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Attachment 1: Inform Employees and 

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 (such as the beginning of September) 

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: www.facebook.com/usopm

▪ Twitter (News and Updates): https://twitter.com/usopm

• Host a virtual event

• Add Open Season tagline information to your email signature block

▪ For example:

Jane Smith

The 2021 Federal Benefits Open Season -

November 8th thru December 13, 2021

For more information visit the Open Season website.

• Add reminders to earnings and leave statements
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• 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

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

http://apps.opm.gov/abo.

Materials 

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

Season materials at www.opm.gov/openseason.

2. Plan Comparison Tool. The Plan Comparison Tool is available at

www.opm.gov/FEHBcompare 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 actually 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 2022 and plans that have services area expansions.
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Information on new plans will be available in Benefits Administration 

Letter 21-403. 

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 

2021 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.

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.
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• 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 2022 must 

enroll in FSAFEDS during Open Season. Current participants must reenroll 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 2022. If they choose to do nothing, their FSAFEDS

coverage will end with the 2021 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. 

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 
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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, 2022. 

2. FEDVIP

▪ For a new enrollment or an enrollment change, the effective 

date is January 1, 2022. 

▪ For cancellation, the effective date is December 31, 2021. 

o 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, 2022. See the chart below. 

 

Action Non-Postal 

Employees 

Postal 

Employees 

Compensationers 

(OWCP) 

Enroll*, Change 

enrollment, 

Premium 

conversion 

change in 

election 

January 2, 2022 January 1, 2022 January 2, 2022 

Cancellation January 1, 2022 December 31, 

2021

January 1, 2022 

* 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, 2022, and that follows a pay period during any part of 

which the employee is in pay status.