HamCo: School board to vote soon on lowered insurance premiums

July 31--Tyson Johnson from Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. advised the Hamilton County School Board on Monday, July 13, that he had good news for the district and their employees regarding their benefits program for the upcoming fiscal year, thanks to targeted joint strategies to reduce costs.

Gallagher & Co. represents the various carriers with whom the school district has coverage, such as Florida Blue for health insurance, Humana for dental and vision, and Standard Insurance for life and disability insurance. The school board will have to vote to approve the changes, which they will do prior to the renewal date in October.

For the upcoming plan year that begins Oct. 1, employee medical insurance could see a 1.36 percent decrease in premium, Johnson said, with no plan changes, including no increase in deductibles or copays, if the school board votes to approve the change.

"This was after several months of negotiation," Johnson said. "This is pretty much unheard of... a reduction in premium."

Johnson said they made an assumption that the district's contribution would remain the same as last year, and thus, the savings would be passed onto the employees. Those savings, he said, would vary from about $3 to $25 per pay period, depending on what plan is selected and what level of coverage the employee chooses.

Dental plans might also have a new perk in the form of a higher annual maximum. Humana, Johnson said, has offered a plan that increases the annual maximum to $2,500 with the same plan provisions at an increase of less than $2 per pay period. The current annual maximum is set at $1,500.

Vision plans would remain the same as last year and will be good until Sept. 30, 2017 for employer paid, employee only coverage. There is a small fee for adding one's spouse and children. Life and disability insurance would also remain the same.

Johnson noted the school district will be holding an Employee Health Fair, which is scheduled for Monday, Aug. 10, from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m., with a variety of vendors on hand.

"At that health fair, Florida Blue is going to be conducting, at no cost to the district, health risk assessments and biometrics screenings," said Johnson.

All the information that will be collected by Florida Blue, he said, is confidential and not shared with the district at the employee level. The school board will have access to the compiled data reports in order to see all the risk factors and decide on instituting wellness programs for employees to improve their health.

"In the long run, healthy employees are, first and foremost, more productive," Johnson explained. "Secondly, they create less stress on your health plan, which helps to keep premiums down over the longer term. You're on the cutting edge out there in doing some of this, especially in the world of school districts."

Those employees who complete the health risk assessment and biometric screening will have the opportunity to win a grand prize of fully paid insurance premiums for one year, Johnson said. Second prize winner will get half of their insurance premiums paid for one year. These are both for the employee only portion of coverage.

"I think that will get people's attention," Johnson said. "I think they'll want to complete that. The grand prize is worth almost $1,300."

According to Superintendent Tom Moffses, the board will likely vote on the new insurance package in August or September.

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