United States Office of Personnel Management

The Federal Government’s Human Resources Agency

Benefits Administration Letter

Number: 23-203 Date: August 21, 2023

Subject: Family Member Eligibility Awareness for 

Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) Program 

Coverage

The purpose of this letter is to improve education and awareness of family 

member eligibility and enrollment in the FEHB Program. OPM continues to 

work with employing offices to ensure that only eligible family members are 

included on and receiving coverage under FEHB enrollments. To facilitate 

this education, OPM is now requiring employing offices to send an annual

communication to all employees describing family member eligibility 

requirements.

Over the past several years, OPM has issued updated guidance related to 

family member eligibility, including BAL 21-202, which requires 

documentation to verify eligibility for initial enrollments and any qualifying 

life event actions, and BAL 20-203, which details processes for removal of 

ineligible family members from enrollments. OPM has also issued Carrier 

Letters, including CL 2020-16, directing Carriers to request proof of eligibility 

for existing enrollments, and has provided both employing offices and 

Carriers lists of acceptable documents for verification.

Each employing office is responsible for providing resources and guidance to 

educate its employees about benefit programs. OPM provides resources on 

our website regarding family member eligibility and verification requirements

that employing offices may use to educate employees.
Benefits Administration Letter 23-203

2 

The communication that OPM is now requiring can be distributed via any allemployee communication method commonly used by the employing office, 

such as by email, newsletter, or intranet posting, and should first be 

distributed within 30 days from the issuance of this BAL and no later than 

October 31 each year. It should also be provided to all new employees at 

entry on duty (EOD). Employing offices will also be required to include 

cep@opm.gov each year on their annual distribution so that we may track 

completion of this task. If an employing office is not able to include 

cep@opm.gov in its distribution, it may send a separate email of the 

notification to cep@opm.gov once it has completed the distribution. A 

template of this communication has been provided in Attachment 1: Family 

Member Verification Annual Notice. 

It is important that employees understand which family members may be 

covered, and at what point a family member loses eligibility and must be 

removed from coverage. If an employee recognizes that an ineligible person 

is covered on their enrollment, the employee must immediately work with 

their employing office to remove that person. The communication requires 

employees to review family member eligibility requirements and family 

members covered under their enrollments and inform employing offices of 

any ineligible family members covered who need to be removed. Employing 

offices should refer to BAL 20-203, Removal of Ineligible Family Members 

from Enrollments, to remove any ineligible family members. This BAL does 

not create new requirements for employees to provide verification 

documentation for covered family members.

Thank you for your continued cooperation to protect FEHB Program integrity.

Any questions on this BAL should be submitted to cep@opm.gov. 

Sincerely,

Laurie Bodenheimer

Associate Director

Healthcare & Insurance

Encl.: Family Member Verification Annual Notice