Since 1988, the St. Charles Parish Public Schools’ health insurance costs have gone up by over 650 percent. And this year is no exception, with the School Board voting last week to renew its health insurance plan with Humana at an increase of about $1.7 million.
Patrick Burns, with the district’s insurance consultant, Clesi Burns, said that the increase is due to an abnormally high number of claims in the past year, including 30 claims for more than $50,000, 17 claims for more than $100,000 and five claims for more than $200,000.
The insurance plan will cost about $19 million next year, with about $14.6 million being paid by the school district. While premiums for employee coverage will not increase from the current $15 per month, spouse coverage will rise by $16.66 per month and family coverage will rise by $30.29 per month.
The board also decided to switch vision coverage to Humana, which will decrease the vision insurance cost to employees and save the district 1 percent on health insurance by bundling the plans. The vision plan benefits are comparable with the previous coverage.
During a presentation at the board meeting, Chief Financial and Administrative Officer Jim Melohn said that the rise in insurance costs over the past two decades has come from a variety of factors, including rising prescription costs, an increase in the number of employees and family members covered by the insurance plan and an increase in the number of retired employees the schools’ plan covers.
“The number of retired employees has tripled since 1988…and a lot of our employees, who in the early years hadn’t had dependent coverage, have now added dependents to our plan,” Melohn said, citing the struggling economy as a possible reason for the jump in the number of dependent coverage.
Melohn presented the board with some options for future consideration that may reduce health insurance costs for the district, including changing some of the benefits that are offered, increasing member contributions, using self-funded insurance plans and adding a health savings account for members. Board members also suggested increasing education for employees on how to make better decisions when it comes to medical expenses.
“If we can make educated decisions that will give you the same diagnosis and same quality of medical care, but at a reduced cost, that can help keep costs down,” Melohn said. “For example, educating on the difference in cost between going to the emergency room and an urgent care facility.
“It’s about 10-times more expensive to go the emergency room as it is to go to an urgent care facility. And if you can wait, if it’s not life or limb threatening, a regular office visit is about 1/4 the cost of an urgent care visit.”
The Board also said that increasing participation in the schools’ wellness program would be helpful.
“We’re hoping with the wellness plan that we can get employees to live healthier lifestyles,” Melohn said. “Eight out of the top 10 diagnoses our employees have, like diabetes, heart disease and respiratory issues, can be reduced through wellness activities.”
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