House Passes Chairwoman Davis’s Dental-Vision-Hearing Legislation
Bill Calls for OPM Report on Improving Benefits
Washington,
Jun 22 -
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congresswoman Jo Ann Davis (R-VA), Chairwoman of the Subcommittee on Civil Service and Agency Organization, is pleased to report that the House of Representatives has unanimously approved legislation she introduced to study options for enhancing the dental, vision and hearing benefits available to federal employees and retirees.
H.R. 3751 was passed without objection by voice vote yesterday. The legislation requires the Office of Personnel Management to study and recommend options for making available enhanced dental, vision and hearing benefits to federal employees, retirees and qualified relatives. Existing dental, vision and hearing benefits are limited within the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP), and those benefits are consistently cited by federal employees as ones they would most like to see improved.
“The dental, vision and hearing offerings available to those covered by the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program can be described as inadequate at best,” Chairwoman Davis said. “The Government’s employees are often without proper dental care as part of their health insurance coverage. In fact, most plans in the FEHBP either do not offer dental and vision care, or cover only very minimal, basic procedures. While some plans do offer a supplemental dental package, they come at the cost of a very high premium.”
Chairwoman Davis said she is hopeful that H.R. 3751 will lead to a solution for increasing needed health benefits while fitting within the tight budget constraints of the FEHBP.
