Federal employee HDHP / HSA options

[Anonymous]

Looking for experiences with federal employee HDHP / HSA options. Have been with Kaiser my entire federal career. We have some income flexibility we could put towards an HSA if we switched to an eligible plan, but I'm not sure its worth making the switch and needing all new doctors etc. Kaiser has a plan they call "high" but it doesn't seem to be a true HDHP or come with the option to do an HSA.

[Anonymous]

We switched to GEHA a couple years back from Kaiser. Definitely came out ahead financially, but it was a pain to go find doctors. It is surprisingly hard to find primary care docs for adults around DC area.

[Anonymous]

We also use GEHA. No complaints.

[Anonymous]

Used the CareFirst HDHP for the past couple of years. Easy to find doctors that take it and have access to a HSA.

[Anonymous]

I switched from care first to GEHA. It’s less expensive and I’ve had sufficient access to good providers. The only thing that sucks is lab corp is not in network and most doctors send bloodwork to them. I had to remind my midwives at every appt to send it to quest. And then some doctors don’t send to quest at all, so I have to take an extra trip to the quest lab. It’s tolerable because there’s one very close to my house and I rarely need my blood drawn when I’m not pregnant. But something to keep in mind so you don’t get hit with out of network charges.

[Anonymous]

Also, GEHA gave me a Spectra S2 for free when I was pregnant. My friend said that not all insurers cover Spectra, and this is a good pump because there’s less risk of bacteria build up. Closed system, I think.

My pregnancy and c section were pretty much entirely covered by GEHA, aside from my endocrinologist appointments and maybe some bloodwork. Capital Womens Care charged me for every ultrasound but then I got a big refund check from them after my daughter was born. I think it’s because they received the global delivery fee after she was born. It was annoying to keep track of bills and EOBs but worth the savings compared to a non HDHP. I had a spreadsheet showing the differences between plans and GEHA HDHP came out ahead in pretty much every scenario I imagined.

[Anonymous]

GEHA HDHP is great for everything except certain medicines. Check to make sure you aren't on an expensive medicine before switching. If you do get put on an expensive medicine mid year, you can always switch next open season, but it may be an expensive few months until then.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Used the CareFirst HDHP for the past couple of years. Easy to find doctors that take it and have access to a HSA.

+1. No regrets switching to the CareFirst HDHP.