Contact Us - Keepingposted.org (2024)

FAQs

Will postal retirees be forced into Medicare Part B? ›

Medicare covered Postal Service annuitants who retire after January 1, 2025, and the Medicare covered members of family are required to enroll in Medicare Part B to remain enrolled in a PSHB plan, with limited exceptions.

KeepingPosted is a place where United States Postal Service retirees can get the most up to date news and information about USPS and retirement-related information (including retiree benefits). This page is run by Postal headquarters HR staff.

Whether to enroll in Part B or use FEHB as primary coverage is a personal decision, based on your individual circ*mstances. You should look at the costs and benefits of each insurance plan and make the choice that's best for you. Questions to consider include: Which forms of insurance do your providers take?

Contact your local Social Security office. If you're dropping Part B and keeping Part A, we'll send you a new Medicare card showing you have only Part A coverage. Write down your Medicare Number in case you need to go to the hospital or get Part A-covered services until your new card arrives.

Your agency withholds the cost of the Basic Benefit and Social Security from your pay as payroll deductions. Your agency pays its part too. Then, after you retire, you receive annuity payments each month for the rest of your life. The TSP part of FERS is an account that your agency automatically sets up for you.

One of the amendments mandated Social Security coverage for all federal and postal employees hired on or after January 1, 1984. (Most federal and postal employees hired prior to 1984 participate in the Civil Service Retirement System and are not covered by Social Security.)

In most cases, Postal employees and annuitants will be able to pick a health plan that's comparable to their current plan in the FEHB. In cases where there isn't an equivalent option available, OPM will automatically enroll individuals into the cheapest, no-fee, non-high-deductible plan that's available in PSHB.

You don't have to take Part B coverage if you don't want it, and your FEHB plan can't require you to take it.

The Postal Service Reform Act of 2022 requires that OPM establish this new health care program, which will provide coverage for 1.9 million employees, annuitants, and their eligible family members beginning January 1, 2025.

It creates a Postal Service Health Benefit program within the Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) program. It also requires most new retirees from USPS and their families to enroll in Medicare Part B when they are eligible in order to keep their retiree health coverage. These changes will start in 2025.

What is the Social Security form to decline Medicare Part B? ›

Fill out Request for Termination of Premium Hospital Insurance of Supplementary Medical Insurance (Form CMS-1763) (PDF) and fax or mail it to your local Social Security office. You can cancel Medicare Part A only if you pay a premium, and you can cancel Medicare Part B at any time.