United States Department of Agriculture

Office of the Chief Financial Officer

National Finance Center

P.O. Box 60000 New Orleans Louisiana 70160

Effective Pay Period 01, 2015 (January 11, 2015), the National Finance Center (NFC) will implement changes allowing the eligibility of Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) for certain intermittent, seasonal, and temporary employees. This is being done in accordance with Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Benefits Administration Letter (BAL) dated October 20, 2014.

Eligibility

There are two categories of eligibility:

1. Current Federal employees (ineligible to participate in FEHB or currently enrolled in FEHB and paying the full premium or a pro-rated premium)

   With OPM's guidance, Agencies will determine which employees currently on the rolls become eligible.

   Agencies must use the process below to make these employees eligible or waived for FEHB in NFC's Payroll/Personnel System.

   For current employees who were ineligible, but are now eligible, Agencies must:

   • Process a Document Type 030, Master File Change, for the newly eligible employee with the FEHB-Part-Time-Coverage-Cd of a 2 (PT employee paying as a FT employee). When the Document Type 030 is received and the employee has a FEHB Coverage Code of 2-Ineligible, 3-Waived, 5-Canceled, or 9-Terminated, the system will update the FEHB Coverage Code to a 4-Eligible Pending.
   • Process a FEHB enrollment document within 60 days. If no FEHB document is received within 60 days, the employee's FEHB Coverage Code will become a 3-Waived.

   For a newly eligible employee currently enrolled in FEHB who fall under the new OPM guidance, the Agency must:

   • Submit a Document Type 030 to change the FEHB-Part-Time-Coverage-Cd to 2 (PT employee paying as a FT employee), and if the FEHB Coverage Code is 1-Enrolled, 6-Court Ordered-Enrolled, 7-Court Ordered-Eligible Pend, or 8-Court Ordered-Self To Family, the code will remain the same. The FEHB-Part-Time-Coverage-Cd of a 2 (PT employee paying as a FT employee)will treat the employee's FEHB benefits as those of a full-time employee.
2. New hires (accessions and conversions)

   For accessions and conversions, the Agency must:

   • Use the FEHB Eligibility Code of 4-Eligible-Pending and use the new Remark Code 201, For the purposes of the Affordable Health Care Act this employee is a full time employee and eligible to enroll in FEHB under Section 4980H of the Internal Revenue Code and Treasury Regulations 79 FR 8544, dated Feb 12, 2014. The system will move a FEHB-Part-Time-Coverage-Cd to 2 (PT employee paying as a FT employee).
   • Process a Document Type 180, FEHB Enrollment Document, within 60 days. If a Document Type 180 is not processed within 60 days, the FEHB Eligibility Code will become a 3-Waived.

Table Management System (TMGT)

The Remark Code, For the purposes of the Affordable Health Care Act this employee is a full time employee and eligible to enroll in FEHB under Section 4980H of the Internal Revenue Code and Treasury Regulations 79 FR 8544, dated Feb 12,2014, is being added to TMGT Table 052, Remarks Code and Descriptions.

EmpowHR; Front-End System Interface (FESI); and Web-based Entry, Processing, Inquiry, and Correction System (EPIC Web)

On the Hire action, a 4-Eligible-Pending must be entered in the FEHB Eligibility field. The new employee will then have 60 days in which to submit a Standard Form (SF) 2809, Federal Employee Health Benefits Election Form.

Inquiries

For questions about NFC processing, authorized Servicing Personnel Office representatives should contact the NFC Contact Center at 1-855-NFC-4GOV (1-855-632-4468) or via the Internet using the Requester Console.

/s/
ANITA H. FINCHER, Director
Government Employees Services Division