School looks at self insurance option

News

Medford board hears pitch to switch to self insurance using independent small providers

The Medford school district is looking at self insurance as an option to address rising health insurance costs.

In what was announced would be a “high level” introduction to the topic and instead turned into more than a two-hour long and at times pointed discussion, board members learned of the program offerings and the potential for cost savings.

Coreen Toth-LaPointe, the district’s insurance broker with Spectrum, described the meeting as being “the first kick at the cat” on the topic.

In traditional health insurance, the employer and employees pay premiums to an insurance company which then pays out claims from providers. A self insurance model could look very similar to the consumer, but is different behind the scenes.

In the proposal presented by Ben John See SCHOOL on page 4 of Self Fund Health, the district would contract with his or a similar organization and work with a local direct care provider such as Taylored Family Health. Those on the school’s plan would be able to make appointments with Taylored Family Health at no out of pocket costs beyond what was in their premiums, they could also utilize direct pay options for procedures, tests and specialists. He noted the direct pay providers generally offer much lower rates for procedures than insurance carriers or hospital groups because of the lower amount of bureaucratic overhead involved.

“Healthcare in Wisconsin is on an unsustainable trend,” John said.

He said companies such as his are geared toward offering options for healthcare consumers to shop for services.

“We are not taking away anyone’s choices,” John said, noting the goal is to introduce more choices for patients so that they can better reach healthcare decisions.

On the positive side of self-insurance, there is a potential for cost reductions and premium decreases as more people utilize the less expensive treatment options. This does not come without risk.

A key component in the proposal, is that the district would go through stop-loss re-insurance to protect from high claims patients. John said the district’s maximum loss would be about what it currently is paying in traditional employee health insurance premiums.

Board member Brian Hallgren said he supported the school district looking into the self insurance option, but had pointed objections to getting what he characterized as a sales pitch from John. Hallgren asked about high cost claims and the use of “lasering.” Lasering is a common stop loss practice in which an individual participant— based on prior claims experience or known conditions—is covered by the stop loss policy at a higher deductible than the rest of the group.

John said they are not looking at having lasers. He also noted that while the savings could be significant they would not know until October how it would compare to the traditional insurance coverage.

Hallgren also objected to the description of office visits with Taylored Family Health as being “free” under the proposed plan. “There is no free lunch,” he said. He said he felt the company was off to a bad start in talking with the district.

He said the district did not know enough yet about if they should change how they do insurance. “I think we should look at it, but we should be with eyes wide open,” he said.

There was also discussion about what kind of incentives would be needed to have employees embrace the cost saving aspects the plan would bring. Employees could still choose to go to their current providers, just with more out of pocket expense.

Board member John Zuleger said he would like to know how it impacted workers at employers who switched to this type of model.

“Don’t sugar coat anything,” said board president Dave Fleegel, as guidance for when they bring back additional information to the board.

Building project update

Work is scheduled to begin the week of July 10 on the office addition in the front side of Medford Area Senior High School.

Work on the new addition is scheduled to be completed by the end of October and once people are moved into the new space, the renovation of the existing office space and entryway will begin with it scheduled to be completed when students return from winter break in early January.

A representative from Findorff was at Monday’s meeting to update board members on the progress and timeline for the project. Last winter, the school board voted to move forward with an approximately $1.7 million overhaul and expansion of the office space at the high school. The addition will address some security issues from the current layout as well as create additional space to work with students in a confidential setting.

The 2,500 square foot addition will extend about 20 feet to the south of the current building and will go from the current entry to about 15 feet from the cafeteria entrance. Construction equipment and the site trailer are being delivered to the site at this time. A lot of the heavier work is expected to be completed before school begins.

During construction, students and visitors will be directed to access the building through the “Sands” doors on the west side of the building by the main parking lot. These are the same doors most people use to attend events in the gym. The front driveway will remain open for visitors and buses.

The cost of the project is currently estimated to be at about $1.85 million, however, it was noted that $50,000 of that is in contingency.

Staffing

Principals are working to fill vacancies in the school buildings.

According to Elementary Principal Dan Miller, he is currently looking for first and second grade teachers among other positions. He said he is not to the point of panicking to get the positions filled and is continuing to look.

“I have a month yet, before I really get nervous,” he said.

It was noted that one of the prospective new teachers could potentially be either a second grade teacher or tech ed at the high school.

It was noted that there are alternative pathways to getting teachers in a classroom with the possibility of people with four-year degrees going through a licensure process. In some areas, such as business or tech ed., the district may hire people without degrees to teach those subjects.

Middle school principal Justin Hraby reported they have offers out for some positions and are waiting to hear back on them. High school principal Jill Lybert said they are in a similar spot at the high school level.

During the consent agenda, board members approved the personnel report with a number of additions and changes in staff. Teaching staff leaving the district are MAES Physical Education teacher Zachary Person, SES second grade teacher Bethany Betros, MASH tech ed teacher Tyler Kadlecek, and SES first grade teacher Casie McAllister.

New hires include: Jamie Bielke, MASH special education; Delaney Skelding, MASH social worker; Danielle Diedrich, MASH math teacher; John Keefe, MAES Physical Education and Kara Diers, MAES/SES CLC supervisor.

In other business, board members received the annual report on student behaviors and bullying.

Last summer, the district did an extensive review of the bullying and behavior reporting and created a more formal process allowing parents and those involved to report and track bullying behaviors in the schools. Miller noted that people had the impression bullying wasn’t being addressed and was being swept under the rug.

He said this year with the new forms, they had one parent fill out the bullying form and who ultimately agreed with the administration that it wasn’t bullying behavior, but who wanted it to be on the record. Miller also reviewed the office discipline report which saw a spike in the past few months at the end of the school year with 43% of reported activity being physical aggression. He also noted there was an increase in the number of reported incidents from school buses. He said it could be a combination of the large number of new bus drivers or that there is a lower tolerance for misbehavior.

Hraby reported that they had three formal bullying reports at the middle school which led to in school and out of school suspensions for those involved. He also reported that there were 22 different reports of harassment.

Hraby said that while people may ask why there are only three reports of bullying, he said they use those situations as teachable moments for both victims and perpetrators.

He noted that at times, the harassment and bullying complaints come from within friend groups and dynamics change. He noted that even having one incident of bullying was too many.

High school assistant principal Andy Guden noted that many of the incidents boil down to conflict. He said this doesn’t necessarily mean it is bullying.

“So nothing has changed in 30 years,” Zuleger said. Sullivan said that the school knows there is bullying going on and that when staff are made aware of it, they talk to the kids involved and reach out to parents. “I think our teachers do a good job,” he said.