Administrative Billings and Collections (ABCO)

Past Due Health Benefits

When an employee is in non-pay status, it is the Agency’s responsibility to process a personnel action, SF Standard Form 50, Notification of Personnel Action, with the appropriate Nature of Action Code (NOAC). Also, the one-digit number indicating the correct employment status code (displayed on the Information/Research Inquiry System (IRIS) Program IR101, Salary Data), must be on the SF Standard Form 50.

If the above is not done, a T&A Time and Attendance must be submitted each pay period indicating Transaction Code (TC) 71, Leave Without Pay (LWOP); TC 72, Absent Without Official Leave (AWOL); or TC 73, Suspension.

When an employee enters an LWOP status or pay is insufficient to cover a Federal Employee Health Benefit (FEHB) premium, the employee has the following choices:

Elect in writing to terminate the FEHB coverage.

OR

Elect in writing to continue the FEHB coverage.

Note: Refer to the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), 5 CFR 890.502 for responsibilities of the employing office.

If the employee elects to continue FEHB coverage, they must elect in writing one of the following:

• Pay the premium directly to NFC and keep the payments current. The employing office should inform the employee that these payments will not receive a pre-tax benefit.

  OR

• If the employee does not agree to pay the premiums directly to NFC to keep payments current, the employing office will recover the amount of accrued unpaid premiums as a debt. The employee may agree that upon returning to employment or upon pay becoming sufficient to cover the premiums to allow NFC to deduct premiums. NFC will deduct, in addition to the current pay period's premiums, an amount equal to the premiums for a pay period during which the employee was in an LWOP status or pay was not enough to cover premiums.

Note: NFC will continue using this method to deduct the accrued unpaid premiums from salary until the debt is recovered in full. The employee must also agree that if they do not return to duty or the employing office cannot recover the debt in full from salary, the employing office may recover the debt from whatever other sources it normally has available for the recovery of a debt to the Federal government.

NFC National Finance Center will send the employee one of the following upon their return to duty, and the Agency's copy will be loaded to RPCT:

Non-Treasury Department employees will receive the following notices:

• Form NFC-937, Notice of Intent to Recover Past-Due Health Benefits From Salary
• Form NFC-937pg2, Employee Rights Notice
• Form NFC-937pg3ALL, Employee Rights Notice
• Form NFC-937pg4ALL, To Avoid Referral to the Department of the Treasury

Treasury Department employees will receive the following notices:

• Form NFC-937TR, Notice of Intent to Recover Past-Due Health Benefits from Salary
• Form NFC-937pg2TR, Employee Rights Notice
• Form NFC-937pg3ALL, Employee Rights Notice
• Form NFC-937pg4ALL, To Avoid Referral to the Department of the Treasury

Note: If the employee does not pay the amount due or make other arrangements to satisfy the debt, NFC National Finance Center will begin making deductions from the employee’s salary beginning the pay period following the due date (30 days from the date on Form NFC-937 or Form NFC-937TR).