It's November, which means Federal Benefits Open Season is almost here. Today, Maddie and Kyle discuss health insurance, dental and vision insurance, and flexible spending account options before diving into changes for the Foreign Service Benefit Plan for 2025. 

 This is just the start of AFSPA's Open Season work. Please find more information at www.afspa.org/openseason. 

Join us for a webinar or other event throughout Open Season. You can find the full list of webinars at www.afspa.org/events.  

View our past recordings of podcasts and AFSPA Live events at www.youtube.com/afspacares. 

To learn more about the open enrollment period through December 1, 2024, for our Group Enhanced Life (GEL) and Immediate Benefit Plan (IBP) programs, visit www.afspa.org/life. 

To wrap up life insurance awareness month, we have another episode. Our focus today is on the open enrollment period AFSPA is offering from October 1 through December 1 for our Group Enhanced Life (GEL) program and our Immediate Benefit Plan (IBP). AFSPA Sr. Director for Ancillary Insurance Programs Adrienne Coleman-Seabrooks returns to the program to walk us through the details of these programs, what open enrollment means, and how you can take advantage. 

For more information, visit www.afspa.org/life.

Watch September's AFSPA Live episode on Life Insurance here.

September is Life Insurance Awareness Month (LIAM), and we are kicking things off with a focus on millennials. With our guest, Nicole Devlin from Prudential, we discuss the needs of this population and why now might be the best time for them to consider this important part of their financial portfolio. 

 This episode is just the start of a busy month. Join us for more events, all available at www.afspa.org/events. 

• What You Should Know About Life Insurance webinar on 9/17 at 8 AM, 1 PM, and 6 PM ET. Register here. 
• Senior Living Foundation's Planning for Change Seminar on 9/24 at 1 PM ET at AFSPA Headquarters. Register here.
• Prudential Financial Wellness Checkups on 9/24 and 9/25. Register here. 
• AFSPA Live on 9/26 at 11 AM ET about AFSPA Life Insurance Plans. Watch live at youtube.com/afspacares.
• For more information on AFSPA's life insurance programs, visit www.afspa.org/life.

It’s August, and for many families, that means preparing for a return to school. This can be a challenge for kids and parents. Changing routines, decreasing free time, and, for many of our members, new locations can make for bumpy August and September. Our guests today, working from Brightline Health, will provide some strategies for families to ease the return to school for everyone. 

 Learn more about Brightline Health and sign up for it at www.hellowbrightline.com/fsbp. (Brightline is considered an in-network provider with FSBP. Services are available to FSBP members in the U.S. only. Calendar year deductible and coinsurance apply.)

Dr. Kendra Read is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist and Vice President of Therapy at Brightline. She received her Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Temple University in Philadelphia, PA. She completed her internship in pediatric psychology at Nemours Hospital for Children and her postdoctoral fellowship at the Stanford University School of Medicine in the Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences Department.  Previously, she served as the Director of the Mood & Anxiety Program and Director of Anxiety Programs at Seattle Children’s Hospital, as well as the Director of Psychotherapy Training at the University of Washington School of Medicine Child Psychiatry Fellowship. Dr. Read specializes in the treatment of youth with anxiety disorders and OCD from a cognitive behavioral therapy perspective. She is highly invested in increasing access to evidence-based behavioral health interventions for youth and their families.

Irene Biscante is a National Board Certified Health and Wellness Coach (NBC-HWC) and the Vice President of Coaching at Brightline. She holds a bachelor's degree in Public Health with an emphasis in Health Education and Promotion from Brigham Young University - Idaho and is currently pursuing a graduate degree in Marriage and Family Therapy with a specialization in Child and Adolescent Therapy at Northcentral University. With over seven years of experience in health and behavior change startups such as Noom, Omada Health, and Sanvello Health, Irene has specialized in scaling evidence-based and personalized behavioral coaching through 1:1 video sessions, secured chat, and group/peer sessions. Irene was part of the early team at Brightline where she established the Behavioral Health Coaching function, built the coaching team, co-created coaching programs using evidence-based tools and practices, and developed quality oversight programs to ensure safe and high quality care services at Brightline. With behavioral coaching as an emerging field and a brand new service offering for youth, she successfully transitioned this offering from a direct-to-consumer, out-of-pocket service to a service covered by health plans and employers due to strong care outcomes across all ages. Prior to joining Brightline, Irene served as a coach manager at Noom Inc., where she managed teams, led hiring and onboarding processes, and was a founding internal faculty member in the company’s accredited national board certification program for health coaches. She has coached thousands of individuals both in-person and across digital platforms on a national and international scale. Irene is passionate about expanding access to mental health services independent of income or social status, developing coaches, behavior specialists, and health educators to focus on youth mental health using evidence-based and culturally competent care practices, and reshaping the narrative around youth and family mental health through proactive prevention, early intervention strategies, and behavior change initiatives.

In this episode, we talk with John McQuillan from Teladoc Health UK. He walks us through the care and consultation options available to Foreign Service Benefit Plan (FSBP) members outside the U.S. for general medical and mental health needs. He offers some examples that will be familiar to many of our members worldwide. 

 These benefits are branded as vHealth (Worldwide) in the FSBP Brochure Sections 5(a) and 5(e): https://www.afspa.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/2024_FSBP_Brochure_-RI-72-001_Final_1.8.2024.pdf. 

To access the Teladoc Health services outside the U.S. - branded as vHealth under FSBP benefits, download the vHealth (Worldwide) app from the App Store or Google Play Store. You also can visit https://vhealth-teladochealth.com/en. To reach them by phone, call +1-857-256-3784 (U.S.) or +44-20-3499-2851 (UK). 

In this episode, we talk with John McQuillan from Teladoc Health UK. He walks us through the care and consultation options available to Foreign Service Benefit Plan (FSBP) members outside the U.S. for general medical and mental health needs. He offers some examples that will be familiar to many of our members worldwide. 

These benefits are branded as vHealth (Worldwide) in the FSBP Brochure Sections 5(a) and 5(e): https://www.afspa.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/2024_FSBP_Brochure_-RI-72-001_Final_1.8.2024.pdf. 

To access the Teladoc Health services outside the U.S. - branded as vHealth under FSBP benefits, download the vHealth (Worldwide) app from the App Store or Google Play Store. You also can visit https://vhealth-teladochealth.com/en. To reach them by phone, call +1-857-256-3784 (U.S.) or +44-20-3499-2851 (UK). 

It's Pride Month, and we're talking with Alyssa Clayden, PhD, LCSW. She first joined us in 2021 to discuss support for LGBTQ+ youth, and we're exploring the same topic in this episode. Our focus is on how parents and other family members and allies can support children and adolescents who are exploring their identities in terms of sexual attraction and gender identity. We take some time to discuss what parents may experience and how this support can be different in the U.S. and overseas. 

Alyssa is a provider with The Truman Group - https://trumangroup.com/ - long time partners of AFSPA/FSBP. We appreciate their partnership in providing our members with access to mental health care around the globe and making today's episode possible. 

For more information on benefits and programs available to FSBP members, please visit www.afspa.org/fsbp. 

Some resources that may be helpful to our listeners:

glifaa - LGBTQIA+ pride in foreign affairs agencies - https://glifaa.org/

The Trevor Project - https://www.thetrevorproject.org/

Foreign Service Youth Foundation - LGBT in the Foreign Service - https://www.fsyf.org/LGBT 

 May is mental health awareness month. Just as many factors can influence our mental health, there are a variety of support programs and treatment options to explore. Today, we welcome Jennifer Pertofsky-Plotnek, LCSW-C, CDCES, NCB-HWC. She is currently the Director of Coaching at Teladoc Health. Jennifer talks us through the differences between counseling and coaching. She provides details on the coaching available to Foreign Service Benefit Plan (FSBP) members at no cost through two Teladoc Health programs: myStrength and chronic care management (formerly Livongo). 

Links:

FSBP members can access Teladoc's programs, including myStrength and chronic care management and mental health counseling, through www.teladochealth.com or through the Teladoc Health app, available in the App Store and through Google Play. 

Other access options include: 

FSBP members aged 13 and older can enroll in myStrength at www.mystrength.com, select "Sign-up," and enter the access code "FSBP." 

To access the chronic care management programs (formerly known as Livongo), members can visit http://get.livongo.com/FSBP. You can enroll in diabetes management, hypertension management, and/or weight management. 

Chronic care management and myStrength are available worldwide. 

For more details, please review the 2024 FSBP Brochure at https://www.afspa.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/2024_FSBP_Brochure_-RI-72-001_Final_1.8.2024.pdf. 

In this episode, AFSPA CEO Kyle Longton, CAE, REBC addresses some of the most frequent questions AFSPA has received about the FSBP Express Scripts Medicare Prescription Drug Plan, or PDP. While he touches on some basics of the PDP, you can learn more about the specific PDP benefits from our October 23, 2023 podcast and our November 30, 2023 AFSPA Live (see links below).

Kyle will address questions about Medicare during AFSPA Live on March 30, 2024 at 11 ET. If you would like your question to be answered live, submit your question here: https://forms.office.com/r/jPzsTE0TKz  

Links: 

FSBP Express Scripts Medicare Prescription Drug Plan webpage: www.afspa.org/pdp

October 23, 2023, AFSPA Talks PDP: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1756283/13816947 

November 30, AFSPA Live on PDP: https://www.youtube.com/live/n-9IAB-c2cY?si=Ej5OuciIfM7tGqxM 

Medicare Part D IRMAA Information: https://www.medicare.gov/drug-coverage-part-d/costs-for-medicare-drug-coverage/monthly-premium-for-drug-plans

Social Security Administration Contact Page: https://www.ssa.gov/agency/contact/ 

AFSPA Events: www.afspa.org/events

In this episode, AFSPA CEO Kyle Longton provides a comprehensive overview of how Medicare and the Federal Employee Health Benefits (FEHB) program work together. Learn about each part of Medicare - A, B, C, and D - and what factors you should consider when deciding whether to enroll in Part B. 

Please note: this presentation addresses only how Medicare and FEHB work together. It is not intended for audiences beyond those with FEHB coverage. The information is accurate as of March 2024. 

For information on Part B premiums and Part D premiums/IRMAA amounts, please visit: https://www.medicare.gov/Pubs/pdf/11579-medicare-costs.pdf. 

To learn more about signing up for Medicare, visit: https://www.ssa.gov/medicare/sign-up.