{"id":14680,"date":"2016-04-16T08:31:36","date_gmt":"2016-04-16T13:31:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/?p=14680"},"modified":"2016-04-16T08:31:36","modified_gmt":"2016-04-16T13:31:36","slug":"awpu-negotiates-new-health-benefit-for-pses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/2016\/04\/16\/awpu-negotiates-new-health-benefit-for-pses\/","title":{"rendered":"AWPU Negotiates New Health Benefit for PSEs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"news-date-inline\"><span class=\"date-display-single\">APWU &#8211; 04\/14\/2016<\/span><span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>&#8211;<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span>Postal Support Employees (PSEs) will soon be able to sign up for health insurance during their first year of employment, President Mark Dimondstein has announced. Currently, PSEs can enroll only after they complete their first 360-day appointment.<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-7249\" src=\"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/1aa-APWU-small.gif\" alt=\"1aa-APWU-small\" width=\"295\" height=\"182\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Beginning with a Special Enrollment Period from May 16, 2016, to June 30, 2016, PSEs will be eligible to join the USPS Health Benefits (USPSHB) Plan. Coverage will be effective on July 9, 2016.<\/p>\n<p>The Postal Service will contribute at least $125 per\u00a0pay period toward the cost of the insurance.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis benefit is a step forward, especially for those who need self-only coverage,\u201d Dimondstein said. \u201cThis stop-gap measure will improve conditions for PSEs who need insurance for their first year.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis benefit applies to all PSEs, regardless of the number of hours they work,\u201d Dimondstein pointed out. This is significant because the Affordable Care Act requires employers to cover only those workers who work a minimum of 30 hours per week.<\/p>\n<p>After the first 360-day appointment, PSEs can switch to the APWU Consumer Driven Health Plan, where the Postal Service pays 75 percent of total premium costs for self-only, self-plus-one and self-and-family coverage.<\/p>\n<p class=\"last\">To find out more, visit\u00a0<em><a href=\"https:\/\/liteblue.usps.gov\/benefits\">https:\/\/liteblue.usps.gov\/benefits<\/a><\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/liteblue.usps.gov\/%20benefits\" target=\"_blank\"><em>\u00a0<\/em><\/a>or call 1-877-477-3273 and select option 1; TTY 866-260-7507. To enroll by mail, complete the\u00a0<em>PostalEASE\u00a0<\/em>worksheet available on LiteBlue and mail it to: HRSSC Compensation\/Benefits, PO Box 970400, Greensboro NC 27497-0400.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>APWU &#8211; 04\/14\/2016\u00a0&#8211;\u00a0Postal Support Employees (PSEs) will soon be able to sign up for health insurance during their first year of employment, President Mark Dimondstein has announced. Currently, PSEs can enroll only after they complete their first 360-day appointment. Beginning with a Special Enrollment Period from May 16, 2016, to June 30, 2016, PSEs will [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7249,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking","category-apwu-news","last_archivepost"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14680"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14680\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14681,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14680\/revisions\/14681"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}