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United States 

Office of 

Personnel Management

The Federal Government’s Human Resources Agency

Tribal Benefits Administration Letter 

Number: 19-702 Date: October 22, 2019 

Subject: 2019 FEHB Open Season for Tribal Employees: Ordering and Distributing

 Materials and Conducting the Open Season

This Tribal Benefits Administration Letter (TBAL) is the second in our series of 2019 

Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) Open Season for Tribal Employees TBALs. 

This TBAL (19-702) provides instructions for ordering and distributing FEHB Open 

Season materials as well as conducting the Open Season. 

This year’s FEHB Open Season for Tribal Employees will run from Monday, 

November 11 through Monday, December 9, 2019. 

The following attachments provide information regarding your responsibilities for the 

upcoming Federal Benefits Open Season and assistance for your employees:

Please distribute Attachment 2 Tribal FastFacts to your tribal employees and inform them 

that the 2020 plan information will be available by late October on our website at 

www.opm.gov/healthcare-insurance/tribal-employers/plan-information/plans/. 

OPEN SEASON MATERIALS

The Open Season resource materials, including the above attachments, are available on 

our website at www.opm.gov/healthcare-insurance/tribal-employers/reference-materials/. 

Please distribute the link to the materials to your employees. 

• Attachment 1: Inform Tribal Employees and Provide Information about the 

FEHB Open Season 

• Attachment 2: Tribal FastFacts: What to Consider During the FEHB Open 

Season for Tribal Employees 

• Attachment 3: Process FEHB Enrollment Actions
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FEHB BROCHURES 

Please be aware that the deadline has now passed to order FEHB Fee-for-Service (FFS) 

health plan brochures. If you did not order a supply of FFS health plan brochures, you 

can access these brochures at www.opm.gov/healthcare-insurance/tribal-employers/planinformation. 

The Indemnity Benefit Plan will be offered in plan year 2020. OPM was not able to make 

these health plan brochures available to be ordered with other FFS brochures. Instead, you 

may request these brochures directly from the carrier by contacting Tina Braxdale at 

Tina.Braxdale@GEHA.com. 

You can request HMO plan brochures directly from the health plan contacts as described 

below. 

PLAN CONTACTS

Plan contact information for items listed below are available on our website at 

www.opm.gov/plancontacts. 

• FEHB Plan Contacts for Requesting Brochures 

• FEHB Plan Tribal Liaisons 

• FEHB Plan Contacts for Ordering Materials for the Visually Impaired 

• FEHB Plan Contacts for Organizing Open Season Fairs 

OPEN SEASON FAIRS

Tribal employees find Open Season fairs a valuable resource for getting Open Season 

information. The plans in the Program usually receive more requests to attend Open 

Season fairs than they can accommodate, so be creative. Remember to extend the 

opportunity to participate in Open Season fairs to any new plans available for the 2020 

plan year. 

PREMIUMS

The premiums are posted on our website at www.opm.gov/healthcare-insurance/tribalemployers/benefits-premiums/. 

For 2020 there are several FEHB choices where the enrollee share of premiums for the 

Self Plus One enrollment type will be higher than for the Self and Family enrollment 

type. Enrollees who wish to cover one eligible family member are free to elect either the 

Self and Family or Self Plus One enrollment type. Enrollees should carefully check the 

rates of their current plan and any other plan options they are considering. If the Self and 

Family enrollee premium is less expensive, they may want to choose that enrollment type.
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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Visit our website at www.opm.gov/tribalprograms to learn more about the FEHB 

Program. 

If you are not already receiving the TRIBALPROGRAMS Listserv, please subscribe by 

sending an email to tribalprograms@opm.gov. In the body of the email, please indicate 

that you would like to be added to the listserv and include your first and last name. 

If you have specific questions, please contact your Tribal Benefits Officer. If you are a 

Tribal Benefits Officer and you have questions, please contact the OPM Tribal Desk at 

tribalprograms@opm.gov or 202-606-2530. 

Sincerely,

 Laurie Bodenheimer 

Acting Director

Healthcare and Insurance

Attachments