School board vote is unanimous: district to leave insurance consortium

The district could still decide to stay in the consortium.
By JEANNE STARMACK
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
AUSTINTOWN -- The township school board voted to notify a countywide health-insurance consortium of school districts that Austintown will leave the consortium in July 2006.
The school board's vote Monday was unanimous, with board members saying they want to explore other options to keep health-care costs down in the district.
Schools Superintendent Douglas Heuer told board members the district can rescind the intent to leave the Mahoning County Schools Employee Insurance Consortium at any time. But to keep the option of leaving open, the school board must obey the consortium's bylaws and notify it by Oct. 15.
The consortium voted in July to switch health insurance administrators. A Boardman firm called Professional Risk Management had been its administrator for 22 years. Medical Mutual of Ohio will now be its third-party administrator, beginning Oct. 1.
Austintown board member Michael Creatore, who had urged the consortium to shop for a new insurance manager to save money, said in August the change would save the consortium millions of dollars.
After the meeting, Creatore said the change still wasn't enough.
Quotable
"The consortium isn't working in the best interest of Austintown schools," he said. "We want the right to pull out and go our own way."
Board President Brad Gessner said Austintown is one of the consortium's largest districts and represents a higher percentage of its budget, but it has the same number of votes as the smaller districts.
Heuer said Boardman is a district that has many similarities to Austintown in size and population, and that the districts have been talking about a new insurance partnership.
He said that with a large company as an administrator, a new consortium could be made up of districts anywhere in the state. But he said that so far, Austintown has not talked with districts other than Boardman.
Not satisfied
Heuer said Austintown is not satisfied with the consortium's decision in August to drop Columbus firm CBIZ as a consultant. He said CBIZ made some recommendations that Austintown believes the consortium should have followed, but so far has not.
He said that by pooling the school districts' money, the consortium spreads risk from high insurance claims, which is the benefit of belonging to it.
But he said that CBIZ's recommendations to reduce the number of health plans in the consortium and to periodically review premium rates need to be followed.
Heuer said that at last count, there were about 34 separate health plans among consortium members.
He said that limiting the number of plans in the consortium would more easily allow negotiations for significant discounts.
He also said that premium rates should be regularly addressed.
"If over a three-year history medical expenses in a district are high, rates should go up," the superintendent said. "If a district is paying in more than is being paid out, rates should be adjusted down."