Place Particulars
Alaska and Hawaii get their own locality pay, OPM designates 15 states as medically underserved and lawmakers look at veteran benefits.
The Office of Personnel Management published in the Federal Register on Tuesday its final rule granting federal workers in Alaska and Hawaii locality pay unique to those states.
The rule also extends the "Rest of U.S." rates to include American Samoa, Puerto Rico, the Northern Mariana Islands and Guam. The rule applies to pay periods after Jan. 1, and notes the rates in Alaska and Hawaii are likely to be higher than the Rest of U.S. rates.
The regulation marks another step in implementing the 2009 Non-Foreign Area Retirement Equity Assurance Act, which shifts federal employees in those regions away from cost-of-living adjustments based on the prices of goods and services like rent and food, and into the locality pay system that covers workers in the 48 contiguous states and is based on an analysis of private sector salaries.
The rule will affect about 44,100 employees.
Special FEHB Designation
OPM has designated 15 states that qualify as medically underserved areas under the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program in 2012.
The mostly Southern and Western states are: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Idaho, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, and Wyoming. South Carolina, which was considered medically underserved in 2011, is not on the 2012 list.
FEHB law requires the designation for states in which 25 percent or more of the population lives in an area considered by the Health and Human Services Department to have a critical shortage of primary care physicians. The law mandates non-HMO FEHB plans to reimburse beneficiaries, subject to their contract terms, for covered services obtained from any licensed provider in medically underserved states.
Vetting Vets' Benefits
Senate lawmakers on Wednesday dug into several proposals that would adjust the pay and benefits of veterans and employees working in Veterans Affairs Department facilities.
Members of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee recently considered legislation, introduced in March by Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, that would extend coverage for children enrolled in the Civilian Health and Medical Program of the Veterans Affairs Department to age 26. The benefit currently is available to beneficiaries of private sector plans and recently was extended to TRICARE participants under 2011 Defense authorization legislation.
Another bill, sponsored by committee chairwoman Patty Murray, D-Wash., would boost disability compensation to veterans based on the annual cost-of-living adjustment paid to Social Security recipients. The legislation also would increase dependency and indemnity benefits for surviving spouses and children. The increase would take effect on Dec. 1 and could affect as many as 3.5 million veterans and surviving family members in fiscal 2012.
Both VA officials and members of veterans' groups support the bills.
Legislation that would repeal a prohibition on collective bargaining over pay issues for VA medical professionals drew more controversy, however. The bill, sponsored by Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, would allow workers to negotiate compensation and have access to an appeals process. Lawmakers questioned whether the lack of bargaining encourages employees to find jobs elsewhere. While union representatives expressed support for the bill, noting that VA must be held accountable for its own pay policies, agency officials strongly opposed the proposal. The bargaining issue has not affected recruitment and retention efforts, they said.
The committee will mark up the legislation later this month.