The Foreign Service Benefit Plan (FSBP) is a fee-for-service health insurance plan with a preferred provider organization (PPO) and is sponsored by the American Foreign Service Protective Association (AFSPA). The FSBP was established in 1942 and is a charter member of the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHB), administered by the Office of Personnel Management. The Plan underwriter is Coventry Health Care, LLC and the Plan’s Pharmacy Benefit Manager (PBM) is Medco Health Solutions, Inc.

The FSBP is aware of member concerns that can arise in submitting claims, especially those from overseas. We generally do not reduce claims from providers outside the 50 United States to a Plan allowance. That is, our Plan allowance is the amount billed by the provider. However, we reserve the right to request information that will enable us to determine an allowance on charges we deem to be excessive.

In the United States, the Plan has a Preferred Provider Organization (PPO). Members can go to any covered provider, however, if they go to a PPO provider they benefit from paying 10% of the Plan allowance (coinsurance) for most services because the Plan reimburses a greater amount of the PPO negotiated fee than if the provider were non-PPO.

The Foreign Service Benefit Plan is HIPAA compliant. The confidential medical information (i.e., PHI-protected health information) that you provide to us is kept strictly confidential and secure in our records.

Members can correspond with us via e-mail with questions about their benefits. To ensure that your confidential medical information is secure, we “park” our reply-containing PHI in AFSPAconnect as a secure message.

Also, you have the capability to send us your claims via our secure Web portal. When you click “submit”, your e-mail and any attachments are encrypted and stay encrypted until they are delivered to our server.

We take protecting your confidential medical information seriously. In fact, all of AFSPA is HIPAA compliant.