Clock Ticking for Millions of Federal Employees Hoping to Avoid Blue Cross/Blue Shield Be...( Patients and Doctors Call...),Health

Patients and Doctors Call on BCBS and OPM to Restore 2008 Benefits, Extend "Open Season" Beyond December 8th

Affected Patients and Doctors Available to Speak to the Press

WASHINGTON, Dec. 5 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Tick, Tick, Tick! Nearly half of the Federal workforce (four million employees nationwide) have until just December 8th to either change health care plans or face some costly penalties for procedures, surgeries and emergency care performed by doctors out of their "network." These changes affect all Federal Blue Cross Blue Shield Standard Option plan holders effective January 1, 2009.

Patients and doctors alike are calling on both Blue Cross Blue Shield (BCBS) and the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) - the agency which manages health care benefits for all Federal employees - to fully restore benefits for patients on the Standard Option plan to their 2008 levels, as well as extending the deadline for "Open Season" beyond December 8th.

Extending the deadline is critical because millions of Federal employees either don't know, or have just recently heard about these changes. Those employees need time to consider the consequences of staying or leaving the Federal Blue Cross Blue Shield Standard Option plan.

At a Capitol Hill hearing on Wednesday, December 3, Congressman Danny Davis (D-IL), Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on the Federal Workforce, Postal Service and the District of Columbia, urged OPM to extend the open enrollment deadline. Later that day U.S. Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD) went a step further, calling on OPM to both extend the open enrollment deadline and fully restore the benefits cuts for Federal workers.

Also at the Wednesday hearing, Blue Cross Blue Shield's Stephen W. Gammarino indicated that he was open to bo
'/>"/>