By Joe Davidson
Friday, April 9, 2010; B03

With a first lady who pushes vegetables like a doting mother and a president who is proud of his ability to hit a three-point shot on the basketball court, it should be no surprise that the Obama administration wants federal employees to embrace healthful living practices.

This was demonstrated Wednesday in a letter the Office of Personnel Management sent to health insurance companies that cover workers in the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program.

OPM sends "carrier" or "call letters" to FEHBP insurance plans each year. The letters tell the companies what OPM would like to see in the offerings made to employees during the fall open season, when they can shop among a broad variety of plans.

This year's call letter provided no big changes or surprises. But it did place even greater emphasis on illness prevention.

"We expect you to provide benefits for preventive care, immunizations, and screenings with no enrollee cost sharing," the letter said. "We expect you to offer comprehensive smoking cessation benefits that include coverage for counseling, medications, multiple quit attempts, no annual or lifetime limitations and no enrollee cost sharing."

The preventive-care services are not new, but OPM says too few employees are taking advantage of them.

"Low utilization rates for cost-effective preventive services mean these services are not being used by the people who should be using them," the letter said. "Financial barriers are one of the leading factors why these services are not utilized. Enabling enrollees to obtain preventive services with no enrollee cost sharing should increase the number of enrollees who receive preventive services."

Edolphus Towns, chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, welcomed the emphasis on providing these benefits, saying it "will encourage individuals to seek preventive services as a means of controlling long-term health costs."

The letter said a provision of the recently enacted health insurance law that allows coverage of a dependent until age 26 would take effect for federal employees on Jan. 1. The letter did not say if that could result in higher premiums.

Colleen M. Kelley, president of the National Treasury Employees Union, said she was happy about the preventive services and the extended coverage of dependents, but "disappointed that OPM has not placed more emphasis on reining in the rising costs of prescription drugs. . . . OPM should leverage the marketing power of the more than 8 million FEHBP enrollees in an effort to address this continuing problem."

The American Federation of Government Employees also praised the extended benefits for dependents, but added that OPM should "drive a very hard bargain with the insurance companies," so that federal employees and retirees "will finally start to see a decent benefits package at a fair price."