Rockwood Tables Recommended Increases to Employee Health Plans

The Rockwood School Board has opted to delay, for now, a set of recommendations that will dramatically change the insurance plans for about 85 percent of the district’s employees.

A combination of rising costs and higher claims has produced a $3.8 million shortfall in the reserves for the self-funded health insurance plan, according to district officials.

In addition, Superintendent Terry Adams said for many years, the district had actually maintained a surplus above the recommended reserve level, so no action to raise premiums or other costs for the district’s 2,800 employees had been taken.

It was only in the last two years, Adams said, as the district experienced a 140 percent surge in claims that the balance shifted.

Becky Pitzer, the district’s director of human resources, said she would like to close that gap through three methods: raising the deductibles and co-pays paid by employees, increasing premiums by 6 percent and a one-time injection of $1.2 million spread out over three years. 

The $1.2 million would be split between $600,000 that had been budgeted to cover costs associated with the new health care law, parts of which President Barack Obama has chosen to delay. The second half would be pulled from the district’s operating funds.

The plan is a recommendation from a committee comprised of dozens of employees, including representation from the district’s teachers union, that convened and put together three possible options.

With the district’s plan year set to began Nov. 1, Pitzer and Adams urged the board to take action on the issue at a meeting July 31 in order to allow proper time to distribute the information about any changes to employees.

However, Pitzer said the decision could be delayed until the board’s next meeting, Aug. 15, if necessary.

The motion to table the recommendation came from board member Sherri Rogers, who said she would still like more time to consider the committee’s recommendations and possibly gather more information before making a decision.

There was some procedural wrangling before the motion won through, with board members Loralee Mondl and Matt Doell initially seeking to go ahead and adopt the committee’s recommendations that night.

That ended with a 2-2 with Rogers and board member Darby Jo Arakelian voted against it. Board members Bill Brown and Keith Kinder abstained, as they are both retirees of the district.

The specifics of the recommended changes can be found on the chart in this powerpoint on the Rockwood Board Docs website. The proposal being considered is “Plan C.”