Good news lies ahead for federal employees; more dental and vision insurance options will be available by 2021. The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) made a public announcement about introducing a variety of new insurance carriers that will be available to participants under the Federal Employees Dental and Vision Insurance Program (FEDVIP).
Next year, OPM will raise the number of dental insurance companies offered from 10 to 12. Also starting in 2021, The United Healthcare Dental PPO is a new national option. Dominion Dental EPO, and Health Partners are two new regional options for federal employees that will be available as well.
A federal news source shared this list of insurance options earlier this afternoon:
- Nationwide/International
- Aetna Dental PPO
- Delta Dental PPO
- BCBS FEP Blue Dental
- GEHA Dental PPO
- MetLife Dental PPO
- United Concordia PPO
- UnitedHealthcare Dental PPO
- Regional
- Dominion Dental EPO
- Emblem Health
- HealthPartners
- Humana EPO/PPO
- Triple S Salud
“For vision insurance, federal employees will have five national options instead of the previous four. The MetLife Vision plan is new for 2021.”
- Aetna Vision
- BCBS FEP Vision
- MetLife Vision
- UnitedHealthcare Vision
- VSP
“Under the Federal Employees Dental and Vision Benefits Enhancement Act, OPM must open the program up to new carriers every seven years, although premium rates are negotiated annually.”
The last time the agency expanded the number of dental and vision carriers was in 2013. OPM usually announces the following year’s premium rates under Federal Employees Health Benefits Program and the FEDVIP in at the beginning of October, however this year’s open season will run later, (from November 9th through December 14th). During this period of time, federal employees will have the choice and chance to enroll, change their health, vision and dental plans, as well as cancel their enrollment entirely. This will affect many federal employees, as the FEDVIP has 3.3 million different participants with around 1.7 million enrolled in both vision and dental programs.
