Asparity Decision Solutions is pleased to announce that www.PlanSmartChoice.com is now available for the 2010 federal open season, which begins today, November 9, 2009. PlanSmartChoice is an online site where federal employees can do comparison shopping for medical, dental, and vision plans, as well as spending and savings accounts, for free. The plans are available to federal employees through the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program for the 2010 plan year.

"Any federal employee whose current medical plan has increased premiums, reduced benefits, or eliminated providers in their network should spend 10 to 15 minutes on PlanSmartChoice to evaluate his or her other options," said Colleen M. Murphy, Asparity's President and CEO. "These changes are infuriating, but federal employees fortunately have a wide range of medical plan options to choose from, along with the help they need to make an informed choice." Federal employees use the PlanSmartChoice health plan selection tools to:

• Learn which medical plan best meets their personal needs and financial circumstances.
• Estimate their total health care costs based on their own need for medical services.
• Determine how much to set aside in flexible spending accounts or health savings accounts.
• Compare detailed benefits across their medical, dental, and vision plan options.

Asparity has been working with federal agencies to educate their employees about PlanSmartChoice. These activities include creating links to the site, participating in health fairs, and conducting training sessions for HR representatives. As a result, thousands of federal employees pre-registered to use PlanSmartChoice once it was live for the 2010 open season.

Asparity also made PlanSmartChoice available to health plans for their review to make sure that benefit information was as accurate as possible. Health plans also had the opportunity to provide additional information about their benefit coverage, provider networks, and any supplemental programs on the site.

PlanSmartChoice has three new features for federal employees this year. The summary results feature is a report of a user's findings in the PlanSmartChoice tools. The filter allows users to narrow the number of displayed results by plan type, pre-funded medical account, medical deductible, and health plan carrier. Using its proprietary PlanSmartChoice Plus rating system, Asparity has identified those medical plans that achieved a five-point overall rating in terms of personal preferences, total costs, and satisfaction measures for federal employees in 2009.

In order to evaluate the advantages of decision support, Asparity provides federal agencies with an annual report detailing federal employees' buying behavior and health plans' performance. Government leaders, as well as health plans, can use the results to drive health care strategy and control health care costs.

For more information, please visit www.PlanSmartChoice.com or become a fan of us on Facebook for up-to-date information.