Q: I am retiring at the end of December and have already reached age 65. I have signed up for Social Security benefits starting in January. I also signed up for Medicare Part A coverage but not Part B coverage, as suggested at a retirement seminar. I am carrying over my Federal Employees Health Benefits coverage. I checked with my plan and they said I would not need Medicare Part B. If I decide to switch plans in the future and my new insurer suggests that I need Part B coverage, will I be penalized with the 10 percent per…
Browsing: HEALTH INSURANCE
Q: I am 53 years old and have 36 years of federal service. One catch: I don’t have the five years of coverage under a Federal Employees Health Benefit plan (I’m still four years short). If my office offers early out through downsizing or restructuring, approved by the Office of Personnel Management, can I retire and carry my health benefits into retirement, even though I don’t have five years of coverage? A: Yes, you would be eligible to carry your coverage into retirement because you would have been enrolled in the program at the time your agency received approval from…
Q: I am a Civil Service Retirement System annuitant who will turn 65 soon. I have a Federal Employees Health Benefits plan. Must I sign up for Medicare Part B and/or Part D? What are the consequences if I don’t? Will my FEHB plan continue to cover my health care costs if I don’t sign up for Medicare? I have signed up for Part A because I paid for it over my working career. A: No, you don’t have to sign up for Medicare Part B or Part D. Whether you should is a decision you’ll have to make. Your…
Q: I am planning to retire next year and I am attempting to make my Flexible Spending Accounts open-season decision. I know that if I have money left in my FSA and do not have enough expenses before I retire, I lose that money. However, I don’t know what happens in the reverse situation: If I have received payments that exceed the amount that I have had deducted from my payroll, what happens? An example would be if I elected $2,500 for the year, had paid in $800 from payroll deductions but already had received $1,200 in claims when I…
Q: I am a term employee in the Labor Department covered by Blue Cross/Blue Shield. My term ends Dec. 20. I am also a surviving spouse of a federal employee who was covered under the Civil Service Retirement System. I elected to not take health insurance under the annuity about 15 years ago. I would like to continue my current coverage; can my coverage be converted to the annuity coverage? I am a career status employee with approximately 13 years of federal service, 11 years under CSRS, and I elected not to be included in the Federal Employees Retirement System…
Q: My wife and I are both federal employees. We each have had individual coverage under the Federal Employees Health Benefits plan since we began working for the government. We both plan on retiring next year. She will be 61 and have 26 years of service; I will be 58 and have 20 years of service. I will postpone my retirement until age 60 to avoid the penalty. We plan on converting to a family plan this open season (2010) so that I am covered during those two years of my postponement. Is this the correct way to guarantee that…
Q: I will be retiring from federal service at age 58 with 35 years of service under the Civil Service Retirement System. I have been paying the 1.45 percent Medicare biweekly payment since its inception in 1983. Will this tax be deducted from my monthly CSRS annuity until I reach age 65? And, without 40 quarters of paying into Social Security, does paying the Medicare tax for 17 years qualify me for free Medicare Part A? A: Deductions for Medicare Part A are only required for those who have earnings from wages or self-employment, not annuities. The fact that you…
Q: I retired from the U.S. Postal Service in 2000 after being divorced in 1997. I gave my ex-wife 100 percent survivor benefits; she recently turned 55. I remarried in 2004 and sent the proper forms needed to add my current wife to my Federal Employees Health Benefits plan. I now have the American Postal Workers Union (472) plan, and I assumed that if I died, my present wife would be able to keep the plan. After talking with the Office of Personnel Management, I was told that I need to have my present wife named as survivor beneficiary for…
Q: There was an answer to a question that I would like clarification on. The writer, who was retired, said he and his wife were under his family health plan, but now they don’t need to cover their son, and he wants to switch to self-only coverage for both he and his wife (they are both retired federal employees). How is this possible? When you retire, you have to pick the self or family option, and your spouse also has to pick the self or family option. I assume the wife dropped her coverage in this case because you can’t…
Q: I am a 69-year-old federal retiree covered by a Blue Cross/Blue Shield Standard Option 105 health plan as well as Medicare Part A. I recently spoke with Blue Cross about reimbursement levels for doctor care when I received a bill from my internist for $400 and Blue Cross paid $100. According to Blue Cross, I was responsible for the remaining $300 because Congress had passed rules (they may have meant that the Office of Personnel Management generated a rule, I am not sure) that limited the amount they could reimburse Medicare patients for a given procedure. When I checked…