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Navigating PSHB and Benefeds · United We Scan

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Welcome to the United We Scan Podcast, the podcast by rural
0:18
carriers for rural carriers. The views expressed in this
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podcast are of the presenters and the presenters only and do
0:25
not represent the views, opinions, or strategies of the
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United States Postal Service or the National Rural Letter
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Carriers Association. We ask that you please consult
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your assigned union representative for guidance in
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your local area. Please like this podcast, share
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Please leave a comment or question for us below.
0:47
Thank you. Now here are the hosts of the
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United We Scan podcast. Welcome back, everybody.
0:54
We'll be at 98 tonight, so we're kind of going to do a little
0:58
something special. It's kind of a little bit of a
1:01
trial and error, so bear with me here.
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I thought this would be perfect since it is open season, which
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we talked about last week, and I know that Spotify and of course
1:15
our YouTube channel are all video friendly.
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So I'm kind of going to go through the OPM website a little
1:24
bit with everybody just as a navigation tool.
1:28
So, you know, we're we're hoping to try something a little new
1:32
here. Maybe eventually down the road
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we'll do something else with video or a PowerPoint type
1:38
presentation so you guys can actually see what we're talking
1:41
about. I was thinking about like with
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edit books or something like that.
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So some things I had ideas for that illegal wise would probably
1:51
not be to our advantage, let's put it that way.
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But on that note, how was your week, James?
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Well, without the political Flyers and stuff like that, it
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was a pretty OK week. But then Saturday, about 7:30 in
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the morning, my phone rings. I look over, it's the 204 B
2:15
calling. I like I'm asleep.
2:18
I ain't answering that. So I ignored it, and then she
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texted me. Then she goes, hey, can you come
2:26
help? One of the Subs called in and
2:30
I'm like no one else left and she's like no, we can split but
2:35
figured I'd ask you. So I'm like screw it, it's
2:38
almost Christmas time. I need the extra money and I can
2:41
schedule the next day as soon as I get there to cover it because
2:46
they have to do it within the pay period that it occurs in.
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So setting that all up and everything did my route and of
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course I find out when I get there that the DPS cart that had
3:00
my mail and several others in it had sipped over.
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So I had to figure out what I was going to end up doing.
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And luckily the 204 B was there and she's like well take what
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you can, whatever's meant to messed up, we'll send back to
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the plant. I'm like perfect, still ended up
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taking me longer than I wanted it to, even though I didn't take
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all the DPS because I still sorted a lot of it.
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But it was a good extra day of work for me.
3:29
And then I had today off to get everything done before I started
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a new week of work. So it's been a fun week.
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How about you Bill? How was your week of not To Do
3:38
List? I did lots of things I didn't
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have to do, but they needed to get done what included a trip to
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the Social Security Administration building because
3:49
they administer your Medicare coverage and I don't have my
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Medicare Part B yet. And if you don't sign up in a
3:55
timely fashion after you retire, you get hit with a 10% penalty.
3:58
So I go down there and I explain to the young lady what's going
4:02
on. I work for the post office and
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she says you have your 1095 CS in the last few years, which is,
4:09
you know, your cost of your medical to the post office.
4:13
And I said, yes, I do. They're in my tax files.
4:16
He said, come in tomorrow morning at 9:00 and she goes,
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I'll have you out of here in 10 minutes.
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And I said, if you can do that, I'll get you a dozen Donuts.
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What kind do you like? She likes the frosted and the
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vanilla with the sprinkles on top and, you know, in the mix
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after that. And so Thursday morning I did.
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I went down to the Social Security office.
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I registered in. I got called first.
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I go up there, he takes my forms, photocopies them or
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downloads them, turns around process, prints out a sheet.
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I now have coverage for A and BI gave her her 10 Donuts.
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Somehow 2 Donuts disappeared on the way there.
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I, I don't know how, but it did. It happened that way.
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So when you're looking to retire, ladies and gentlemen, I
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know for a lot of you it's years down the road.
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Be aware of how slow the Postal Service is.
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I retired effectively September 27th, 2024, Year of our Lord,
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and on PEN 2. Five days later, HRSSC, the
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Human Resources Shared Service Center, sent a letter out
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recognizing my retirement. On 11/15.
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I received the letter. It sat in Greensboro, NC until
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the 12th of November. How bad is that?
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Now, if you know you're not as fortunate as myself, you might
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be in a pickle waiting for your annuity coming from the post
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office added to your TSP and your Social Security.
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But, but when they say, you know, three, you start three
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months, they mean three months because it's been almost three
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months since I retired. And they're, they're just
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getting around to sending my literature out to me, which I
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need ACSA now because I'll no longer be able to use my EIN.
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And I'm just sitting here rolling my eyes going, no wonder
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if the government's in such bad shape, you know, particularly
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the post office. Other than that, I, I picked up
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the grand doggie on Thursday, also for dogs sitting there
6:17
while my son's on a cruise. And other than that now just,
6:23
you know, scrolling the websites looking for properties to invest
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in up here. Might need one for my son and
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his girlfriend and baby soon. So, you know, that's about it.
6:34
And let's see tomorrow's Monday. So tomorrow's shooting Monday.
6:37
You have to go shoot again tomorrow.
6:40
I'd love that. Other than that, I mean, it's
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been a nice dry week again. We're we're in a a drought
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situation here in the Northeast and we have some light rain
6:51
coming in this week, but we're 10 inches below normal right
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now. So don't be throwing your lit
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cigarettes or your bongs out the car window.
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And you know, just be aware of situations with all this dried
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neo grass and leaves around, too, especially when you pull up
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to a mailbox and leaves underneath your vehicle.
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I've seen that happen once or twice in my lifetime as a postal
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worker. About you Kristen, how was your
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week? Well, unlike you, it did rain a
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little bit this week for us. So I was working out in the rain
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a few days, but I don't know that it wasn't too bad.
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And, you know, it was a week. Thank goodness the political's
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gone. I'm just wondering how many
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mailings that Blue Cross Blue Shield can send out to people
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that are no longer with us and bad addresses and everything
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else. So that was a lot of my week.
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Other than that, it really wasn't all that bad of a week.
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But other than that, I know there was something off the top
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of my head I was going to say, and I don't remember it now
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because, you know, staring at this OPM website in front of me,
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but no, it's pretty normal week. I'll just see what's going on
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drama wise at the office this week, if we can nip that in the
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butt now before it gets worse. But other than that, not
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something I can talk about on air, so I'm not going to yeah,
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just normal week. We're still waiting on Ruby's
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start date and orientation date. So other than that, we have
8:23
another RCA coming in and shadowing on the J route
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Wednesday. So I may be busy training coming
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up, but other than that, not too not too bad of a week really
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wasn't. My parents came up today to
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visit for a little bit, so that was nice.
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See the little man my had my youngest daughter here for the
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weekend as well. Ruby is a still about two hours
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out. She went to take her home and
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then went to go visit one of her aunts.
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A couple of her cousins were home this weekend and they
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wanted to see the baby so made it all one trip to drop off the
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sister and go see some other of her family as well.
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And that it's been pretty not too bad week other than that.
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So what I have planned and it'll be on video, I will upload it on
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Spotify as an MP4. So you guys will have the video
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on there for those that listen on Spotify and as well as on the
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YouTube. So please bear with me.
9:20
And this is new for all of us here.
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So I'm trying to do the video thing a little bit and I know a
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lot of people are having issues with creating a login.gov ID or
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trying to get onto the OPM website.
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And I, I, I feel for you guys, I really do.
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I had already had a login.gov ID, so it was no problem for me
9:44
to get on there. I'm not having to make any
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changes, but I did want to at least pull it up for those that
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are curious on how to find stuff or how to do all that.
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So bear with us while we go through this for a little bit,
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unless you guys have anything else you want to talk about
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first. We'll go ahead and get started
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and then save the chatter for afterwards.
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OK. All right, so I have the OPM
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site up the same length. Everybody goes out
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opm.gov/healthcaredashinsurance/PSHB Postal Service health benefits
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on that main page before you do any login.
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It obviously headed up the system update Saturday November
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16th. I don't know if that helped
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without with anybody, but I have not had a problem with getting
10:32
into the site. I'm using Chrome as a web
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browser. Just so everybody's aware what
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this one works for me. It flat out open season began
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November 11th. It's got all the Medicare little
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tabs up on the top. I'm just on the overview page at
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the moment and you know get coverage or change your roaming
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information link. We'll click on in a minute.
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There is also a phone number. I've heard people have been
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getting transferred around and hung up on again, I personally
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have not experienced that. I, I don't think they were as
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prepared for this as they thought they were when it came
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to switching everything over this way.
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So as we all know, that's how it normally happens.
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And it does explain that the Postal Service Health Benefits
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Program is a new separate program within the Federal
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Employees Health Benefits Program administered by the
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Office of Personnel Management OPM.
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The PSHB will provide healthcare benefit plans to eligible Postal
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Service employees, Postal Service annuance and their
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eligible family members starting on January 1st, 2025.
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And that's just basically what the PHHPSHB plans versus the
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FEHB plans is part of the Federal Employees Health Benefit
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program. The Postal Service Health
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Benefit Program plans will cover the same set of comprehensive
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health benefits included in the FEHB plans.
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PSHB plans will be offered by many of the same carriers that
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offer FEHB. There are few important
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differences for the PSHB enrollees.
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The PSHB plan will run from January 1st through December
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31st each year. This is the same for annuitants
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covered by FEHB, but different from the FEHB plan.
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Year for employees, which begins on the first day of the first
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full pay period in January each year, is required by the Postal
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Service Reform Act of 2022. Certain Medicare eligible Postal
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Service annuitants and their Medicare eligible family members
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must enroll in a Medicare Part B to remain enrolled in a PHPSHB
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plan. There are some exceptions to
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this requirement, and there's some links you can click on to
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get all that stuff. I'm just kind of scrolling
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through this main page right now.
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And then of course, your dental and vision programs are going to
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stay the same under the benefits.
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I do have a tab up for that, so if we got time to get to it, I
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can go over there real quick and show you guys that for a moment.
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So to get coverage or change your enrollment information, I'm
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going to click on this link. Bear with me.
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It's going to want to sign in. This is after you have your
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login.gov. You'll get the sign in screen.
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You're going to put I save all my stuff.
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So you're not going to see anything of be able to log into
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mine or my full phone number. You'll have to do the
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authentication and just like you do with login into light blue, I
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do mine via phone because it's a lot easier for me.
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And then once you get into it, you'll get the notice of privacy
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act blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
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Hit continue. And then you come up to your
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main dashboard and that's got what your current information is
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if you have a current plan. Now if you want to go in and
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find plant, you'll hit find plans and it gives you a couple
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choices, a lower enrollee contribution by pay period with
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higher out of pocket costs when when you get care or a lower out
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of pocket costs. You can skip those and go
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directly to the plans. You don't have to choose one or
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the other. If you want to look at them all,
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you just hit skip to the plans and it will come right up for
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you. If you have a current plan,
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that's the plan that's going to come up first.
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And then that's when you get to compare the other healthcare
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plans and you have your enrollment type tabs.
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You have self, self plus one and self plus family.
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And basically you can scroll on down, you can hit compare.
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I do believe it's up to three different policies that you can
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compare them all to get, you know, three at a time.
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If you click the view details, I just clicked on the first one up
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here. So it just says it's the Blue
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Cross Blue Shield focus and it'll bring you up, tell you
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what your government contribution is, what your
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contribution per pay period, what your enrollment type you're
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looking at. And it has your brochure
15:08
numbers, your enrollment codes, your member costs.
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If you click on that tab, it'll tell you what's all in network,
15:15
out of network member costs. If you have Medicare, it'll give
15:21
you that as well. Now, these are just the
15:23
highlights. If you want to dig deep down,
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that's where you're going to want to get in.
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Now, on the bottom of the screen, it does have a plan
15:33
brochures link and you click on that and you can get the plan
15:36
brochures and any of the statements.
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But basically that how you find out information on a specific
15:45
plan, you can go back out. Like I said, if you can click
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on, I believe it's 3. So we're going to click on the
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focus. Let's do, there's like 5 pages,
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guys. So I'm just going to pick three
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off the three pages. We'll go with the government
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employees health option, Indemnity and the Aetna HDHP.
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This is just to compare plans. Then you click on Compare Plans
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and it pulls up those 3. You can kind of compare the
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three as it goes. If your plan option names, your
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brochure numbers, the plan option type, member costs, just
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basically, I mean, it's really not difficult to navigate
16:31
through this, especially if you're looking to either switch
16:35
or you're getting health insurance for the first time.
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I did have a clerk in my office ask me about it because by the
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time he got the information, because he got hired in as a
16:46
PTF, by the time he got the information booklet and
16:50
everything, it was already passes 60 days and he was kind
16:52
of out of luck. So I told, you know, I told him
16:56
where to go and how to look it up.
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And then you can finalize, you select your health plan and then
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it's got the little steps up on the right hand side, finalize
17:06
your selections and complete your enrollment.
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I'm not changing anything. So I personally am not going to
17:11
go through any of this with you. But basically you find the plan
17:14
that you want. You're going to pick the plan.
17:16
Do you know that, you know, if you're covering your kids, they
17:20
are on there until they're 26 years old and age out or until
17:25
they have medical insurance themselves.
17:28
And then there is forms that need to be submitted in to get
17:32
them removed. But really, I mean, once you can
17:34
get into the site, I know that's been the biggest thing for
17:36
everybody is getting on. And once you can get on it and
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really take the time to scroll through it, compare your plans
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and whether you're looking for self, self plus family, self
17:50
plus one. You know, many, several of the
17:53
plans, it's actually cheaper to go self plus family instead of
17:56
self plus one. Especially I know with the rail
17:59
carrier benefit plan, it is cheaper for self plus family.
18:03
But definitely do your homework when it comes to that.
18:05
I know I think it was what which one?
18:07
It was one of the blue Blue Cross Blue Shield ones that did
18:11
jump significantly in rate wise. And I've seen a lot of people
18:16
asking, you know, about other ones.
18:18
I've seen a lot of people looking at mail handlers.
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Now The thing is you can choose. Now this is all for career
18:26
employees only. If you're still a non career
18:29
RCA, then you're going to have basically the one option which
18:34
is the care first Blue Cross Blue Shield and that is the only
18:39
one that has the contribution done by the employer.
18:44
If you try and sign up for rural carrier benefit plan, you're
18:49
going to have to pay the full amount.
18:52
And that would be, I mean looking under, you know, self
18:57
and family, it's going up to two 7337 per employee.
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If you were to add that to the government contribution 2 totals
19:08
together the 27337 and the six 7295 that comes to 94632 a
19:19
paycheck. I don't know a lot of non career
19:23
employees that would be able to afford that every two weeks.
19:27
So I'm just putting that out there.
19:28
If you're looking for health insurance as a non career.
19:30
So as an RCA on the rural side, you're really your only option
19:35
of somewhat affordability would be the care 1st Lacrosse Blue
19:39
Shield, which is like I said before, the only plan that is
19:42
available for non career people. So that is your health care go
19:46
back to plan options. I'm not going to go through all
19:49
of them. There's 5 pages you can go
19:52
under. You can you can filter for
19:55
whether you want to do you know your estimated enrollee
19:59
contribution, deductible amounts, out of pocket maximums.
20:03
You can set this all up to it under filters.
20:08
To as well as providers and facilities if you're looking to
20:11
see if your facility or provider are under there as well.
20:15
But yeah, it's like I said, once you can get into it, it's really
20:18
not that difficult to navigate at all.
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I just kind of wanted everybody to kind of hasn't had a chance
20:24
to see it, to see what they're actually looking at.
20:27
And you would just go under and hit pick this plan.
20:31
If your plan is one of those that's automatically carry,
20:35
automatically carrying over, transferring over, then you
20:39
don't have to do anything. And I'm not changing mine so I
20:43
don't have to do anything. Now vision in dental is under
20:47
benefits.gov. You'll get logged in and this is
20:53
where your vision in dental, again, it's the multi auth
20:57
authenticator as they all are anymore.
21:00
They get in here and I'll show you guys that real quick.
21:04
So you go up to benefits. If you are currently have plans,
21:07
they will pop up, you can review them, you'll have a little thing
21:11
and you just knock that down if you want to look.
21:13
Obviously our FSA is not going to be the same.
21:16
So that I did notice when I logged into light blue, you go
21:21
under the apps when it for the FSA, it is red.
21:24
You click on that, it brings up the new Inspira.
21:28
You create an account and then you can go in and do your
21:31
selections. I've created my account, I just
21:33
haven't gone any further for that.
21:35
So under my benefits, if you're currently enrolled, you'll have
21:39
your current enrollment information right up front.
21:43
But if you want to shop around for a plan, you hit shop Fed VIP
21:47
plans. And if you want dental or
21:50
vision, you're going to click on whichever 1 you want.
21:53
You can do a plan compare tool or you can compare dental
21:58
service costs. So if you have something that
22:00
you maybe have coming up next year, whether you know you're
22:03
looking at having to get dentures or braces for your kids
22:09
or extractions of some sort, or you're looking to have to do
22:13
dental work outside of your normal routine care, you can
22:18
definitely compare the dental service cost as well.
22:20
And then the plan compare you want to go for the future plan
22:24
year, which starts obviously, we're paid biweekly hit next and
22:30
you're going to put in your residential zip code.
22:33
And then you're going to choose on what you want, whether it's
22:35
self only, self plus one self family.
22:39
I'm going to go under self only. Well, self plus one for dental.
22:42
And you can click on more than one.
22:44
So if you want to look at them for all three, click on all
22:47
three then you'll pop up for my area says I have 42 dental plans
22:52
available. This was because it does have
22:55
the self self plus one and self family.
22:57
And then you'll will go through all those course it's saying
23:02
it's already enrolled. Not quite sure I haven't figured
23:05
that out yet. But this is where you can go and
23:10
look at your different what your biweekly premiums are.
23:14
Compare them between yourself, self, family, high option,
23:17
standard option and all the different companies.
23:21
I currently have the government employees health for the dental
23:26
under the high option under self plus one which is right here and
23:34
it just says this is not an official statement of benefits
23:37
page only summarizes plan rates and benefits.
23:39
See the plan brochure before making your final enrollment
23:43
selections. Basically you click on the plan
23:45
that you're looking at interested in.
23:47
It gives you a summary of the breakdown on what you got,
23:52
deductibles or major surgery services, orthodontic services,
23:57
and that's for the individual. You can also go right to their
24:01
website and looked up more information as well.
24:04
It tells you the organization type, the plan tier, the covered
24:08
areas. There's phone numbers for each
24:10
one of them listed as well. Yeah, there's a lot of them out
24:14
there. Like I said, I, you know,
24:15
everybody is what they have for their own, whether it's medical,
24:19
dental, vision is really, you know, what your family needs or
24:22
what you need is if you're just covering yourself.
24:25
So that is definitely important for you to make those decisions
24:29
according to what is best fits your needs and your pocketbook.
24:33
Yeah, that's the benefits. That's your dental and then I
24:38
will hop over real quick. Well.
24:41
I I have a public service announcement first.
24:44
Yes, go ahead. If you have young children and
24:49
you anticipate at that some of them are going to need braces,
24:54
be very careful because some of these plans require you to be
24:57
enrolled for three years prior to paying for for braces to be
25:03
covered and that that's a big hitch.
25:06
So yeah, you might, might consider having a minimal plan
25:10
so that you have to get those three years in before those kids
25:13
need them because they're up at $6000 right now.
25:17
Yeah. I mean, that was the when it,
25:19
when I first got the dental as still an RCA and yes, non career
25:23
employees. And it used to be that you had
25:26
to be an RCA for one year before you could get on the benefits.
25:30
That changed last year towards the end of the year.
25:34
And I do believe now you can enroll right away for the dental
25:39
and vision plans that there was a special sign up for that in
25:43
the past. Like I said, I'm not 100%
25:46
certain, but I do know you had you had to be in for a full year
25:50
before you could choose dental and vision.
25:52
So I had already had these as RCA's, vision plans.
25:57
Again, just like your current plan or future plan.
25:59
Obviously, if you're looking for next year, you're going to hit
26:02
future plan and ask again how often you're paid your zip code
26:07
and what type of plans you're looking for.
26:10
I'm just going to go under self only for this one because it's
26:13
easier to look at. And then that's where you can
26:16
compare your vision plans. So you got VSP, you've got
26:22
United Healthcare Vision, MetLife Vision, you have Aetna.
26:26
I personally have the Aetna high for myself, the only one that is
26:32
covered under this, none of my kids have glasses.
26:38
And so I just have the self for that.
26:41
And I have the Aetna vision preferred eye option.
26:44
But yeah, that lets you choose. You click on it.
26:47
I'm just going to click on the MetLife because it was right
26:49
here. Standard tier, again, it's going
26:53
to come down and tell you your co-pay.
26:56
What you have for in network, out of network is a flat fee.
27:00
See brochure your vision exams, how often they'll allow you to
27:04
do that and all that good stuff. And then additional features and
27:10
what they may assist in. Everything is not 100% covered.
27:14
Sometimes they may have a flat fee or a percentage that they'll
27:17
cover for additional features. Official statement of benefits
27:21
would be that plan brochure that is broken down, you got APDF
27:27
format that you can download on the right hand side and that
27:31
pretty much gives you the how to shop around on the benefits.
27:38
And then of course, if you have to enroll, when you go to
27:41
enroll, it will ask you your federal affiliation and we're
27:47
obviously federal civilian, which includes U.S.
27:50
Postal Service employees that you would just click on that you
27:54
would hit next, It would hit U.S.
27:56
Postal Service employee, you work for the post office, you
28:00
hit next. Then it'll ask you what type of
28:03
employee are you? Are you full time?
28:05
Are you a part time permanent, seasonal, intermittent,
28:09
temporary, or AP per DM employee?
28:12
Part time permanent I do believe would be the Rcas.
28:16
If you're no you're not collecting workman's comp.
28:21
Are you currently enrolled in the federal health plan or will
28:24
you be enrolled in the PSP plan starting?
28:27
Yes. Are you the primary enrollee or
28:30
a family member? You're the primary you hit next
28:34
and it will tell you that you are eligible for dental and
28:38
vision. Now this is what what I just
28:39
went through is what you would do as an RCA with the part time
28:43
permanent because you are RC as are considered a permanent
28:47
employee in part time as well as APTF.
28:50
You are not a career full time APT FS are career and so it
28:55
falls a little different. But yeah, for RC as that's what
28:58
you would do to get that. You certify that my information
29:02
is correct, you would hit next and you would create your
29:06
account and fill in all your fun little details.
29:09
I'm going to exit out of that. And that is a quick run through
29:13
of the benefits and the OPM and how to navigate those sites
29:22
looking for your insurance. Did I miss anything?
29:26
No. I think you covered pretty much
29:28
navigating the site. 49 you didn't know, but I guess some
29:33
people out there need help. Yeah, You know, did this.
29:38
This reminds me of the situations that happen in an
29:41
office every day where people say I, I didn't know.
29:45
Well, did you spend 10 minutes looking into it?
29:48
Right. But the same thing on this, you
29:49
know, I didn't know the, the, the sites have greatly improved
29:54
since when they, you know, began back in the day.
29:57
And, you know, the comparison charts are nice.
30:00
Yeah. You have to consider your your
30:02
family's medical history in regards to what coverage you
30:05
want your FSA, which is your, what do you call it, insecure
30:09
now. Inspira Inspira.
30:12
Inspira, Inspira. Inspira, inspira, inspira and
30:17
you know, considering the fact that that's taken out pre tax,
30:20
that helps you if you anticipate, you know, any type
30:23
of, you know, recurring expense. It it says mention the benefits
30:28
as a dependent care FSA as well. That is all through the FSA feds
30:33
that we previously had, and we will not have come over at the
30:40
beginning of the year since they switched it over to the new one.
30:46
I haven't signed up. I got logged into it.
30:48
I created an account that you can do on light blue.
30:52
I'm not going to pull my light blue up for everybody to see.
30:56
However, I can kind of talk it through real quick.
31:01
When you sign into light blue, you're going to go to the apps
31:08
tab up on the top. Now like I said, I'm on a
31:11
computer right now so I know it. It's pretty similar on the phone
31:15
on on mobile. I've done it that way as well so
31:19
I am familiar. If you click on the apps and
31:23
it'll go to under flexible spending account, it is
31:27
highlight it is red instead of blue.
31:30
Under the employee applications, you have HR, Employee
31:33
Self-service, E Career, E Job Bidding, ELRAEOPF, all those
31:38
normal ones that you normally should use.
31:40
If you click on the flexible spending account, it'll have you
31:44
log in again with password and everything and get another
31:53
verification code. It is lengthy and sometimes a
31:56
pain in the butt, but it's just how it is.
32:00
And then it'll pop up to mybenefits.inspirefinancial.com
32:07
and it is currently telling me I have 22 days left to enroll.
32:10
Last day to enroll is 12/9 of 2024.
32:14
You're eligible to enroll independent care, healthcare,
32:17
FSA or limited FSA for upcoming year plan.
32:21
It would click on enroll now and then it would take you to the
32:24
screen open enrollment and then you can choose dependent care
32:28
limited, FSA, or healthcare. I personally don't need the
32:33
dependent care, just I go under the health care.
32:36
It would enter the amount a minimum annual deduction is
32:40
$100.00 with a maximum annual deduction of $3300.
32:45
And so you would just go in, you would enter your amount that
32:50
you're looking to do and then next to it, it give you your
32:53
estimated per pay period deduction times your 26 pay
32:58
periods equals your full amount. You hit save my select save my
33:02
elections. Yes, continue.
33:04
I'm going to waive the limited and the dependent.
33:08
And then it just says by confirming your elections, you
33:11
accept the following terms, blah, blah, blah.
33:13
You hit submit and tells you your settings have been saved
33:18
and yet you're going the account type.
33:21
Your estimated pay period deduction times how many pay
33:25
periods in your total annual deduction is whatever you decide
33:29
to do between the 100 and the $3300 and that is all there is.
33:33
Once you create the account with the Inspira, it lets you choose.
33:39
You can go under your account and it'll tell you.
33:42
I literally just signed up for this while I was doing it.
33:45
If you go under your account settings, if you haven't done
33:48
everything by then, you can add a bank account for things to be
33:53
automatically reimbursed similar to how we currently have it
33:56
under the FSA. Feds as well as I do believe
34:00
they are going to be issuing debit cards.
34:02
You can go paperless. You can do any of that.
34:07
You can have your reimbursement account and you can select your
34:12
frequency, monthly, quarterly. This is basically e-mail, text
34:17
messages and online notifications.
34:19
So you can get notified of your balance reminder, your claims
34:22
received. You can select that whether you
34:25
just want it online, by text, via e-mail.
34:28
Same with the security alerts are automatic and then it has a
34:32
spot for you to add dependents if needed.
34:36
So it's really not that difficult to do at all.
34:40
Again, that's on the light blue under the apps tab flexible
34:44
spending account. It's bright red.
34:46
You can't miss it. All right, guys, that's that
34:49
that is your benefits. And once you can get in there, I
34:53
don't know if people are having you know, I don't know if it's
34:57
issues with OPM on their end or if it's browser issues.
35:02
I honestly, I don't we don't have those answers.
35:06
You know, once you can get into it, that's basically what you're
35:10
doing and navigate it. It's fairly simple once you can
35:13
get into it. Hopefully everybody has an
35:15
opportunity to get into it or at least on to the main page before
35:19
you log in and get that phone number.
35:22
Make changes as needed as well. Hopefully you can get that
35:26
through because it really sounds like it's been a big pain in the
35:29
BE for a lot of people, which unfortunately is not the best.
35:34
Hey, I'm trying what what whatever I can do to help
35:37
people. I mean, sometimes and I know
35:39
especially people who are not very computer savvy, some of our
35:44
you know, there's I know, I know carriers out there that still
35:48
don't have, you know, cell phones or they have flip phones.
35:50
They don't use smartphones or, you know, they don't even own a
35:53
computer. So, you know, it's what you get
35:57
at there and you're like, what the heck am I doing?
36:00
You know, you want to at least it, it, it's something that can
36:04
be helpful. And I, you know, was hoping to,
36:08
I mean, there's more that I would like to do, but like I
36:10
said, legally it might be impossible to do some of that
36:14
stuff. So, yeah, everyone has different
36:16
levels of technology knowledge. I agree with that.
36:19
Yeah. And I had already been on the
36:21
site and I was kind of playing around the computer and went,
36:24
oh, yeah, I can, I can, we can do this video format.
36:27
So even though I knew I wasn't making any changes with
36:30
anything, I still went on to see what, what the talk is about
36:34
everything. I wanted to be up to date on
36:36
that. So, you know, we had to stand up
36:38
talk in the office about the new benefits and the website and
36:42
everything. And I did step out and, and let
36:45
the people know that there had been issues with logging in and
36:48
there, you know, the options for verifying IDs, uploading it.
36:52
I mean they are picky with the pictures trust me.
36:55
When I was doing it just to get into my FSA account even though
36:59
I already had the account set up and had been into it before,
37:02
they since then had changed into the login.gov and it probably
37:06
took me 4 or five. It was a few days worth of
37:09
attempts before it finally took my ID and I had tried both my
37:14
driver's license and my passport.
37:17
And I know do know you can also verify your ID at the post
37:21
office as well. That was very, very good there,
37:23
Kristen. I like that, you know, showing
37:25
everybody how to, how to, how to navigate there, you know, a lot
37:30
of things that people don't pay attention to.
37:33
It, it, I mean, some people don't know, like I said, we have
37:36
many carriers out there that don't use a computer or a
37:41
smartphone. So it's, you know, I may
37:44
eventually figure out how to record a screen from my phone on
37:49
how to navigate certain apps. You know, it's to do it that way
37:53
because I know a lot of people just rely on their smartphones.
37:56
They don't have a home computer or you know, I have the new
38:01
setup, I have my laptop, I have my smartphone.
38:05
I try to be able to get on all of it when I can and learn how
38:09
to navigate it through with everything.
38:11
Done a fine job navigating tonight.
38:14
I thank you very much. I appreciate that you got to
38:18
come up with another to see if his next figure says that in it.
38:25
He might feel mine next. So I was thinking because, you
38:29
know, I had thought about well, maybe how to navigate light
38:32
blue, but again, that's kind of crossing the legal border as
38:36
well as the the union website because that is hard to navigate
38:40
and some of us have that down pretty darn good.
38:43
But again, that's we. Cannot, we cannot violate
38:48
copyright law, so we are making sure that everything we do is
38:52
legal, legitimate, and protected under fair use or the 1st
38:59
Amendment. Yeah.
39:01
I mean, it's, you know, and I do have a lot of people that, you
39:03
know, they'll ask how to where to find stuff.
39:05
I have no problems personally telling you how to find the
39:08
information you're looking for. But I think everybody should be
39:11
able to know how to find the information and how to navigate
39:15
it. I mean, that's the biggest
39:17
thing. But yeah, guys, that wasn't too
39:18
bad. Like I said before, I know we
39:21
talked about edit books. I would love to when I have the
39:25
time, which I don't know when that'll be, so please bear with
39:28
me. I am going to try and put like a
39:31
PowerPoint type presentation for edit books that I can do in
39:35
video formats. What?
39:40
I like that. Yeah, yeah.
39:42
I mean, hey, that's one thing. I got this new, new this week I
39:47
got a brand new edit book. I didn't even ask for new edit
39:51
pages this time around, just labels.
39:53
And I come back and there's my labels and a brand new edit
39:57
book. New red book, new red
40:00
everything, brand new edit book. I was like, wow.
40:05
So I have Cheat Sheets available to make copies of.
40:08
But yeah, I edit books even I still learn stuff at our last
40:11
booster, James. And you know, say, you know,
40:14
that the present, the present, the presenter that we had that
40:17
is, you know, an EAS employee even awesome, even I learned
40:22
some new stuff about edit books from him that I didn't know in
40:25
the past. And so, you know, that made me
40:29
go back and do corrections this past month for my edit books on
40:32
fixing that. So yeah.
40:35
I mean that that presentation at our fall booster was amazing.
40:40
They brought in a postmaster that actually knew his stuff
40:46
coming into. At the district office as well
40:48
in AMS and whatnot. So he, he really knew his stuff,
40:53
he answered everybody's questions, straight to the
40:56
point, didn't dance around any topics.
40:59
And This is why we push for people to attend their union
41:03
events, which is coming up. There's more union events coming
41:08
up just in January. Here we have the stack starts
41:13
off all the regional conferences.
41:16
Now as it stands right now, if you are not a SAC member, you
41:22
will be charged an additional $40 on top of everything else,
41:27
unlike the other conferences which charge everybody the same
41:30
rate. Sack, probably being mad at
41:33
Florida for pulling out a sack, is charging $40.00 for anybody
41:37
that is not in the membership. Now I have spoken with national
41:41
office on that. They're going to look into it
41:43
and see if it's actually legal for them to charge members that
41:49
are not in, not that are members in good standing, a fee to
41:54
attend an event aside from members in good standing that
41:58
are part of their region. It's a fine line they're
42:01
dancing. So I'm going to wait for their
42:03
ruling on that to find out, because it seems to me that that
42:07
would be stifling union activity, especially for those
42:11
who are not part of those conferences who may choose to
42:15
run for a national officer position and attend the regional
42:19
conferences. But what if I just want to go
42:21
myself? Yeah, I mean, I I had thought
42:24
about going. I had a really good offer from
42:28
ASAC member that was willing to pay my hotel and registration
42:33
fee, which I mean, which was great.
42:35
But unfortunately I don't think I'm going to be able to make
42:39
anything extra this next year. As much as I would love to just
42:43
with leave and that type of stuff, I don't think it's going
42:47
to be possible for me this year, unfortunately.
42:49
I don't know if I can get off. You have to check your not To Do
42:55
List to see if you can have the time to get off to do it there.
42:59
You go. Oh, I wouldn't worry about the
43:01
plane ticket. I'd drive.
43:03
That's not the issue. It's just that a lot of it is
43:07
for me is is do I have the leave available in doing my normal
43:12
stuff, I used a lot of X days that I probably won't may not
43:16
have this year. I don't know what's going on
43:18
Again, I'm not going to talk about that right now.
43:20
So it's just going to be a matter of I don't think Zach is
43:25
going to be able to be put on my camera.
43:28
I can, I can wrap around that trip with a stop in North
43:31
Carolina for my sister. There you go.
43:34
Yeah. I'm going to have to figure that
43:36
out too. I would love to go, honestly I
43:39
would. It's just a matter of if it's
43:42
going to be possible. I mean it's not off the table
43:45
completely 100% yet. It's just I don't know yet.
43:49
So we're going to wrap this up guys.
43:51
Yep, sounds like a plan. All righty, no key.
43:55
All right. Your final words for the
43:57
evening, Bill. It's your own damn slogan, Don
44:03
Everybody be safe out there. I have seen the the volumes of
44:07
mail that are coming in Westchester is a one of those
44:11
target market offices and they get deluge with the catalogs at
44:16
this time of year right up until about the 10th of December.
44:19
They are now running 2 hampers at a time with parcels.
44:24
So the people in the mattresses are getting screwed over because
44:27
you can't fit it all in there. And of course, everybody knows
44:31
it's dark out. And I've ordered 5 pairs of
44:34
those fingertip gloves with lights on there, Kristen.
44:38
And I've sent them down to my office for specific carriers
44:42
that I like, ones I don't like. I gave them flashlights with no
44:45
batteries in them. And, you know, just just be
44:49
careful. I mean, in the northeast here,
44:52
it's getting crisp. So now the deer are moving
44:55
because they're going to start rutting soon, AKA meeting.
45:00
And they're active along the roads and, you know, backyards.
45:05
I give visits every morning from about 5 or 60 or so.
45:08
Pay attention because those animals can really F up your car
45:14
big time. When they hit a yeah, it's £120
45:17
animal and you're hitting them at 40 miles an hour that you're
45:20
going to cause four $5000 of damage and you know the
45:25
subsequent actions after the accident.
45:28
You have to be careful about driving off the road and hitting
45:30
something else on top of that. Just be careful, be aware, slow
45:34
down, take take your time. It's going to be dark when you
45:37
get home anyway, so make sure that you make sure that you get
45:42
yourself home because you are the most important delivery and
45:46
I approve that I Bill may approve that saying James.
45:51
You know, it's open season for everybody.
45:54
OPM's hit or miss for a lot of people, but you got to get on
45:59
there, you got to check it out. I know I'm looking at all the
46:03
different plans myself. Still trying to figure out which
46:06
one's best for me. And that's what you've got to
46:08
do. You got to figure out what's
46:10
best for you and your family because as Bill says, you are
46:15
the most important delivery to your family and your family
46:18
matters. Their health matters.
46:21
And being covered by an insurance that does what you
46:25
need it to do is the most important step to ensure that
46:29
your family is taken care of. It's a pain in the butt.
46:33
It's hard to understand, it's hard to figure out, but in the
46:37
end, it's worth it to save you money on medical bills.
46:41
Take your time. If you get stressed out, as Josh
46:45
used to say on here, take a step back, take a deep breath, step
46:48
back in because it's important to get this done before December
46:53
9th. So take your time, figure it
46:55
out. You got plenty of time ahead of
46:57
you before it closes. And then speaking on management
47:02
and things going on, we talked about the grievance process.
47:05
And in a future episode, we're going to continue on the
47:10
grievance process and talk about how at the end of the day, you
47:14
can stand up and show management.
47:17
We're all in this together, Kristen.
47:20
Thank you, gentlemen. Yeah, definitely the weather is
47:23
a change in especially up here in northern Michigan.
47:26
Haven't had any of that four letter word yet that falls from
47:30
the sky. Solid and white but it is
47:34
getting darker out there. I've been lucky enough to get
47:37
back this past couple weeks with very little daylight left but by
47:43
the time I get home it's dark. Definitely watch out for the
47:46
deer. I know up here in Michigan
47:48
Friday the 15th started firearm deer season through December 1st
47:54
so please be visual. They are running and stay safe.
48:00
Yes, deer can do damage. I you know I've hit single deer
48:03
in the past and I know what looks like when you hit 2 deer
48:07
doings between 70 and 80 mph you will total out a vehicle.
48:12
Hence what happened to mine last year.
48:14
I was not driving it. We won't go.
48:16
We won't go back to that instance, but yes.
48:19
Who was driving that? What happened on that one?
48:22
Tell us about it. That was somebody my daughter no
48:26
longer associates with, thank goodness.
48:31
Thank goodness. But yes, guys, stay safe out
48:34
there. Definitely stay visual around
48:36
everything. Weather can change at any moment
48:38
as we know, you know, a lot of times this time of year there is
48:42
snow on the ground. the IT was 54 for opening deer season, kind
48:47
of warm, but I know they were taking the deer.
48:49
I've seen plenty of pictures. So stay safe guys, stay vigilant
48:54
and we will be back next week. Trash is my fresh.