• We rate all of almost 300 health insurance plan available to Federal employees and retirees, including a dozen national plans, over 250 health maintenance organization (HMO) options, and dozens of High Deductible plan options. Wherever you live, we rate all the plans in your community.
• Our ratings of plan costs take into account premiums, comparable catastrophic limits, and estimates of likely out-of-pocket costs for medical expenses of every kind.
• We compare maximum out-of-pocket costs based on the actual coverage allowed by each plan, not just what the plan seems to say before you read the fine print.
• We rate plans for each coverage group–employees in all pay systems, annuitants with or without Medicare, former spouses, families of various sizes, children at age 22, part-time employees, and former employees.
• We rate plans according to how well each covers low, average, or high medical expenses, analyzing coverage of all major types of cost.
• We adjust our estimates for the tax advantages that reduce the after-tax cost to most employees (but not retirees) by about one third.
• We provide information on coinsurance, copays, and other cost sharing, so you can quickly determine whether a plan pays well for a benefit you need.
• We give you data on coverage features of each plan, including skilled nursing, dental, and mental health.
• We rate the standalone dental and vision plans available through FEDVIP.
• We address plan quality, and provide data on enrollee satisfaction with each plan's service. We provide in-depth results from an annual survey in which plan members rate their plans on ease of getting needed care, customer service, claims processing, and other factors.
• We compare the new stand-alone Dental and Vision plans (FEDVIP) on both estimated out-of-pocket costs and benefits.

We provide ratings, not just lists or comparisons. As a result, the Guide gives you a solid basis for selecting the best health or dental plan for you and your family. Hundreds of thousands of employees and annuitants have followed our advice over the years, and many of them have saved hundreds or thousands of dollars a year by finding better coverage for lower premiums.