Fedweek noticed another tidbit in the agency’s FY 2021 budget that’s worth noting :

OPM is seeking authority from Congress to offer federal employees what it calls “voluntary benefits” such as short-term disability insurance, prepaid legal plans, emergency short-term childcare, and personal accident insurance.

The purchasing employee or annuitant would be responsible for paying 100% of the premiums for these coverages. What’s more the FEHBlog knows that prepaid legal plans cannot be offered on a pretax basis like FEDVIP can.

In other news,

• Milliman posted an interesting infographic on various aspects of organ transplantation in the U.S. Average wait times are up and survival rates are down. That’s puzzling.
• Healthcare Dive reports that “The [federal] Health Information Technology Advisory Committee on Wednesday unanimously approved its second annual report to Congress on the state of health IT landscape, recommending fixes to improve the electronic access, exchange and use of medical information.”
• The Centers for Disease Control announced today that this year’s flu vaccine is having an efficacy rate of 45%.
• Health Affairs offers an interesting study on the impact of administrative costs on U.S. healthcare spending.