How Often Do You Use the Conference Lodging Allowance?

• By Kellie Lunney
• October 25, 2012
• comments

Belt-tightening across government means that most federal spending is under scrutiny these days, and spending on government travel is no exception.

The scandal involving the lavish 2010 Las Vegas conference thrown by the General Services Administration prodded federal watchdogs to peer into other agencies’ travel spending. At the same time, the Obama administration continues to try to rein in travel budgets through the regulatory process. The latest move is a proposed rule in Tuesday’s Federal Register that would no longer allow federal travelers to take advantage of the conference lodging allowance reimbursement option.

GSA wants to remove language in the Federal Travel Regulation allowing government travelers to exceed the maximum lodging per diem rate by up to 25 percent when attending conferences for work. The proposal, which the public has two months to comment on, is part of GSA’s effort “to allow agencies to get a firmer grasp on how their travel dollars are used,” the notice stated.

When federal employees attend a conference for official business now and the lodging exceeds the maximum per diem rate for that area, they can request reimbursement based on what’s known as actual expense authority, or the conference lodging allowance ...

Poll: How healthy is your health insurance plan?

• By Kellie Lunney
• October 18, 2012
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Open season, the time during which federal workers can switch enrollments in health insurance plans, begins Nov. 12 and run through Dec. 10 this year. The Office of Personnel Management announced in September that premiums for nonpostal enrollees in the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program will increase an average of 3.4 percent in 2013. To achieve that increase, government contributions will rise 3.3 percent, while participants on average will pay 3.7 percent more in 2013. In dollars, that means FEHB enrollees with self-only coverage will pay on average $2.75 more per biweekly pay period and enrollees with family coverage will pay an average of $6.39 extra per pay period.

Health care remains an important issue for most Americans, and a politically hot topic with the continued implementation of the 2010 Affordable Care Act. FEHBP is widely considered a model health insurance program but that doesn’t mean it’s immune to change or criticism. Tell us how you view your health insurance coverage and whether you plan to make any changes during this year’s Open Season.

We are always looking for stories to improve our coverage and better serve our readers. If you’ve ...

Government Employees: Working Hard, or Hardly Working?

• By Kellie Lunney
• October 11, 2012
• comments

These days, government service might appear less attractive to current federal employees and the general public, as feds head into the third year of a pay freeze and the threat of furloughs looms.

But according to one new survey, most respondents think public servants have it made: They don’t work as hard as those in the private sector, and they are paid better. Sixty-four percent of respondents to an October survey from Rasmussen Reports said private sector folks work harder than government workers while 58 percent believed the average government employee earned more annually than those at private companies. Of the 1,000 respondents, 69 percent thought government workers have more job security as well.

These results are not new, as even Rasmussen acknowledges. “All these findings have remained fairly consistent in surveys for several years,” the report stated. The interesting thing is government workers agree. “There's little difference of opinion between government workers and private sector employees on the pay and job security questions.” A plurality -- 49 percent -- of government workers agreed they don’t work as hard private sector employees, according to the survey.

Republicans and those who identified themselves as politically unaffiliated believed more strongly ...

FEHBP Enrollees: The Check Is Not in the Mail

• By Kellie Lunney
• October 4, 2012
• comments

Employers are busy disbursing health care rebates to their workers this fall, as mandated under the health care reform law. Federal employees enrolled in the government’s health care program, however, should not expect to see an extra bump in their paychecks.

The Office of Personnel Management, which administers the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program, will use any rebates it receives from insurance carriers participating in the program to adjust premium rates for the next year, according to an agency spokeswoman. “This is the normal procedure for any rebates and refunds due a plan in the FEHBP,” she said. OPM currently is tallying the number of FEHB plans that owe rebates, the spokeswoman said.

The 2010 Affordable Care Act requires health care insurance companies to spend a specific portion of premium dollars on medical claims or programs that improve the quality of care. Small and medium-size insurance carriers have to spend 80 percent of premiums for medical care and can use the remaining 20 percent for administrative costs such as salaries; for large insurance issuers, the split is 85 percent to 15 percent. If insurance companies do not meet the Medical Loss Ratio standard, commonly known as the 80-20 rule ...

Sequestration Can’t Touch Certain Pay and Benefits

• By Kellie Lunney
• September 27, 2012
• comments

Way back in August 2011, a Maryland senator explained to a roomful of his constituents the benefits of an obscure budget procedure known as sequestration.

Democrat Ben Cardin held a town hall meeting with Census Bureau employees last summer in Suitland, Md., fielding questions from nervous feds on the issues du jour and how they would affect pay and benefits. The topics ranged from the debt ceiling; the then-looming government shutdown; the civilian pay freeze; proposals to increase feds’ pension contributions; and the deficit reduction options under consideration by the congressional super committee, now better known as the failure that could trigger sequestration.

During the town hall, Cardin pointed out that while the super committee could basically do whatever it wanted to in the name of deficit reduction, options were a lot more limited under sequestration as far as changes to federal pay, benefits and other programs exempt from the automatic, across-the-board governmentwide spending cuts. Cardin was one of the first lawmakers to rightly point out that, while sequestration is far from ideal for about 1,000 different reasons, at least there are some protections in place under the law for feds.

So, with a glass-half-full spirit, let’s recap ...