GUILDERLAND — The much-awaited response on a single health-insurer for the school district’s employees yielded scant results.
"That’s like spitting in the ocean," said school board member Barbara Fraterrigo, expressing her disappointment at last Tuesday’s meeting.

Guilderland currently offers four plans — two experience-rated and two health-maintenance organizations.

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.

To see if it could save money, the district sent out requests for proposals for a single insurer and, just before Tuesday’s meeting, a health-insurance committee, made up of representatives of each bargaining unit, reviewed the responses.

Assistant Superintendent for Business Neil Sanders, who attends the meetings as a non-voting member, reported to the board that five vendors had responded and one was disqualified for not meeting the specifications.
The district specified that the benefits must be equal to its "richest plan," Blue Shield Preferred Provider Organization, said Sanders.

Only Blue Shield was able to match the plan. Offers from the other vendors resulted in diminished benefits, Sanders said.

Sanders told The Enterprise this week that Aetna did not meet the specifications in its bid and Mohawk Valley Physicians (MVP) bid on a self-insured plan.

Of the three contenders — Empire Blue Cross, MVP, and Blue Shield of Northeastern New York — only Blue Shield met the mark.

But, said Sanders, it would have cost the district $507,000 more for next year than what the district anticipates the four plans will cost.
"The idea was not to diminish the benefits," said Sanders.

He explained that it is not surprising it would cost about a half-million dollars more since many of the employees don’t choose the most expensive plan now. Guilderland workers pay for 20 percent of their health-insurance costs, while the district pays for the other 80 percent.

Currently, about 59 percent of Guilderland workers use CDPHP, a health-maintenance organization, while 22 percent use Blue Shield PPO; 12 percent use Blue Shield Health Plus, another experienced-rated plan; and 7 percent use MVP, another health-maintenance organization.

Several school board members had urged that an independent consultant prepare the RFP rather than Joseph Rogerson of Rose & Kiernan, Inc., a long-time advisor to the district’s health-insurance committee.

Board member Peter Golden had first raised the issue in January of a conflict of interest since brokers are paid a commission.
"In one way, it’s ironic the bids came in as the maligned consultant predicted," said board member Richard Weisz at last Tuesday’s meeting.
Fraterrigo made a motion, which was tabled, that the district hire an independent health-insurance consultant "that would not be able to bid on the business."

Asked his opinion on the proposal, Sanders told The Enterprise this week, "Adding a layer of an independent consultant without the ability to benefit financially"I would see that as a better business practice to follow."

At Thursday’s budget-review session, Superintendent Gregory Aidala, in presenting his $79 million spending proposal, said it was based on the assumption that the district could save $300,000 in health-insurance costs.

When asked this week how this would be managed, Sanders told The Enterprise the committee is "looking at other options." He declined to specify what they are since they "might not come to fruition," he said, and people would be "weighing in" needlessly.

The committee has a month-and-a-half to come up with the new strategies before the board is slated to adopt the spending plan.

"Wait and see"
"We’ve learned a lot," said Fraterrigo at Tuesday’s school-board meeting. "We are tied into a contract with the consortium that we really can’t get out of for another budget year yet."

In 1996, Guilderland joined the Capital Area Schools Health Consortium, with the goal of reducing health-insurance costs; the consortium currently has 15 members.

The district, though, can go out for competitive bids on health-maintenance organizations, she said.
Fraterrigo proposed hiring an independent health-insurance consultant, stating that the present consultant "reaps in a great deal of profit."
President Gene Danese termed her proposal "a good idea" but said he was not ready to look into it yet, and that more information is needed.
Weisz also said it was "premature" for the board to strike out on its own until it hears from the health-insurance committee.

Superintendent Aidala, too, recommended holding off on Fraterrigo’s proposal.

The committee, he said, is beginning to look at some other things.
Board Vice President Linda Bakst asked about having a subcommittee of the school board meet with the health-insurance committee to create a dialogue "so ideas are exchanged."
"I wouldn’t rule anything out...We are much more knowledgeable today about health insurance than a couple of months ago," said Aidala.
"Linda’s idea is perfect," said Golden, urging the board to set up such a subcommittee.
"There is no way for the board to talk to them," he said of the committee members. "To continue this idea that the board has nothing to do with health insurance is destructive."
He went on, "It’s gone under the radar and doubled in five years."
"That’s what administrators do," said Aidala, describing the way they act as an interface between the board and the committee.
"With all due respect to Greg being a conduit," said board member Colleen O’Connell, there is "a better level of trust when people meet together in the same room."

When The Enterprise asked Sanders this week about Bakst’s suggestion, he said that he and Susan Tangorre, the district’s human resources director, represent the school board at the meetings.
"In most cases, the board delegates representation to the administration," said Sanders. "We’re not quite sure what role they would play. It hasn’t been fleshed out yet."

On Tuesday, Bakst told Golden that the reason health-care costs have spiraled for Guilderland is because of a national trend.
"The facts are the facts," said Golden, citing surveys of school districts state-wide that show a 67-percent increase in the same tie frame that Guilderland has experienced a 100-percent increase.
"There are less expensive ways to provide the same benefits," said Golden. "Paying too much for health insurance devours programs."
Fraterrigo said an outside resource is needed "to guide us and the health-insurance committee." Most of the committee members, she said, "are just like us." She said the advice and recommendations have come "from the top down."
Board member John Dornbush said he’d like to take a "wait-and-see attitude" for a few more weeks.

Danese said that Fraterrigo’s motion would be tabled.