United States 

Office of 

Personnel Management 

The Federal Government’s Human Resources Agency

Benefits Administration Letter 

Number: 06-603 (UPDATED) Date: October 26, 2006 

Subject: Federal Employees Dental and Vision Insurance Program (FEDVIP) 2006 

Open Season: Distribution of Materials

BACKGROUND: 

This is the third in our series of FEDVIP letters. The first, BAL 06-203, introduced 

BENEFEDS. The second, BAL 06-602, discussed the program in depth. We did not issue a 

BAL 06-601. 

OVERVIEW: 

Open Season Materials

The following Federal Employees Dental and Vision Insurance Program (FEDVIP) materials 

will be available during the 2006 Open Season: 

Plan Brochures. The FEDVIP plan brochures are the statements of benefits, exclusions, and 

limitations. The FEDVIP plan brochures look similar to the Federal Employees Health Benefits 

(FEHB) Program brochures and follow a standard format for ease in comparison. 

Carriers participating in FEDVIP will distribute their plan brochures to Federal agencies. We 

have provided each FEDVIP carrier with contact information for agency benefits officers and the 

number of employees at each agency. Each FEDVIP plan will determine the number of 

brochures to send each agency based on the number of employees at each agency. You should 

receive FEDVIP plan brochures by November 8, 2006. If you do not receive FEDVIP plan 

brochures by this date, please contact the carriers. Attachment I includes a list of carrier contacts 

for plan brochures. 

You must keep a supply of brochures on hand for reference and for distribution to employees 

who decide to enroll or change plans. These brochures must be readily accessible to employees. 

Maintain close control over issuing plan brochures. Employees should be allowed to take copies 

home for review. If an employee enrolls or changes plans, he/she should keep the brochure for 

that plan. The employee should return other brochures to the personnel office. Please note only 

the officially approved brochures should be distributed to employees. 

All plan brochures will be available for downloading from the FEDVIP website: 

www.opm.gov/insure/dentalvision. Please encourage your employees to use the website as their 
primary resource. The brochure PDFs are in Adobe Acrobat version 7.0. 

Enrollment. Employees must use the BENEFEDS Portal to enroll or change enrollment in a 

FEDVIP plan. We encourage enrollment through www.BENEFEDS.com . If employees do not 

have access to a computer, they may call 1-877-888-FEDS (1-877-888-3337), TTY number 

1-877-889-5680 to enroll or change their enrollment. These numbers will be available on 

November 13, 2006. If (and only if) an employee does not have access to the Internet and does 

not have access to a telephone during normal business hours, he/she may use a paper enrollment 

form. If you have any employees in this situation, please be sure to alert us by emailing 

BENEFEDSPortal@opm.gov. We will supply the form to you. 

Please see page 11 of BAL 06-602 for more information on enrolling through BENEFEDS. 

Note: Employees cannot enroll or change their enrollment in a FEDVIP plan using the Health 

Benefits Election Form (SF 2809) or through an agency self-service system, such as Employee 

Express, PostalEase, EBIS, MyPay, or Employee Personal Page. However, those sites may 

provide a link to www.BENEFEDS.com. 

Materials for the visually impaired. Audio cassettes are not available. All of the plan 

brochures are on the FEDVIP website and are compliant with Section 508 requirements for 

materials for the visually impaired. 

All Federal agencies at the headquarters and installation levels must let visually impaired 

employees know that the FEDVIP website is available and accessible. 

FEHB Guides. These publications are available on our website at www.opm.gov/insure/health. 

The FEHB Guides provide summary information on FEDVIP plans. They also provide 

information on program features and enrollment instructions. 

FEDVIP website. We encourage you and your employees to visit the FEDVIP website at 

www.opm.gov/insure/dentalvision for additional information regarding FEDVIP including plan 

rates, a summary of benefits, links to plan websites, and Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs). 

The website will be updated regularly with current information. We are unable to offer any 

additional materials such as videos, PowerPoint presentations, posters, table top tent cards or 

handouts for you to distribute to your employees this year. 

If you have any questions, you can contact OPM at fedvip@opm.gov. For dental and vision 

information only, please call 1-866-639-3917. This number will be available until 

November 10, 2006. For enrollment information please contact BENEFEDS as noted above. 

Sincerely, 

Robert F. Danbeck 

Associate Director 

for Human Resources Products and Services 

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Attachment 

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Attachment I: The Federal Employees Dental and Vision Insurance Program (FEDVIP) 

List of Plan Contacts 

NATIONAL DENTAL PLANS 

Plan Name Contact Name Phone Number E-Mail Address 

Aetna Lois Fulton (215) 775-6339 fultonl@aetna.com 

GEHA Dental Lisa McDonald (816) 257-3334 lisa.mcdonald@geha.com

MetLife Dental Benard J. Vance (908) 253-2279 bjvance@metlife.com

United Concordia Deb Cotter (717) 260-7165 debra.cotter@ucci.com

REGIONAL DENTAL PLANS 

Plan Name Contact Name Phone Number E-Mail Address 

GHI Dental Elvin Boulden (212) 615-0879 eboulden@ghi.com

 GHI Dental services New York State and Northern New Jersey 

Comp Benefits Malia Read (770) 552-7101 X88529 malia.read@compbenefits.com

 Comp Benefits services Alabama, Arkansas, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, 

 Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Missouri, Mississippi, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania (parts 

of 

 York and Adams counties only) South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and southern Wisconsin 

Triple S Dental Vivian Lowe (787) 277-6610 vloew@ssspr.com

 Triple S Dental services Puerto Rico 

VISION PLANS 

Plan Name Contact Name Phone Number E-Mail Address 

Spectera Brett Savage (240) 683-5372 Brett_t_savage@uhc.com

VSP Jim Corkery (916) 858-5462 jimcor@vsp.com

BCBS Contact the same BCBS employee you contact for FEHB matters 

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