When you were working, Open Season came with reminders. HR sent emails. Someone in the office mentioned the new premiums. The benefits fair had a table with free pens. Then you retired on disability, and all of that stopped.
After retirement, use OPM’s official Open Season resources and review notices from OPM and your plan. Your former agency is no longer your retirement benefits administrator.
This guide walks through what Open Season means for you as a FERS disability annuitant. It covers what you can change, how to do it, what is different now that you are retired, and a few things about your situation that a regular retiree does not have to think about.
When it happens
OPM confirms that Open Season for the 2027 plan year runs November 9–December 14, 2026.
For annuitants, Open Season FEHB and PSHB enrollment changes generally take effect January 1, 2027; cancellations generally take effect December 31, 2026. Check OPM’s instructions for your program and action.
What Open Season covers for an annuitant
Open Season is the one time each year you can make changes without needing a qualifying life event. For you, that means:
- FEHB or PSHB health coverage. You can switch plans, switch options within a plan, change between Self Only, Self Plus One, and Self and Family, or cancel. (If you retired from the Postal Service, you are in PSHB, not FEHB. The mechanics are nearly the same.)
- FEDVIP dental and vision. Annuitants can enroll, change, or cancel. You do not have to be in FEHB to have FEDVIP.
And a few things it does not cover:
- Flexible spending accounts. FSAFEDS is for employees only. Annuitants cannot participate, and that trips people up their first year out.
- Life insurance. FEGLI is not an Open Season program. FEGLI has separate continuation and reduction rules, and some reductions or cancellations remain possible after retirement.
- Your annuity itself. Open Season has nothing to do with your disability annuity, your earnings limit, or your SSDI. It is health, dental, and vision only.
If you do nothing, your coverage continues
You are not required to act. If you are happy with your plan and it is still offered, your enrollment rolls over automatically. Most annuitants do nothing, and for many of them that is fine.
If your plan leaves the program or its service area changes, review the official instructions and choose replacement coverage. Do not rely on a prior year’s default plan.
So at minimum, check whether your plan is still on the list for 2027. That takes five minutes on the OPM plan comparison tool.
How to make a change when you no longer have HR
Employees use their agency system. You do not have one anymore. Annuitants have three ways to make an Open Season change:
- Online at retireefehb.opm.gov. Follow the current login instructions and have your OPM claim information available. Postal annuitants should use OPM’s separate PSHB enrollment system.
- By phone through Open Season Express at 1-800-332-9798.
- By mail. Follow OPM’s current annuitant election instructions and required form. It goes to OPM’s Open Season Processing Center in Lawrence, Kansas, and it must be postmarked by the last day of Open Season. The address is printed on the form and on the OPM Open Season page.
FEDVIP changes go through BENEFEDS at benefeds.gov, not OPM. That is the same as when you were working.
If you mail your election, follow OPM’s current instructions and keep proof of timely mailing.
Adding a family member this year has a new step
For Open Season elections for plan year 2027, OPM requires supporting documentation when adding a new family member to FEHB or PSHB. Keep marriage, birth, or other eligibility records available and follow OPM’s submission instructions.
If the documentation is not provided, the family member can be denied or removed from coverage. Gather the documents before Open Season opens. The window is short and the review does not wait.
The part that is different for disability annuitants
Most Open Season guides are written for people who retired at 60 or 62 and are thinking about Medicare. Your situation may look different, and a few things deserve a closer look.
Medicare may already be in your picture, or about to be.
FERS disability retirement requires you to apply for Social Security disability. People under 65 generally receive Medicare after 24 months of Social Security disability benefits, or at 65 if earlier. ALS and end-stage renal disease have different eligibility timing. Check your Medicare notice rather than assuming the date follows your OPM approval.
Once you have Medicare, your FEHB or PSHB plan coordinates with it, and some plans reduce or waive your deductible and copays when Medicare pays first. That changes which plan is the best value for you. A plan that made sense when you were paying everything out of pocket may not be the right plan once Medicare is primary, and a cheaper plan may suddenly cover almost everything. Open Season is when you can act on that.
FEHB does not require Medicare Part B enrollment. PSHB has a separate Part B requirement for certain Medicare-eligible Postal annuitants and family members, with exceptions. Check OPM’s PSHB-specific rules before deciding whether to enroll or decline.
Your premiums come out of your annuity, after tax.
When you were working, your FEHB premium came out before taxes under premium conversion. Annuitants do not get that. The premium is deducted from your monthly annuity after tax. The government contribution follows the statutory formula, while the enrollee share varies by plan and enrollment type. If you switch to a more expensive plan, the real cost to you is the full premium difference, not a tax-reduced version of it.
Compare the current published premium for each plan; increases differ by plan and enrollment type.
Your medical needs are the reason you are here.
A disability annuitant is, by definition, a person with an ongoing medical condition. So the questions that matter most are the boring ones. Are your treating doctors in the network? Are your prescriptions on the formulary, and at what tier? What is the out-of-pocket maximum, since you are more likely than most to reach it? Does the plan cover the specialist, the therapy, or the equipment you actually use?
Every plan publishes a brochure, and the brochures are where the answers live. The comparison tool gives you premiums and a summary. The brochure tells you whether your infusion is covered. Read the brochure.
Five years of coverage still matters if your annuity ever stops.
You kept FEHB into retirement because you met the five-year rule or were covered since your first chance to enroll. That eligibility does not expire. But a disability annuity can end, usually because OPM finds you recovered or your earnings exceed the limit. If that happens, your health coverage situation changes too. That is not an Open Season issue, but it is worth knowing that the choices you make during Open Season are made on an annuity that has conditions attached.
A simple way to handle it
You do not need to spend Open Season reading every plan brochure. Here is a reasonable approach:
- Check OPM’s published 2027 plan information to find out whether your current plan is still offered.
- Look at your own year. Did your doctors change? Did a new prescription start? Did you become Medicare eligible, or will you in 2027? Did you add or lose a family member?
- If nothing changed and your plan is still offered, you can stop here. Your coverage continues.
- If something changed, use the comparison tool to narrow to two or three plans, then read those brochures for your specific drugs, providers, and services.
- Make your change online or by phone before December 14. If you mail it, mail it in November.
- If you are adding a family member, have the documents ready before you start.
One last thing
Open Season is the one benefit decision you still get to make every year without asking anyone’s permission. Most of what happened to get you here was decided by doctors, supervisors, and OPM. This part is yours. It is worth the five minutes to check, and it is worth the hour if something in your life has changed.