Health care costs up in past SAISD yea : Laurel L. Scott
By: Health Insurance
Submitted: 2009-09-17 16:23:44 | Word Count: 579
Health care costs climbed in the year ending Aug. 31 at the San Angelo school district, risk manager Doris McIntosh told the school board. But she said she is hopeful the Sept. 1 switch to Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas will result in savings, especially in prescription costs, which she said were a key driver of the past year’s increase.
“Obviously, we’re in a bad claim year,” she said. “Though looking at last year, we’re really only $300,000 over last year.”
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She also told the board at Monday’s agenda workshop meeting that less than 1 percent of the district’s covered members incurred 32 percent of the claims processed by the former administrator, WebTPA. WebTPA had been the administrator since 1999.
“It’s up 11.6 percent this year over last year,” board president Lanny Layman said. “That’s not a huge increase. ... If you throw out the prescription costs, we’re doing good on our costs.”
The San Angelo Independent School District has a self-administered health plan, which means employee contributions of $335 per month are pooled to cover health care costs. Employees can “buy up” to increase their coverage or to cover dependents, McIntosh said.
Unlike health insurance, if costs are less than the total employee contribution, the excess stays in the school district. In a “bad year,” she said, the plan can draw from the reserve.
“Our plan is still healthy,” McIntosh said. “We’re where we need to be right now.”
She also lauded the work done to transfer to the new administrator.
“Given the magnitude of enrolling nearly 2,000 employees, we had a really small percentage of problems,” she said.
On the positive side, the district’s workers compensation claims administrator, Edwards Risk Management Inc., told the board costs were down significantly.
Rick Edwards of the company said the annual amount paid out in workers compensation claims had dropped from a five-year average of $1.184 per $100 in payroll to a six-year average of 30 cents per $100 in payroll. He said the district has 55 open claims with total reserves of $102,400.
“The severity of claims has been very low,” Edwards said. “When your employees get injured, they get well and they get back to work.”
He said his company was taking a dual approach to reducing costs, first looking for errors and duplication in claims, then offering a range of safety and wellness programs.
“We have a really good staff who believe the dollars we’re saving go to education,” he said.
Slip and fall accidents are the single greatest area of injury, he said. The company brought its Shoemobile to San Angelo to fit employees at greatest risk — maintenance, custodians, food service — with slip-resistant work shoes from Skechers.
The next SAISD school board meeting is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Mondayin the Administration Building, 1621 University Ave.
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