Every year, the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program (FEHBP) sends a call letter to the health plans that provide coverage for federal employees. The call letter provides guidance for the proposals the plans must submit to be chosen as contractors for the upcoming fiscal year. The 2008 call letter was released on March 8. The letter makes it very clear that plans submitting proposals should be ready to use the new screening and brief intervention codes.

Here's the relevant portion of the call letter:

"Alcohol and Substance Abuse Screening: Beginning in 2008, health care practitioners who provide alcohol and substance abuse screening have new codes for these services. Two new CPT codes (99408 and 99409) and two new HCPCS codes (G0396 and G0397) are now available for covered providers to use in filing claims for their screening and brief intervention services. A number of FEHB carriers have already updated their systems to incorporate these codes. All carriers should be aware of these new codes to update their systems so that they can more efficiently provide benefits for these types of services."
 
Here’s a link to the full document.