{"id":27611,"date":"2019-11-12T11:52:23","date_gmt":"2019-11-12T16:52:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/?p=27611"},"modified":"2019-11-12T11:52:23","modified_gmt":"2019-11-12T16:52:23","slug":"usps-open-season-changes-announced","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/2019\/11\/12\/usps-open-season-changes-announced\/","title":{"rendered":"USPS: Open season changes announced"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"post-thumbnail link-fullfeature\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"attachment-twentyfourteen-full-width wp-post-image alignnone\" src=\"https:\/\/link.usps.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/osChanges_large-story.jpg\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/link.usps.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/osChanges_large-story.jpg 900w, https:\/\/link.usps.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/osChanges_large-story-300x250.jpg 300w, https:\/\/link.usps.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/osChanges_large-story-768x640.jpg 768w, https:\/\/link.usps.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/osChanges_large-story-102x85.jpg 102w\" alt=\"\" width=\"545\" height=\"454\" \/><\/p>\n<h6 class=\"link-caption\"><em>Several changes have occurred that could affect USPS employees\u2019 benefits selections during this year\u2019s open season.<\/em><\/h6>\n<\/div>\n<p>USPS News Link &#8211; 11\/12\/19 &#8211; The Postal Service wants employees to know about some important changes concerning the open season benefits enrollment period that\u00a0<em><a href=\"https:\/\/link.usps.com\/2019\/11\/11\/now-open-6\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">began this week<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s a rundown:<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 The U.S. Office of Personnel Management recently announced that the average total premiums for individuals enrolled in plans under the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHB) will increase 4 percent for 2020.<\/p>\n<p>This means premiums could increase as much as $1,000 a year for some plans.<\/p>\n<p>You can go use\u00a0<em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.liteblue.usps.gov\/openseason\">Checkbooks\u2019 Guide to Health Plans<\/a><\/em>, an online tool available on LiteBlue, to review your insurance rates for 2020. Because rates are increasing, USPS is encouraging you to compare plans and ensure you aren\u2019t overspending on health care.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 There are new pre-tax limits for flexible spending accounts (FSAs) and the Thrift Savings Plan (TSP).<\/p>\n<p>The FSA health care expense cap for 2020 is $2,750 and the TSP cap is $19,500, while the TSP cap for \u201ccatch-up contributions\u201d is $6,500.<\/p>\n<p>You can go to the\u00a0<em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.fsafeds.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">FSAFEDS site<\/a><\/em>\u00a0to learn more about flexible spending accounts and to enroll, while you can go to\u00a0<em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.liteblue.usps.gov\/\">LiteBlue<\/a><\/em>\u00a0to makes changes to your TSP contributions.<\/p>\n<p>You can make TSP changes at any time.<\/p>\n<p>Given the amount of changes taking place during open season this year, the Postal Service is encouraging employees to visit the\u00a0<em><a href=\"https:\/\/liteblue.usps.gov\/openseason\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Open Season LiteBlue page<\/a><\/em><em>,<\/em>\u00a0which provides information on premiums, virtual benefits fair information, helpful videos on choosing the right plan and access to Checkbook\u2019s Guide to Heath Plans.<\/p>\n<p>Open season, the once-a-year opportunity for Postal Service employees to make changes to their health coverage or choose a new plan, began Nov. 11 and runs through Dec. 9.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Several changes have occurred that could affect USPS employees\u2019 benefits selections during this year\u2019s open season. USPS News Link &#8211; 11\/12\/19 &#8211; The Postal Service wants employees to know about some important changes concerning the open season benefits enrollment period that\u00a0began this week. Here\u2019s a rundown: \u2022 The U.S. Office of Personnel Management recently announced [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27613,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27611","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking","last_archivepost"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27611","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=27611"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27611\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27612,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27611\/revisions\/27612"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27613"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}