CAPPS Notes – July 19, 2006

I. Welcome – (Gary Gaspard) Guidelines for Building Evacuation and Shelter-In- Place Conditions

Gary announced to the CAPPS attendees the procedures for an evacuation in the event of an emergency and/or a “Shelter-in-Place” crisis situation.

II. Update on NFC Status (Gary Gaspard)

A. Update of outstanding action items

- Tom Neumeister, SI, requested update on prior item. Will NFC Security provide Inactive User ID’s to be used in Agency Recovery Plan. Gary reported this is not possible. Security has procedure in place to review inactive ID’s; after 90 days they are suspended and disabled.

- OPM is gathering information to support their request not to collect jury duty fees. A Template was provided to all in attendance. It will be sent via e-mail to all CAPPS representatives and Customer Contacts. NFC will gather information by mid August and provide a summary to OPM by 9/10/06.

- Randy Gonzales reported there is no initiative to mask SSN’s on Notification Letters or forms available in RFQS. It is an OPM requirement that SF-50’s contain entire SSN.

B. Update on Customer Forum (Kim Alleman)

A notice was sent to customers on Thursday, 7/19/06, asking agencies to reserve 11/14/06 for the Customer Forum to be held in DC. NFC will send survey soliciting topics and will provide a date to return the survey.

C. Fiscal Year End Reminder (Gary Gaspard)

- A reminder was sent requesting that accounting changes be submitted by 8/11/06 to guarantee being in place by 10/01/06.

III. STAR Web 5.0 (Randy Speed)

- Randy Speed thanked everyone for participating in the StarWeb 5.0 QA Testing. Also, he appreciates their patience with the security issues. Problems should be reported to Kim Alleman. Documented issues are addressed at weekly status meetings and corrections are being made. Access to FOCUS in QA will be available next week. Kim will send a bulletin regarding what is needed on the security request. Testing ends 8/10/06. Go Live date is 8/17/06.

- Debby Berry, FCC, requested assistance with accounting. Andrea Robinson will contact Debbie regarding the problem.

IV. PAYE Schedule Reminder (Nick Sicomo)

- 1 st Pass of Pay is always on Thursday evening of pay week and the 2 nd Pass of Pay is always on Friday evening unless you are notified of a change. Scheduled changes are sent to the CAPPS representatives and Customer Contacts. Scheduled changes apply to all CV’s.

V. CD-Rom, Microfiche, Microfilm Processing/Handling (Gary Gaspard)

- A list of output agencies are currently receiving will be sent by the end of the week. Agencies should review and determine if another method is feasible, eg. Reporting Center, FTP, FOCUS. A list of hardcopy reports will be provided as soon as possible. NFC would like to avoid postal mail wherever possible.

VI. Canceled Payment Processing (Nancy Pierce)

- An automated method of processing Canceled Payments, EFT and paper-checks, will be implemented on 7/27. Previously, canceled payments were manually researched. The new procedure will allow processing in a timely manner. A report will be generated identifying canceled payments that have not been recertified. The report will be available on the Reporting Center. Agencies should review and report to NFC. Re-certifications can be processed in SPPS or DOTSE. A Bulletin is being drafted.

- Jennifer Joyner reported 2 payments came back to agency and wanted to know if new procedure was already in place. Nancy reported the new procedure is not in place at this time. NFC currently manually researches and notifies agency.

VII. E&L Rebates (Dewey Sharp)

Mail-outs were sent to agencies concerning rebates on August, 2006 billing. Questions should be sent to the FMO request box at fmo@nfc.usda.gov.

VIII. Connectivity Plans for the Primary Computing Facility (Ivan Jackson)

NFC is planning on moving our computing facility from Philadelphia to Denver Colorado in the spring of 2007. All customers with communication circuits to our Philadelphia location will need to coordinate with NFC to establish new communication to our primary computing facility in Denver, as well as our backup computing facility at a location to be determined in the near future. If your agency will be impacted during this transition, please contact Ivan Jackson, Network Services Branch Chief at 504-426-2603 to register your agency's point of contact. NFC will compile the list and meet with each agency individually to discuss the options available and a transition strategy.

IX. Benefits Update

A. Health Savings Accounts Jody Nyers

Jody reported that these tax-free accounts that allow employees to withdraw funds for qualified medical expenses will be available effective 1/08.

- I n order to participate in an HSA, an employee MUST be enrolled in a high deductible health plan (HDHP) of which the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program plans to offer at least 27 of these HDHP options and it's important for employees to determine if they'll participate in an HSA (when it becomes effective) by electing to participate in an HDHP during the next open season. For example: if HSA's become available via NFC in September 2007, the employee cannot participate if they are not already covered by an HDHP

- FEHB health plans only partially fund HSA's for their HDHP enrollees. The plans will be pre-taxed.

- The transaction will be transmitted like a savings allotment however, it must come to us from any FESI system as an "H" code

- EPP will be modified to include the "H" as an option, in addition to the "C" and "S" and agencies will enter a routing and account number and that must be verified by the HSA vendor and NFC will accept what is entered

- There is a annual maximum amount an employee can contribute, which will be $2,700 for an individual or $5,450 for a family; however, this will increase over the years after HSA's are implemented and NFC will not edit against the maximum. This will be the employee's responsibility to ensure they do not exceed it

- OPM will be sending out information later this year to coincide with the FEHB Open Season in order to educate employees on HSA's and HDHP's. OPM would like all the payroll offices to have HSA's available early in 2007; however, at this time we're (NFC) looking at October 1 (2007).

As more information is provided by OPM, she will share with agencies. Jody will check to see if everyone will have to re-enroll and will report as soon as she receives answer.

B. FEHB Expansion of Character Length

Health Savings Accounts will require expanded FHFB enrollment codes to capture additional data. E ffective in PP 01 of 2008the current 3-character length will be expanded to 10-characters.

A breakdown of the 10 characters is as follows (and included in the handout)

1-2 = Carrier/Plan

3-4 = Product Type Field

5-6 = Enrollment Area Field

7 = Enrollment Type Field

8-10= Reserved Fields

X. EPIC User Group Update (Gary Gaspard)

Treasury has taken the lead to start the EPIC User Group. Kathy Orpin will head the group. Kick-off will be on 8/06 and the first meeting is scheduled for 9/10. Kathy can be reached at 202.622.2454 or e-mail Kathleen.Orpin@do.treas.gov.

Gary will send e-mail to all CAPPS representatives and Customer Contacts announcing the start of EPIC group.

XI. Lagniappe

- Jennifer Joyner, CFTC sent list of about 6 employees who have incorrect TSP eligibility code that were to be included in the sweep. These employees were not corrected. Jody will contact Jennifer about how correction will be processed manually.

- Ginny Towe, BPD, reported TSP SCD flipped. Contact Johanna Heller to update table.

- Tom Neumeister, SI, asked what is the time frame when sending in a request to GESD. He reported several requests that he has not gotten a response to. Gary discussed the steps required and instructed Tom to contact Sandie Mikell for assistance. NFC will follow-up to get status of SI request. Gary instructed all to cc their Customer Service Rep whenever submitting request to GESD.

- Michelle, DoL, wanted to know if new Pay Plan GL, for Law Enforcement Officers, was being addressed by NFC. Randy reported it will be effective 10/1/06.

- Coleista Salatich, TR, wanted to know if the list she received re database changes was the final list. She did not see her requests on the list. Randy Gonzales reported it was the final list. Items not included were determined they could be handled in other ways, eg. FOCUS, identifying elements.

- Rosa Dortch, HUD, Asked if NFC was complying with OPM requirement to put 113A/G report in EXCEL format. Randy Gonzales reported that 113 Report can be downloaded to a spreadsheet through the Reporting Center. Rosa stated there were problems with that process. Columns did not line up properly. Sue McMenamin, FMCS, reported the same problem. Randy said NFC could not duplicate the problem and to supply examples. Jody will test and report back.

- Suggestion was made to post minutes of meeting prior to the next meeting.