
Posted: Fri Jun 12, 2020 12:48 pm
Does anyone have more info on what the experience is like to set up a plan though FEHB? Assuming clerks are even eligible, which I haven't found a clear answer for.
You'll be given paperwork for selecting your FEHB plan when you are onboarded. There's also an online portal for managing your benefits, but I don't think new hires can use it for their initial selection. There wasn't any hand-holding in my experience; it's up to you to do the comparison shopping and select the plan(s) you want.
Your FEHB coverage is effective starting the first full pay period after your start date. For clerks the pay period is usually biweekly, so at most you will have at most a 2-week wait before you are covered. So for example, if you start on September 14th, during the pay period that began on September 7th, you will be covered starting on September 21st when the next period begins.
It will take a bit longer than that for everything to be processed, for the insurance to put you in the system, and for you to receive your insurance cards so you can easily use your benefits, but your coverage is backdated to that first full pay period.