To require that the Office of Personnel Management study current practices under which dental, vision, and hearing benefits are made available to Federal employees, annuitants, and other classes of individuals, and to require that the Office also present options and recommendations relating to how additional dental, vision, and hearing benefits could be made so available.
Requires the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to submit to Congress a report describing and evaluating options whereby additional dental, vision (including glaucoma screening), and hearing benefits could be made available to Federal employees and annuitants, their relatives, and other appropriate classes of individuals.
Requires that such report include: (1) a description of the dental, vision, and hearing benefits currently available under the Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) program; (2) a description of the supplemental dental, vision, and hearing plans currently offered by carriers participating in the FEHB program; (3) a description of specific dental, vision, and hearing benefits that could be offered in addition to those specified above; (4) a description of the specific classes of the individuals to whom those additional benefits should be made available; (5) a description and assessment of the various contracting arrangements by which the Government could make those additional benefits available; (6) the estimated cost of those additional benefits; (7) a description of how those additional benefits could be made available through FEHB, one or more plans outside of FEHB, FEHB in combination with one or more of such plans, and any other dental, vision, and hearing coverage delivery method; (8) an analysis of the advantages and disadvantages associated with the alternatives described in clause seven; (9) a recommendation from OPM as to its preferred method(s) for providing those additional benefits; and (10) any proposed legislation or other measures the Office considers necessary in order to implement any of the foregoing.
Received in the Senate and Read twice and referred to the Committee on Governmental Affairs.