Scranton School District clerk details problems with new health insurance plan

Jun. 24—SCRANTON — A clerk in the Scranton School District detailed on Wednesday how a change in health insurance has already impacted her life.

Her husband's chiropractor stopped seeing him due to a lack of payment. Her blood monitoring strips haven't been delivered. A specialist in Bethlehem initially denied providing her an eye injection to treat macular degeneration because of a large balance on her account.

"The embarrassment I felt in that office was humiliating," Marie Shiffer told members of the Scranton School Board during a special meeting at Scranton High School.

Members of the maintenance and clerical union agreed in January to the switch to a reference-based health care plan, and the school board voted to move all Act 93 employees, which includes administrators, to the plan too. District leaders have asked teachers and paraprofessionals to agree to the insurance as well, in exchange for raises funded through the potential savings in health care costs.

Under the new insurance, employees no longer have a network, and instead, medical providers submit a claim to Performance Health. The claim is then audited by ELAP, which uses reference-based pricing to control costs. If patients receive a bill with a balance, they submit the bill back to the company for resolution. The district, which is self-funded, assumes any liability for a balance, officials have said.

Shiffer said that in recent months, time spent handling bills and making phone calls has been overwhelming. A representative of Millennium Healthcare Group, the district's health care consultant, eventually delivered Shiffer a copy of her paid bill for her eye doctor, charged on a Visa card, she said. Meanwhile, bills from Philadelphia specialists she saw in March and April are also unpaid, she said.

Superintendent Melissa McTiernan and school directors promised to inquire about the issues.

In other business:

* As the district hopes to offer busing to high school students next year to improve attendance and achievement, no companies submitted bids that met specifications. The district, which solicited bids from both local and national transportation providers, received one bid only for passenger vans, not buses. District leaders will now approach the County of Lackawanna Transit System to inquire about services. The district plans to use federal COVID-19 relief funds to pay for the pilot program.

* Several schools will have new leadership. The board approved the following appointments: Lisa McConlogue, principal of Armstrong/Adams; Holly Scacchitti, vice principal of Armstrong/Adams; Brandon Budd, principal of Willard/Sumner; Lisa Owens, vice principal of Willard/Sumner; Shannon Rucker, principal of Tripp; Nora Phillips, principal of Kennedy; Amanda Deutsch, vice principal of Tripp; and Angela Keating, vice principal of Northeast Intermediate.

Contact the writer: [email protected]; 570-348-9133; @hofiushallTT on Twitter.

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