Forty-three health insurance carriers drop federal enrollees

More than 40,000 federal employees will have to pick new health insurance carriers next year following 43 companies' decisions to drop their federal enrollees.

The Office of Personnel Management Tuesday released a list of the 43 companies dropping out of the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP). About 43,000 employees will be affected, representing 5 percent of employees enrolled in health maintenance organizations (HMOs) and less than 1 percent of all FEHBP enrollees.

The affected employees will have to choose new health insurance providers during the FEHBP open season, which will run from Nov. 8 to Dec. 13.

The plans dropping out range in size from United HealthCare Select, which has 7,046 federal enrollees in Missouri and Illinois, to Prudential Connecticut, which has eight enrollees.

Jon-Christopher Bua, spokesman for OPM Director Janice R. Lachance, said a variety of factors contributed to the plans' exiting FEHBP, including the competitive environment of program. Twenty-eight of the 43 plans have less than 1,000 federal enrollees.

All of the plans leaving the program must notify their enrollees.

Here is a list of the plans dropping out of FEHBP in 2000: