As a Federal employee, you automatically have Basic insurance, unless you waive it. Exception: some employees are excluded from life insurance coverage by law or regulation.
Optional insurance is not automatic; you must specifically elect it.
You can elect Optional insurance if:
You are excluded from life insurance coverage by law when:
You are excluded from life insurance coverage by regulation when:
OPM makes the final determination about whether the above categories apply to a specific employee or group of employees, after your employing office's initial decision and reconsideration.
If you are legally serving in more than one position at the same time - whether in the same or in different agencies - you are eligible for life insurance coverage as long as at least one of your positions is not excluded.
Example
Liz is on leave without pay from her part-time position that conveys FEGLI coverage. She also holds a temporary appointment that is excluded from FEGLI coverage. Her 12 months of nonpay status are up on March 31, 2000. At that time, her life insurance coverage will end, subject to the 31-day extension of coverage and conversion privilege.
The amount of Basic and Option B insurance depends on the sum of the annual pay for all of your positions, including the annual pay for a position excluded from life insurance coverage. The agency which pays the higher salary does the withholding and pays the Government contribution.
Exception: if you are in nonpay status from one position, the agency that is still paying salary does the withholdings and pays the Government contribution.
Concurrent employment does not affect the amount of Option A or Option C coverage.
Multiple Rate Employee with Part-time Flexible Schedule Appointment
When you are a multiple rate employee who holds more than one appointment, with at least one of them being a part-time flexible schedule appointment in the Postal field service, the amount of Basic and Option B insurance is based on the higher (highest) of the pay rates.
Your employing office has the initial responsibility for determining whether you are eligible to elect or increase life insurance. This determination is an initial decision when your employing office gives it to you in writing and informs you of the right to an independent level of review (reconsideration) by the appropriate agency office.
Exception: The Office of Federal Employees' Group Life Insurance (OFEGLI) determines your eligibility to cancel a waiver based on medical evidence of insurability and your eligibility for Living Benefits. There is no reconsideration right for these decisions.
You have the right to ask your employing office to reconsider its initial decision denying life insurance coverage or the opportunity to change coverage. The reconsideration process applies only to enrollment issues. Your employing office cannot make decisions about payment of claims (the Office of Federal Employees' Group Life Insurance makes these decisions).
The reconsideration review determines if your employing office acted properly and in accordance with the law and regulations in its initial decision. Initial decisions that comply with law and regulations cannot be overturned by reconsideration.
Example
Cathy, who had waived Optional life insurance coverage, separates from service and is reemployed less than 180 days later. Upon her reemployment, she attempts to elect Option B. Her employing office denies the election. This initial decision cannot be overruled by reconsideration, because by regulation previous waivers remain in effect when an employee goes from one agency to another with a break in service of less than 180 days.
How to Request Reconsideration
If you wish to request a reconsideration of an initial decision, you must make your request in writing. The request must include:
You must make the request for reconsideration within 30 calendar days from the date of the initial decision.
This time limit can be extended when you show that you were not notified of the time limit and were not otherwise aware of it or that you were unable, due to reasons beyond your control, to make the request within the time limit.
Agencies are responsible for performing reconsiderations. A reconsideration must take place at or above the level at which the initial decision was made.
After reconsideration, your employing office must issue a final decision. This decision must be in writing and must fully state the findings.
When your employing office decides that you should have been allowed to enroll or change enrollment, it accepts a Life Insurance Election form (SF 2817) from you making the change.
Generally, changes made upon reconsideration are made prospectively. In some cases, the law or regulations provide for retroactive effective dates. In these cases, there is no need for your employing office to decide whether a retroactive effective date is appropriate.
In certain cases, your employing office may consider your request that the change be made retroactive to an earlier date, generally the date it would have been effective if you had been able to make a timely election.
Your employing office can correct administrative errors regarding coverage or changes in coverage at any time. When retroactive corrections are made, your employing office must determine whether the proper amount of life insurance deductions were made from your pay. It must submit any uncollected deductions and any applicable Government contributions to the Office of Personnel Management for deposit in the Employees' Life Insurance Fund.
See "Errors Involving Current Employees - Underdeductions" for information on collection and waiver of deductions.
Exception: If the administrative error was made before January 1, 1995, your employing office does not have the authority to issue a reconsideration decision (unless the error was an underdeduction or overdeduction of premiums - your employing office has the authority to correct these errors). Instead, you must request reconsideration from OPM, Retirement and Insurance Service, Office of Insurance Programs, P.O. Box 707, Washington, DC 20044.
The Office of Personnel Management can order correction of an administrative error after reviewing evidence that it would be against equity and good conscience not to do so. A request for review should be sent to OPM, Retirement and Insurance Service, Office of Insurance Programs, P.O. Box 707, Washington, DC 20044.
Incontestability is allowing erroneous coverage to remain in effect under certain condtions. Those conditions are:
Both conditions must be met for incontestability to apply.
If you don't want the erroneous coverage, you can cancel it. However, the cancellation is prospective. There is no refund of premiums.
Example
Dean, who had previously waived coverage, transfers from one agency to another without a break in service and is allowed to elect insurance at the new agency. This is an agency error. However, if more than two years pass before the error is discovered, and if Dean paid the applicable premiums during that time, his erroneous election must be allowed to stand.
Once your employing office or retirement system determines that your enrollment should be allowed to stand, it must prepare a note to the file explaining the details of the error, the date it occurred, the date it was discovered, and the fact that your enrollment is now valid due to incontestability.
Enrollments that are allowed to stand due to incontestability become valid enrollments. If you were enrolled in the FEGLI Program for at least the five years immediately prior to retirement (or for all opportunities to be enrolled), even if the enrollment was in error but was allowed to stand, you are entitled to carry the enrollment into retirement.
Upon your retirement, your employing office must forward the note explaining the details of the validated enrollment along with the Life Insurance Election form (SF 2817) to the retirement system. If there is no SF 2817, the employing office must provide an explanatory note to the file to be forwarded to the retirement system. The employing office should also provide a note in the "remarks" section of the Agency Certification of Insurance Status (SF 2821) explaining that incontestability was used to ratify an erroneous enrollment.
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