Congress is out of town this week for the Thanksgiving holiday. Here’s a link to The Week in Congress’s account of last week activities.

Following up on last Friday’s posts, here are Fedsmith’s more detailed take on the Medicare Part B premiums and federal annuitant options and the PBM trade association PCMA’s first take on HHS’s proposed 2019 changes to the Medicare Part D program.

We now enter into the second week of the Federal Benefits Open Season. There are twenty two days left to pull the trigger to change plans which is typically only necessary if your current plan has dropped out of FEHBP for 2019. If in doubt check out OPM’s Fast Facts and the Significant Changes list for 2018.