Every year companies go through what is called Open Enrollment for Employee Benefit elections. During this window, which varies, employees of companies and organizations, including the government, may make changes to their elected employee benefit options, such as health insurance. At Pearl, our HR Benefits Team handles everything for us, from plan design in Paycom, a step-by-step enrollment guide, to answering questions and assisting the workforce as needed.
For federal government employees, The US Office of Personnel Management, or OPM, is responsible for this that. OPM serves as the chief human resources agency and personnel policy manager for the Federal Government. It is the largest employer-sponsored group health insurance program in the world, covering over 9 million Federal employees, retirees, former employees, family members, and former spouses. You can image how many calls they handle for open enrollment, so no wonder they partnered with Pearl!
Pearl partnered with the main contract holder, Maximus, and joined the OPM – Federal Annuitant Health Benefits Open Season Services during the 2020 season with a team of 15 CSRs and 1 supervisor to support the open season enrollment mandated by the Federal Employee Health Benefits Act (FEHBA). Pearl has continued to support this contract annually and we are preparing currently for our third (3rd) year, the 2022 season.
During the open enrollment period, the Pearl team provides general OPM healthcare callers with various information, including providing basic enrollment information, supporting callers to enroll into their healthcare plan of choice, providing details on where to find healthcare plan information (online resources), assisting with referrals to other agencies, and reviewing enrollment guidelines and general OPM health care background information as needed.
Due to the open enrollment period being such a short window, the call volume is higher than normal. Pearl staff has always been an integral part of supporting OPM and ensuring that all eligible annuitants, or annual enrollments, are able to receive information on the available benefits or make modifications to their plan.
Pearl’s OPM CSRs have averaged 50-64 calls per day, per agent. That works out to roughly 22,000 to 30,000 calls in a 30-day period handled by only 15 CSRs and 1 supervisor! Maximus has provided stellar feedback regarding Pearl’s performance on the contract, and even offered CSRs bonuses and incentives for closing out each season. As expected, we have seen several staff return yearly to assist with the OPM initiative.
We’d like to thank the following employees that helped us get to this 3rd year with OPM…We could not have done this without you!
- Roneisha Jackson (3 years)
- Cliff Edwards (3 years)
- Brian Seligman (2 years)
- Dalys Alack (2 years)
