Moving in Retirement? Make Sure Your Benefits Move with You
If you move in retirement, as many retirees do, you’ll want to make sure your federal employment-based benefits move with you.
To report a change in address after retirement, write to Office of Personnel Management, Retirement Operations Center, P.O. Box 45, Boyers, PA 16017-0045, call (888) 767-6738, online www.servicesonline.opm.gov. Use the same points of contact to arrange to have your annuity sent to a different financial institution, if you are changing accounts because of the move.
To change your address under the Federal Employees Health Benefits program, contact your carrier directly and follow its procedures. If you are enrolled in a plan that serves a limited geographic area, such as a health maintenance organization, you will be covered for emergency care. But unless your HMO has a “reciprocity” agreement with a plan in your new area that allows you to get routine care, you must travel back to the HMO’s coverage area for such care, or change plans. To change plans, contact your retirement system. OPM’s Web page at www.opm.gov/insure/index.html contains a list of plans from which you can choose and find out how to get brochures for those plans.
Moving out of a regional plan’s service area also qualifies for changing plans under the Federal Dental and Vision Insurance Program. To change your address and/or plan, contact www.benefeds.com, phone (877) 888-3337.
Since the Federal Long Term Care Insurance Program has just one national carrier, moving does not affect enrollment. Notify the carrier of your new address by calling (800) 582-3337 or writing to Long Term Care Partners, P.O. Box 797, Greenland, NH 03840-9803.
Similarly, since the Federal Employees’ Group Life Insurance program has just one national carrier, moving does not affect FEGLI enrollment. Notify the carrier of your new address at OFEGLI, P.O. Box 6512, Utica, N.Y., 13504-6512, phone (800) 633-4542, fax (315) 792-6603.
To let the Thrift Savings Plan know a new address, use the My Account feature at www.tsp.gov.
If you have state income tax withheld and you move to a different state, you must contact the state you move away from to stop the tax withholding. If the state into which you move participates in the OPM tax withholding plan, contact its tax office to arrange for new withholding. OPM cannot make any change without notice from your state tax office.
