850.101—Purpose and scope.
(a)
The purpose of this part is to enable changes needed for implementation of the new retirement and insurance processing system created by the Office of Personnel Management's (OPM's) Retirement Systems Modernization (RSM) initiative. RSM is OPM's strategic initiative to improve the quality and timeliness of services to employees and annuitants covered by the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) and the Federal Employees' Retirement System (FERS) by using contemporary, automated business processes and supporting technology. The RSM initiative is designed to transform the retirement process, as well as the processing of annuitant insurance elections of Federal Employees' Group Life Insurance (FEGLI), Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHB), and Retired Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (RFEHB) coverage, by employing more efficient and effective business systems to respond to increased customer demand for higher levels of customer service and online self-service tools.
(b)
The provisions of this part authorize exceptions from regulatory provisions that would otherwise apply to CSRS and FERS annuities and FEGLI, FEHB and RFEHB benefits processed by or at the direction of OPM under the RSM initiative. Those regulatory provisions that would otherwise apply were established for a paper-based retirement and insurance benefits processing system that may eventually be phased out but which will continue to operate concurrently with RSM for some time, until RSM is fully implemented. During the phased transition to RSM processing, certain regulations that were not designed with RSM in mind, and which are incompatible with RSM business processes, must be set aside with respect to aspects of retirement and insurance processing accomplished under RSM. The regulations set forth in this part make the transition to RSM processes possible.
(c)
The provisions of this part do not affect retirement and insurance eligibility and annuity computation provisions. The provisions for capturing retirement and insurance data in an electronic format, however, may support, in some instances, more precise calculations of annuity and insurance benefits than were possible using paper records.