Heath-insurance changes
School board hires new broker, sets up business-proactices committee



GUILDERLAND — After months of discussing and debating health-insurance coverage for district workers and the school board’s role in deciding on their coverage, the board last week voted to make two changes.

The board unanimously, and without public discussion, approved the superintendent’s recommendation to appoint the firm of Amsure Associates as the sole broker for the district’s health-maintenance organization plans, effective March 29.
"This is the board taking action on an issue that has been on the public’s mind to benefit the community," said board member John Dornbush.
Secondly, in a split vote, 6 to 3, the board approved forming a committee to review business practices "for the purpose of keeping abreast of developments and innovations in areas that include, but are not limited to, insurance (all types), transportation, energy, buildings and grounds, and technology."
"It’s unfortunate...the way this has evolved," said board Vice President Linda Bakst, who proposed the motion, stating it was not her intention to change the school board’s relationship with the district’s health-insurance committee.

Bakst first presented the motion March 14, in the wake of criticism, initially raised by board member Peter Golden, of the current system where a committee made up of representatives from the district’s bargaining units proposes plans for heath-care coverage.

Health-care costs for Guilderland, which have doubled in the last five years to $8.2 million, have come under board scrutiny this year.

Guilderland, since the early 1980’s, has paid just 80 percent of health coverage; its employees make up the other 20 percent.

Guilderland offers health insurance — covering medical, dental, and prescription drug costs — to hourly employees who work at least 20 hours a week and to salaried employees who work half-time or more.

Retirees can continue the district’s group health insurance plan if they have worked for the district for at least 10 years. Most of the bargaining units offer benefits for surviving spouses.

Although workers are eligible for coverage, participation is optional and the district does not offer buy-outs for workers who choose not to use the benefit.

"Perceived conflict of interest"

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

— Capital District Physicians Health Plan, a health-maintenance organization, which files for rate increases with the state, is used by 59 percent of Guilderland employees;

— Blue Shield Preferred Provider Organization, an experience-rated plan, meaning that premium rate increases are influenced by the cost of claims incurred, is used by 22 percent;

— Blue Shield Health Plus, another experienced-rated plan, is used by 12 percent; and

— Mohawk Valley Plan, a health-maintenance organization plan, is used by 7 percent.

Amsure Associates is now the broker for the CDPH and MVP plans and will advise the district’s health committee on those plans. Rose and Kiernan will continue as the consultant with the two Blue Shield plans. Both will advise the district’s health-insurance committee.

The district purchases the two experience-related plans as part of the Capital Area Schools Health Consortium, which it joined in 1996; the consortium now has 15 members.

Assistant Superintendent for Business Neil Sanders told The Enterprise this week that 180 days are needed to terminate those plans and the district does not plan to do so at this point.

For the two health-maintenance organizations, Sanders told The Enterprise earlier, commissions are part of the rate, which is set by the state’s Department of Health.
"Whether we have a broker or not, we pay the same premiums," said Sanders.
For the two experience-rated plans, he said, negotiations occur and are "imbedded in the consortium."

Also, Sanders said, for the two experience-rated plans, the fee for the consultant is based on enrollment so it doesn’t increase in the same proportions as the premiums.

In November, the school board heard a presentation on the district’s health-care benefits from a Rose and Kiernan consultant which led Golden, and later other board members, to question whether there might be a conflict of interest.

Sanders told The Enterprise this week that, by appointing Amsure, the district was reacting to the concerns about "a perceived conflict of interest."
"When you’re using one broker, representing all your plans, the question could be: Is the broker working in the best interest of the consortium plans, building membership, or"is it working in the best interest of the district""

The board met in executive session before last Tuesday’s meeting to review health-insurance brokers and Sanders told The Enterprise, "It wasn’t an easy decision."
The district received four responses from its request for proposals, he said. "We got very good responses from very qualified firms," Sanders said.
Amsure was chosen, he said, because of its "experience in the school sector and also with health-insurance committees."
Although Guilderland’s committee was rare when it was set up 35 years ago, such committees are becoming more popular, Sanders said, and Amsure "has set some up."
"They’re innovative with their approach," he concluded.
Preventing scattershot or micro-managing"

Board members Dornbush, Catherine Barber, and Richard Weisz voted against Bakst’s motion to form a business-practices committee, and members Barbara Fraterrigo, Colleen O’Connell, Thomas Nachod, Golden, President Gene Danese and Bakst herself voted for it.
Bakst began by saying the board needs to improve its business oversight in the district. "We’ve been very scattershot," she said.
She also said, "This is not meant to step on anyone’s toes."
Nachod said it was "important to emphasize this is not another health committee."
He said there was a lot of confusion among the public and stressed again that the board’s subcommittee would not be a health-insurance committee but, rather, "a business-practices committee."
"I guess I share the community’s confusion," said Weisz. If the board wants to be educated, he said, the superintendent and assistant superintendent for business could make presentations to the board as a whole.
"We don’t need a subcommittee to become experts in micro-managing," said Weisz.

Bakst said she envisioned the subcommittee — made up of no more than four board members, fewer than a quorum — meeting a couple of times a year, and being proactive rather than reactive.
"This just seems too amorphous without any focus," said Dornbush.
Fraterrigo said that many boards have similar committees. "It educates us, allows to have more of a leadership role," she said.

Danese said he had mixed feelings but that the board did need to be more educated.
"No one is usurping anyone’s authority; no one is micro-managing," he said.

It was agreed the subcommittee will be formed after the new board members take office in the beginning of July.

Other business
In other business, the board:

— Accepted the donation of a wheelchair from Marie C. Eoff, to be used in the health office at Westmere Elementary School.
"Unlike many others," Sanders said of donations, "we hope we don’t get a lot of use out of this one";

— Accepted a bid from Ricoh Corporation, the lowest of four bidders by several thousand dollars, for $16,732.80 for 840 cases of dual-purpose copy paper;

— Accepted a $59,600 bid, the lowest of three, from Rainbow Lawn Sprinklers for irrigating the Farnsworth Middle School football field;

— Learned from Nancy Andress, assistant superintendent for instruction, that Charles Peltz of the New England Conservatory in Boston, will offer music clinics in Guilderland on May 22, 23, and 24 for all orchestra students in grades six through 12. He will participate in a dress rehearsal and 8 p.m. performance on May 24 in the Guilderland High School gym;
— Heard congratulations for Katherine Wells, an eighth-grader at Farnsworth Middle School, because her essay, "What I Feel When I Look Up at The American Flag," has been chosen as a winner in the Guilderland Elks essay contest.
"I feel overjoyed to be part of this wonderful country, where people can wear and do what they want and pursue their dreams," wrote Wells. "Most importantly, though, where you can dare to be different....";

— Heard that petitions for seats on the school board, which can be picked up from the district clerk, are due back April 17. At least 81 signatures from school-district residents are required.

Three seats on the unpaid nine-member board are to be decided upon in the May 16 election. Incumbent Weisz is seeking re-election; President Danese and Vice President Bakst are retiring from the board;

— Unanimously passed a resolution, drafted by Bakst, urging state legislators to reject Governor George Pataki’s proposal to create an education tax-credit program.
The resolution states that such programs "would deprive the state of needed tax revenue." It also says the board "affirms its support for public education," and it concludes, "At a time when school districts are faced with unprecedented fiscal pressures, we cannot diminish the revenue source available to the State to fund public education by offering a tuition tax credit to families whose children attend non-public schools"; and

— Met in executive session to discuss a collective-bargaining issue.