Federal Annuitant Health Benefits Open Season Services

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) provides Federal employees, retirees, and their families with a benefit program and services that offer choice, value, and quality to help maintain the government's position as a competitive employer.

The Federal Employee Health Benefits (FEHB) program, administered by the OPM's Federal Employee Insurance Operations (FEIO), is the world's largest voluntary employer-sponsored health benefits insurance program and currently covers about 9 million individuals. These include active employees, annuitants and eligible dependents. The FEIO contracts with health benefits carriers and negotiates rates and benefits with the carriers to provide eligible employees and annuitants with a wide choice of health benefits coverage. The FEIO also administers an annual "Open Season" to give employees and annuitants the opportunity to change their enrollments.

The Federal Employee Health Benefits Act (FEHBA) mandates an annual health benefits Open Season enrollment period. OPM regulation specifies that the Open Season enrollment period must be held from the Monday of the second full workweek in November through the Monday of the second full workweek in December unless the Director of OPM specifies a different date.

The statute also requires OPM to notify all employees and eligible annuitants of the Open Season enrollment period and to provide health plan information to all employees and eligible annuitants so that the selection of a health benefits plan and option can made with as much information as possible.

Retirement Services (RS) administers the health and life insurance benefits for Federal annuitants/survivors under the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) and the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS). RS programs consist of the Retirement Operations DC, which reports directly to the Deputy Associate Director. RS is committed to providing quality service and customer care to the largest group of participants in the FEHB program. For annuitants that change enrollment, RS is charged with processing each individual change so that the annuitant's check will reflect the proper premium deduction each month.

The annual Open Season enrollment period is one of the most critical components of administering the health benefits insurance program for Federal annuitants and their eligible dependents. The majority of the annuitant population is made up of elderly individuals on fixed incomes, many who have serious medical considerations and who need their requests processed immediately so that notification is sent to their new insurance carrier to insure access to medical benefits and services on January 1of the upcoming year. Using a data base of approximately 2.7 million individuals along with data on approximately 265 health options that are primarily state specific, the contractor must distribute all Open Season materials to annuitants in a timely manner so that each annuitant receives current health plan information specific to the geographical area in which the annuitant resides.

RS is also responsible for notifying all eligible annuitants and dependents of the Federal Employees Dental and Vision Insurance Plan (FEDVIP) through the initial mailing and separate mailings. There are approximately 405,000 annuitants and dependent survivors eligible to receive FEDVIP notification.

The annuitant population consists of a group of retirement aged and medically disabled individuals whose usage of their health benefits services is great.  This population notably express their concerns and confusion when Open Season information they expect to receive is delayed and/or their requests are processed erroneously.  The annuitants concerns and confusion translates into follow-up letters, telephone calls and/or calls from their representatives which include members of Congress. The Federal Open Season process is under constant Congressional scrutiny and is of considerable interest to the media. Therefore, the distribution of Open Season materials must be accomplished absolutely within the time frames specified, so that the annuitant's annuity payments will accurately reflect the health benefits change requests in a timely manner (i.e. January 1).

There are four major workload factors:

• • Number of annuitants requesting information and changes;
  • Processing time;
  • Number of plans, and
  • The amount of variation in rates and benefits from the previous year.

This acquisition is to acquire a contractor to continue providing the current Federal Annuitant Health Benefits Open Season Services.

The primary NAICS Code is 561439. The other applicable NAICS Codes are 518210 and 561421.

We will procure the proposed acquisition using full and open competition procedures in accordance with FAR Part 12 in conjunction with FAR Part 15. All responsible sources may submit a proposal, which we will consider.

The proposed contract will be firm-fixed-price. The performance period for the proposed contract is expected to be five years: a one-year base period and four one-year options.

OPM intends to issue a request for proposals (RFP) on or about December 20, 2019. The RFP and all documents relating to this requirement will only be available on the following website: https://beta.sam.gov. Interested parties are responsible for monitoring this website for release of the RFP and all other documents relating to this requirement. We encourage interested parties to register on this website for e-mail notification of all actions relating to the RFP and for the interested vendors list. After we release the RFP, we will give interested parties the opportunity to ask questions regarding the RFP. We will include all questions and answers in an amendment to the RFP and post the amendment on this web site.

Proposals will be due on or about January 31, 2020. We anticipate awarding the proposed contract by May 29, 2020.

The incumbent for this requirement is General Dynamics Information Technology, Inc.