District replaces insurance company [Valley Morning Star, Harlingen, Texas]

March 22--SAN BENITO -- After nearly a year, school board President Yliana Rodriguez helped land the insurance company she has wanted to handle the district's $8 million health insurance business.

After intense debate Tuesday night, school board members voted 4-3 to hire the Salazar Insurance Group, with offices in Harlingen and Brownsville, to replace the Pharr-based Bob Trevino Insurance Agency to handle the district's major medical plan and voluntary plan.

Rodriguez and board members June Aguilera, Julian Huerta and Fatima Huerta voted to hire the Salazar firm, while board members Anna Cruz, Oscar Medrano and Hector Leal dissented.

Risk Manager Janie Gonzalez said to Medrano that poor service by the Trevino agency led about 250 employees to go uninsured.

"They were unaware they were going uninsured," Gonzalez said to Medrano. "If we're paying them to do a job, they have to do it in a timely manner."

But Trevino, who has served as the district's insurance agent since 2002, told Superintendent Antonio Limon that Gonzalez did not provide him with a list of the uninsured employees.

In a March 5 letter to Limon, Trevino said he was made aware of more than 200 uninsured employees at a Feb. 19 board meeting.

A four-member district committee had given the Salazar firm the top ranking on a list of nine insurance companies that included Trevino's agency, which ranked sixth, district records show.

The committee ranked the companies based on such criteria as service, experience and clients' references, said Adrian Garcia, the district's purchasing agent who serves on the committee.

Garcia said criteria did not include the companies' charges.

Glenn Hillyer, the district's insurance consultant who served on the committee, said many employees complained that Trevino's company did not have enough staff to adequately serve them.

Hillyer said Trevino's staff was busy servicing the Pharr-San Juan-Alamo school district at about the same time that it was servicing the school district here.

Rodriguez, who declined comment before Tuesday's meeting and has not returned telephone calls requesting comment, has pushed for the Salazar firm because it has offered lower coverage rates.

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