By Chris Deacon
TRIGGER WARNING: If You’re Disgusted by Government Secrecy and Corporate Collusion, Brace Yourself
After months of waiting on my FOIA request for the Third-Party Administrator (TPA) RFP and responses for United States Postal Service‘s new health plan, I finally received hundreds of pages.
I wanted to begin my review by looking at sections of the RFP and responses related to audit rights and policies—especially given the well-documented fraud and gross negligence that has siphoned billions from the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP) and American taxpayers over the years.
What I got in return? A full audit policy redacted—Every. Single. Word.
You read that right: Not one word was unredacted.
The U.S. Postal Service, I can only assume at the direction of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM), took a policy that should ensure accountability and covered it with black ink, citing FOIA Exemptions (5 U.S.C. § 552(b)(3) and 39 U.S.C. § 410(c)(2)) to hide behind “good business practice.”
Let me be clear: This is not good business practice. It certainly isn’t good government.
This is a disgrace.
We’re talking about a program that is going to cost well over $100 million to stand up and cost taxpayer billions of dollars every year . OPM expects us to just blindly trust them while they hide (or allow CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield) to hide their audit policies—the very tools meant to prevent fraud and abuse?
This is beyond bureaucratic incompetence—this is willful obstruction.
FOIA exists for a reason. It mandates transparency so the public can hold government agencies accountable. Exemption 3 allows withholding of information under other statutes like 39 U.S.C. § 410(c)(2), but let’s be real: Audit policies related to public programs funded by taxpayers should NOT be covered by “commercial sensitivity” excuses.
This isn’t some trade secret. It’s about protecting the public from fraud. And OPM’s move to hide it all from view is a slap in the face to every taxpayer, every USPS employee, every retiree who will rely on this new Postal Service Health Benefits (PSHB) Program come 2025.
What’s worse? OPM claims this is a new, centralized system designed for transparency and efficiency—but when it comes to the audit policies that ensure accountability, they are completely silent. All we get is black ink and bureaucratic excuses.
OPM, if this is your version of transparency, then we’re in serious trouble. You cannot justify hiding the very audit policies that should guarantee integrity in a system involving millions of lives and billions in taxpayer dollars.
To be clear: willfully obscuring the truth, protecting bad actors, and betraying the public trust is not good business or good government.
Enough is enough.
Please share far and wide. If you are a reporter – I have more.
