Over a week into this year’s Open Season, some enrollees in the new Postal Service Health Benefits program are struggling to review and make changes to their health care options for plan year 2025.

It’s unclear how widespread the issues are, but some PSHB participants have experienced difficulties logging in to PSHB’s enrollment platform, according to the American Postal Workers Union and other sources who wrote directly to Federal News Network.

Other issues have included an incorrect premium rate listed for one PSHB plan option, incomplete information in the PSHB plan comparison tool and issues with the provider search tool, APWU said.

“The most pressing problem currently is with Login.gov and the actual enrollment process, which does not link employees’ Postal and [Office of Personnel Management] identities and accounts,” APWU President Mark Dimondstein wrote in a Nov. 20 letter to OPM Acting Director Rob Shriver. “These serious problems with the enrollment process are preventing Postal employees and annuitants from enrolling in PSHB plans.”

Some Postal members also said when they called OPM’s customer service line to try to find a fix to the website issues, they were left on hold for long periods of time, sometimes for multiple hours. In one extreme case, an enrollee said they were on the phone for eight hours in one day trying to get answers about the login issues.

“We understand some callers are experiencing longer than usual wait times and we are working with our partners to shorten those wait times,” an OPM spokesperson said in a statement to Federal News Network. “We will continue to monitor data in real time and make adjustments to ensure enrollees receive assistance.”

OPM, which administers the new PSHB program, said there have been zero system outages and thousands of successful enrollments since the launch of the PSHB program.

Any enrollee looking to make changes during Open Season is required to have a Login.gov account and verify their identity for security purposes. A few annuitants told Federal News Network that when they were using Login.gov, they were prompted to enter information to verify their account. After putting in their information, the enrollees said they received an error message that the website was unable to match their information in the PSHB system.

The General Services Administration, which runs the Login.gov platform, did not immediately provide comments to Federal News Network about the login issues.

OPM has automatically enrolled all Postal members who were previously in the Federal Employees Health Benefits program into the new PSHB program. The vast majority of enrollees will have a health plan entirely comparable to what they had under the FEHB. Members should have received a letter from OPM outlining their 2025 enrollment information.

Open Season is currently underway for both PSHB and FEHB enrollees. Those who are interested in making changes to their 2025 enrollments are given the monthlong Open Season window to adjust their plan options, if desired. Participants have until Dec. 9 to review their options and make any changes to their health care enrollments for plan year 2025.

In light of the program challenges, APWU called on OPM to extend the Open Season enrollment period by one week and push the end date to Dec. 16. The union said it’s currently waiting on a reply from the agency.

“APWU members are dealing with a number of issues that are preventing them from enrolling in PSHB plans,” the union said in a statement emailed to Federal News Network. “OPM still has time to fix the problems that Postal workers are experiencing, but it’s critical that OPM extends the Open Season to allow every Postal employee and retiree ample opportunity to make an informed decision about their health care.”

An OPM spokesperson said the agency is committed to supporting Postal Service participants who are enrolling in a PSHB plan this Open Season. However, OPM did not reference any current plans to extend the open enrollment period.

“We are working with USPS and all our agency partners on ways to address concerns and monitoring data regularly to make decisions,” the OPM spokesperson said.

This Open Season is the inaugural open enrollment window for the brand-new Postal insurance program. The PSHB program covers nearly 2 million Postal employees, annuitants and their family members. Creating a separate health insurance program for Postal workers was a requirement under the 2022 Postal Service Reform Act, which gave OPM a 2025 deadline to launch the program.

On OPM’s website, enrollees can find information on which PSHB plan their current FEHB plan mapped to, as well as more details on how PSHB plans are integrated with Medicare for prescription drug benefits.

For those who may be running into enrollment issues, OPM recommended calling the PSHB helpline at 844-451-1261.

Current Postal employees can also reach the USPS HR shared service center by calling 877-477-3273 or sending an email.

Enrollees who are experiencing technical issues specifically with Login.gov can call the website’s contact center at 844-875-6446.

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