Insurance costs will go up

Health insurance costs for Jay School Corporation will go up.

How much, and what impact any changes will have on coverage, is still up for discussion.

Jay School Board on Monday heard its health insurance options, all of which include significant increases.

The school corporation’s insurance committee met June 24 to discuss quotes from current health insurance provider IU Health and PHP. Consultant Nick Napier of Brown & Brown Insurance explained that IU Health’s renewal would come at an overall increase of 49% for the school corporation while PHP’s proposal would be at a 26% increase. Both of those options would maintain current coverage levels.

Each organization offered an alternative, with IU Health’s coming in at a 33.4% increase to offer coverage at its facilities only. PHP made an offer that includes changes — increases deductibles and out-of-pocket costs for the corporation’s most popular plan — that would bring the increase down to 9.3%. (PHP’s plans would also put all of Indiana’s hospitals, as well as Mercer Health, in network while IU Health offers a tiered system.)

Employee cost increases would vary widely — up to 264.1% for one of the IU Health options — depending on what plan they select.

Anthem, the school corporation’s former provider, and United Healthcare both declined to provide a quote.

Even the 9.3% increase, which is the lowest being offered, would be the steepest increase for the school corporation since a 9.8% hike in 2017. (Changes since then have ranged from a 4% reduction in 2021 to an 8% increase the previous year.)

Napier noted that the reason for the increases is because of high claims activity. In the last 12 months, the school corporation has paid $4.7 million in premiums while IU Health has paid out $5.48 million in claims. He pointed to five employees who have chronic diseases for which the cost of treatment has been expensive and is expected to continue to be so. (He said one employee’s medications alone total about $1.8 million annually.) In addition, there are currently six active cancer cases that will continue to require treatment.

“When we’ve been put in a position like this where we’ve got a variety of high-cost claimants that are anticipated to need additional and ongoing care over the next 12 months, we just have had a very limited number of health insurance that are interested in us,” said Napier.

Following Monday’s presentation to the board, a survey was scheduled to be sent Tuesday to employees to provide them with information on the plan options and seek their feedback. The survey will be due July 25, with the school corporation’s insurance committee to meet the following week. A report will then be sent to the school board, which is expected to vote on the committee’s recommendation at its Aug. 5 meeting. (The current plan with IU Health expires Aug. 31.)

Jay Schools made the switch to IU Health for a 4.6% cost increase two years ago compared to a proposed 15% increase from Anthem. (Those rates were locked in for the 2023-24 year as well because the school corporation achieved at least 50% participation in its Health Results wellness program.)

The board and administrators also talked with Napier about options moving forward, with Gulley asking about getting involved in a consortium. Napier agreed that would be a good idea but added that the school corporation’s cohort has been seen as too high-risk for those groups.

Board member Phil Ford asked about Medicaid or Medicare, which Napier said would not be viable options for those in need of high-cost treatments. The question led to a discussion about Medzown, a precision medicine management firm that offers patients access to new treatments and therapies including clinical trials.

Participation in the voluntary program, which has a capped cost for the school corporation and comes at no cost to the patient, could potentially remove some of the high-risk cases from the school corporation’s portfolio and thus make it more attractive to a consortium.

“Partnering with Medzown we believe gives us an additional resource to try to help your members get access to these clinical trials, where the cost of their care would be shifted outside of the group health plan,” said Napier. “They’d have access to the standard of care, plus beyond, with very high quality physicians and it would also provide them with the opportunity to not pay for their deductible and their out-of-pocket expenses for that particular care.”

“It sounds like it would only be a plus,” said board member Vickie Reitz.

In other business, board members Ron Laux, Marcie Vormohr, Chip Phillips, Donna Geesaman, Ford and Reitz, absent Jason Phillips:

•Approved the following: Its meeting schedule through the end of 2026 with meetings generally continuing to be held at 5 p.m. on the third Monday of each month; Hiring various new employees, including Christiane Griffin as a reading teacher at Bloomfield and Redkey Elementary Schools; a series of resignations, including from junior high English teacher Tavia Price, high school biomedical teacher Katie Daniels and East Jay Elementary School fifth grade teacher Taylor Schwarck; a leave of absence for Bloomfield sixth grade teacher Shannon Neargarder; extracurricular assignments including Bruce Wood as high school cross country coach; service contracts with Anointed Hands for sign language interpreters, Soliant Health for occupational therapy services, Otis R. Bowen Center for Human Services for mental health needs assessments and Traci Clark/Hillsdale Therapy for occupational therapy services; applying for the Educational Flexibility Program that offers flexibility in paraprofessional requirements; and increasing the junior-senior high parking tag fee to $5, up by $1 from the previous level.

•Heard a back-to-school update from Gulley. He noted that about 50% of students have registered since the online portal opened July 8. In-person registration will be held July 22. Parents will receive class rosters and bus assignments Aug. 1 and the first day for students is Thursday, Aug. 8.

•Accepted the retirements of vocational radio/TV director Lori Reece and maintenance technician Mitch Murphy.