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OPM to post videos, webcasts to help feds with open season benefits choices

The materials cover health care plans, flexible spending accounts and more.

In an email with OPM spokeswoman Jennifer Dorsey said information on the open season webcasts was announced through several channels, including the November and December issue of the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association magazine, an email sent to agency benefit officers on Nov. 1, and announcements on an OPM and on its website. She said 20,000 feds tuned to the webcasts during open season in 2011 and OPM expects similar numbers this year. 

Federal employees will be able to watch a series of live webcasts providing information on federal benefits open season, according to the Office of Personnel Management.

The topics of the live online events include details on the federal benefits open season, the Federal Employees Dental and Vision Insurance Program, the Federal Flexible Spending Account Program, and the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program.

OPM says the webcasts will be broadcast on Nov. 6, 13 and 15, and several prerecorded videos will be released Nov. 5. The webcasts will be available at four different times throughout the day for feds nationwide.   

Federal benefits open season is the period between Nov. 12 and Dec. 10, when federal employees can sign up for a health plan, change or cancel their existing one, or elect to participate in a flexible spending account to pay for additional health care costs. 

This year, federal health premiums are set to rise an average of 3.4 percent. Additionally, OPM is ready to add five new health plans to the 230 that FEHBP currently offers federal employees.

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