Health-insurance debate continues
Golden pushes for competitive bidding, new RFP



GUILDERLAND — At its next meeting, on Feb. 7, the Guilderland School Board will consider three resolutions proposed by board member Peter Golden.

Golden, who took office this summer, has since September pushed the district to examine health-insurance costs. At a meeting last Tuesday, several on the nine-member board agreed with Golden that a request for proposals for a single insurer should be prepared by an independent agent.

An RFP prepared by Joseph Rogerson of Rose & Kiernan, Inc., a long-time advisor to the district’s health-insurance committee, went out on Jan. 15.

Golden raised the issue at the Jan. 10 board meeting that the Rose & Kiernan RFP could represent a conflict of interest — brokers are paid a commission — and he noted that Rogerson had said a single insurer was not the best option for Guilderland.

Currently the district offers four different health-insurance plans with four different providers — two are health-maintenance organizations and two are experience rated.

The RFP’s are due back on Feb. 3, after which the committee will look at the consultant’s analysis and make a recommendation to the school board.
"In order to do things properly, we really need an independent RFP," said board member Barbara Fraterrigo.
She asked, even if the RFP’s that come in this month show a $500,000 savings, "How would we really know we couldn’t save $800,000""

Board members Thomas Nachod and Colleen O’Connell also supported having an RFP by an independent person.
"I lost complete faith in them as a consultant," said O’Connell of Rose and Kiernan; she was frustrated during a November presentation to the board on health insurance when some questions went unanswered.

When the report comes back, O’Connell said, she would have no confidence in it.

Golden’s second proposal is that the district bid out for a wide range of insurance agents.
"To get the best deal," he said, the district should go to service providers and bid out to different agents.

While all of the board members appeared to support competitive bidding, several advocated waiting until the health-insurance committee had done its work and made a recommendation.

Golden’s third proposal is that the school attorney draft a letter to be signed by every member of the district’s health-insurance committee, stating that there are no existing conflicts of interest regarding the current insurance agent.
"The water is getting muddy," said Golden. "This is our job, by law and by contract," he said of school board members
"We all agree we want to reexamine how we purchase health insurance," said board member Richard Weisz. "The difference comes in how we get there."

Health-care benefits for Guilderland employees cost $3.2 million this year, or 10.8 percent of the district’s $76 million budget. The cost has about doubled from the $4.1 million the district paid five years ago; in 2000-01, health insurance accounted for 7 percent of the $59 million budget.

Insurance committee

Unlike most districts, Guilderland does not negotiate health benefits during the collective-bargaining process with labor unions. Instead, for more than 35 years, Guilderland has had a District Health Insurance Committee, which includes representatives from each bargaining unit.

Assistant Superintendent for Business Neil Sanders and Susan Tangorre, the district’s director for human resources, serve on the committee, representing management.

Four retirees also attend committee meetings as non-voting members. They offer advice, Sanders told The Enterprise this week, because health insurance covers retired employees.

The voting members are selected by their bargaining units, Sanders said, and consult with those units on decisions the committee makes.
"We’ve always had consensus from every union member," he said. "We’ve never had split votes. That’s why we could make changes across the district all in one shot."

Sanders supplied The Enterprise with a list of current committee members:

— Donna Abbruzzese, Chris Claus, Karen Cornell, Barbara Horan, Veronica Liegeot, and Robin Michaels from the Teachers’ Association;

— Martha Beck from the Principals’ Association;

— Shirley Carpinello from the Aides and Monitors’ Association;

— Patricia Hansbury-Zuendt from the Supervisory Personnel Association;

— Paula Krutz from the Management Confidential Personnel Association;

— Michael Liegeot from the Non-Instructional National Education Association (NEA) Unit;

— Claudia Marshall from the Tech and Communication Personnel Association;

— Brian McCann from the Administrators’ Association; and

— Joy Pierle from the Non-Instructional Supervisors’ Association.

The retirees on the committee are: Richard Byrnes, Sean O’Neill, and Margie Raymo from the Teachers’ Association and Arnold Rothstein from the Central Office Administration.
Sanders described committee meetings as similar to collective bargaining sessions where "a variety of perspectives" are explored.
When asked, he said, "No one, as far as I know, is an expert in the health-insurance field."

The committee uses two consultants from Rose and Kiernan — Joseph Rogerson and Kathy Clark.
Asked about the consultants’ role, Sanders said, "To guide us through the health-care decision-making process."
Typically the committee meets a few times in the fall and a few times in the spring, he said, but more "depending on the issues."
Asked what effect the board’s recent scrutiny has had on the committee, Sanders said, "It’s a different model...We’re all working towards the same path...to control health-insurance costs. That’s what the committee has believed its charge to be in the past. The board is headed in the same direction."
Asked if committee members had a reaction to the proposal that they sign a letter to indicate they have no conflicts of interest, Sanders said, "It’s a unique request. Committees have worked for years in the district and this request hasn’t been made of any other committee. It remains to be seen what the language might be."
Sanders concluded, "It raises questions in people’s minds."

Maintaining trust"
"I still think there’s value to having a health-insurance committee," said Weisz at last Tuesday’s board meeting.

He advocated letting the committee make a recommendation on having a single-insurer and then the board can decide.
"It sets a bad precedent for inviting people to be on committees...to say, ‘We don’t trust you.’" said Weisz.

Long before the state required site-based shared decision-making, Guilderland used a system it called participatory management, where faculty and staff participated in running the schools.
Calling the health-insurance committee "a long-standing successful management-labor agreement," Weisz concluded, "I still don’t think it’s appropriate for the board to interject what we think the right factor is until we see their answer."

He said he had no problem with adopting Golden’s resolution for an independent person preparing an RFP for next year.

The district begins its televised budget-review process for the 2006-07 school year with a citizens’ committee on March 2. Sanders had told The Enterprise earlier that decisions on health insurance could be worked on "simultaneously" with the budget review.
Superintendent Gregory Aidala concurred at last week’s board meeting. Having the committee follow the process underway, he said, "doesn’t close the door for making changes."
Board Vice President Linda Bakst said that no one on the staff is an expert on health insurance and that the board itself has "been in a learning process."

She said she didn’t know if a parallel RFP would turn up anything different.

Questions were also raised about problems with having two different RFP’s out at once.
Fraterrigo quoted an adage she said she grew up with: "Two heads are better than one."
She went on to say that, a lot of times, committee members are "not generating their own options" and it was possible the members of the health-insurance committee were "being led by the consultant."

Fraterrigo said she was troubled that, over the years, the district hadn’t used competitive bidding for health insurance.

Board member Catherine Barber said that there was an assumption by certain people that the consultant is biased or working against the district, based on an hour’s presentation.
"That’s a big stretch," said Barber.

Golden objected that he hadn’t called Rogerson biased. The problem is, he said, is that Rogerson has an enormous interest in the outcome.
"It’s very, very murky," said Golden. "I’m trying to get some clarity."
"I’m all for competitive bidding," said board member John Dornbush. "At this point, we have an RFP for a single-source provider...I say we let the process work that we have initiated, see what comes back and take it from there."

Aidala asked what was being proposed for the next meeting.
Board President Gene Danese concluded there were "a lot of valid issues on both sides" and said it was important they be brought up as action items, so the board can vote on them.
"We’ve generally had a consensus we want to move forward as a board," said Aidala, noting his role is to prepare information.
"I’m confused by it all," said Aidala.

Golden then listed his three motions and said he’d like to consult with the school’s attorney on conflict of interest.
"Who has the conflict of interest"" asked Aidala.
"We have nothing from people on the health-insurance committee," said Golden. "I don’t know who these people are."
"Somebody might argue, ‘I have health insurance; that might be a conflict,’" said Aidala.

Golden said downstate school districts that got sued argued that they didn’t know.
"It’s very, very murky," he said. "I’m trying to get some clarity."

Bakst said she was not in favor of Golden’s first motion on the RFP. But, she went on, that, long-term, the board needs to look at who is on the health-insurance committee, how they’re selected, and if there is a need for them to have expertise available to them.
"There’s this innuendo there’s something nefarious or shady...I would like to move forward in the most professional way we can," said Bakst.
"Peter wants to introduce three motions at the next board meeting," said Nachod of Golden. "He has the right to do that and you have the right to vote it down."