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Attachment 1: Provide Information about the Federal Benefits Open Season

Communication 

1. Build awareness of the upcoming Open Season. Employees need to know: 

• The dates of Open Season and the effective date of the employee’s Open Season change 

• A brief description of FSAFEDS, FEDVIP, and FEHB

• What decisions they can/must make 

• Where they can find additional information about the Programs 

Start your awareness campaign early and follow through with consistent messages. 

2. Inform employees.

You can do this in various ways. Here are some examples: 

• Send an email to all employees, including the materials and flyers available on the OPM 

website on the Open Season Resources page.

Also, include social media links. 

 Facebook

 Twitter (News and Updates)

• Host a virtual event 

• Add Open Season tagline information to your email signature block 

 For exampleJane Smith

The 2022 Federal Benefits Open Season - November 14 thru December 

12, 2022 

 For more information visit the Open Season website. 

• Add reminders to earnings and leave statements 

• Publicize Open Season information on your agency’s intranet site and other electronic 

employee communications 

• Post Open Season notices, flyers, and banners in hallways, cafeterias, and break rooms 

• Remind employees they will need their passwords for the BENEFEDS (FEDVIP 

enrollment website) and FSAFEDS websites

• Advise your employees who they can contact internally for help
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3. Agency benefit officer responsibilities. It is the responsibility of the agency benefits officer 

at the headquarters level to provide Open Season information to the employees in the agency 

and guidance/information to the benefits officers in field offices.

• If you are in a field office and you do not know who your agency benefits officer at the 

headquarters level is, please go to Agency Benefit Officers Index. 

Materials

1. You can find detailed information about Open Season and all Open Season materials at 

OPM's Open Season website. 

2. Plan Comparison Tool. The Plan Comparison Tool is available to use when shopping for a 

health plan. 

3. Health plans and field offices alike report that boxes of health plan brochures go to waste 

because they are not used. Please consider how many brochures were used for the 2021 Open 

Season when ordering brochures for the 2022 Open Season. You may obtain FEHB and

FEDVIP brochures from the plans directly. You can find FEHB and dental and vision

brochures on OPM’s website. You may obtain FSAFEDS marketing materials at 

www.FSAFEDS.com.

Open Season Fairs

1. Assure equal access for FEDVIP and FEHB plans. For employing offices hosting Open 

Season fairs, please be sure to invite all plans that are available to your employees. This 

includes plans new to the FEHB Program for 2023 and plans that have services area 

expansions. Information on new plans will be available in Benefits Administration Letter 22-

403. 

Open Season fairs in some locations – with or without participation by agency human 

resources personnel – are organized and hosted by participating FEDVIP and FEHB plans. 

No one plan can be allowed to dominate an Open Season fair to the detriment of other 

participating plans. 

OPM works to ensure a level playing field for FEDVIP and FEHB, and this spirit should 

prevail at Open Season fairs too. 

Long Term Care Partners, LLC, doing business as FedPoint, is hosting a 2022 Virtual 

Benefits Fair for employees. Visit www.BENEFEDS.com for more information.

2. Companies not approved by OPM. You may be contacted by insurance companies that do 

not participate in any of the federal benefits programs we administer but wish to sell other 

types of “supplemental” policies to federal employees. These companies sometimes send 

marketing material and ask that you distribute it. They may ask to be invited to the agency’s 

benefit fairs or even show up uninvited. 
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OPM has no authority to allow or disallow participation in agency Open Season benefit fairs. 

However, we are not in favor of allowing these companies to attend because it may dilute the 

messages of the Federal Benefits Open Season. Employees may interpret their participation 

as evidence your agency supports their product or that it has the backing of the federal 

government. For these reasons, you may wish to limit access to your virtual or in-person 

benefit fairs to plans that participate in FEDVIP or FEHB and representatives of FSAFEDS 

and FLTCIP. 

3. Be supportive. Ensure your agency’s managers allow their employees time away from their 

duties to attend Open Season fairs. The fairs are an excellent source for employees to obtain 

the information necessary to make informed benefit choices. 

Enrollment Opportunities

1. Enroll in FSAFEDS, FEDVIP, and FEHB. 

• An eligible employee who is not enrolled may enroll.

• Enrollment in FEDVIP and FEHB automatically continues year to year. 

• An eligible employee who enrolls in FEDVIP cannot waive premium conversion. When 

employees enroll in FEDVIP, they agree to pre-tax deductions. 

• An eligible employee who enrolls in FEHB may waive participation in premium conversion; 

otherwise, participation in premium conversion is automatic.

• An eligible employee who wants an FSAFEDS account in 2023 must enroll in

FSAFEDS during Open Season. Current participants must re-enroll each year if they 

want to continue participation. Enrollments do not carry forward from year to year.

2. Change enrollment or cancel enrollment in FSAFEDS, FEDVIP, and FEHB

• For FSAFEDS, current participants must re-enroll if they want to participate for 2023. If 

they choose to do nothing, their FSAFEDS coverage will end with the 2022 Benefit 

Period.

• For FEDVIP and FEHB, an enrollee may change from one plan or option to another or 

change enrollment type. 

• For FEDVIP and FEHB, an enrollee may cancel their enrollment. Note: Please inform 

employees that canceling their FEHB enrollment may affect their ability to meet the 5-year 

requirement for continuing FEHB into retirement. Electronic enrollment systems should 

provide this warning when an employee submits a cancellation action. There is no 5-year 

requirement to continue FEDVIP into retirement.

• An enrollee who currently participates in FEHB premium conversion may waive 

participation, or if they had previously waived premium conversion, may begin participation. 
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Compensationers 

• Former employees receiving benefits from the Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs 

(OWCP) should contact OWCP.

• Compensationers may send a written request for an Open Season enrollment change to the 

Office of Workers' Compensation Programs at the following address: FECA Central 

Mailroom, P.O. Box 8311, London, KY 40742. 

• Compensationers may also download the SF 2809 from OPM’s website for any FEHB Open 

Season changes and mail it to the above address.

Open Season Effective Dates

1. FSAFEDS 

• For enrollment during Open Season, the effective date is January 1, 2023. 

2. FEDVIP

• For a new enrollment or an enrollment change, the effective date is January 1, 2023. 

• For cancellation, the effective date is December 31, 2022. 

 The plan year under FEDVIP is January 1 through December 31.

3. FEHB 

Open Season enrollment changes are effective the first day of the first full pay period that begins 

on or after January 1, 2023. See the chart below.

*When an employee changes status from not enrolled to enrolled, the effective date is the first day 

of the first pay period that begins on or after January 1, 2023, and that follows a pay period during 

any part of which the employee is in pay status. 

Action Non-Postal 

Employees

Postal Employees Compensationers 

(OWCP) 

Enroll*, Change 

enrollment, Premium 

conversion change in 

election

January 01, 2023 January 14, 2023 January 1, 2023 

Cancellation December 31, 2022 January 13, 2023 December 31, 2022