Board Study Session - Dental To Be Restored

Notes from October 3 Board Study Session

The school board covered several issues in their Tuesday study session, including the sale of Hickory Hills school and some technical changes to board policies - but perhaps the issue of greatest importance to employees was the revision of the medical plan.

The district's Health Benefit Trust that funds our health plans has rebounded from near-disastrous lows in the early 2000's (when dental insurance was cut) to a surplus of $14.4 million in 2006. The trust has gained an average of $3 million per year over the past three years and now is over-funded by some $8 million in excess reserves.

As the report to the board says, the Health Benefit Trust Insurance Committee has met several times over the past twelve months to review the finances, the medical plan components and discuss wellness and dental options. SNEA has actively participated in all these committee discussions.

New Health Plan Proposed

The HBT committee recently voted their approval to a new medical plan design that eliminates the Buy-Up Plan and creates one Core Plan for all employees. The new Core Plan lowers the In-Network deductible per covered person from $750 to $500 and lowers the deductible for Covered Family from $2,250 to $1,500.

In addition, the HBT committee voted their approval to an increase in the Wellness Benefit from $300 to $500. Wellness Plan users who take advantage of the Health Risk Assessment (HRA) program with St. John's would receive $700.

All of these proposals were presented to the board during last night's study session and are likely to be approved at the October 17 board meeting.

Dental Plan

The one issue that the HBT committee was unable to come to complete agreement was the restoration of dental insurance. The administration presented a cost-sharing proposal at our last HBT meeting that had the district cover 2/3 and the employee 1/3 of the basic dental premium. After much discussion, the HBT Committee recommended a second plan that would have the district cover the entire dental premium.

At last night's board study session, the administration noted the HBT committee's full dental coverage recommendation, but instead chose to recommend the cost-sharing dental as part of the medical plan revision submitted for the board's approval.

I addressed this issue in my comments preceding the meeting, noting that the HBT committee had approved full-funding dental by a fair margin and that the interest on current HBT funds would alone cover full dental. I also noted that comparable sized districts that we have chosen to benchmark in academic areas (Rockwood, Hazelwood, North Kansas City) all provide free dental insurance to their employees.

Several board members spoke quite eloquently to the importance of offering our district employees the best health and wellness benefits available, and after some discussion and what appeared to be unanimous agreement, the president directed the administration to include full dental coverage in the Medical Plan Revision proposal.

This is a much appreciated positive sign of support for SPS employees from our school board - and recognition must also be paid to your SNEA and ESP reps, past and present, for their due diligence on this particular issue. The board will be voting on these revisions during their October 17 session, and we'll have more information on the plans and the Hickory sale at that time.