Cape Girardeau School Board approves employee health insurance plan

The Cape Girardeau School Board on Monday approved medical, dental, vision and term life insurance for its employees, effective Jan. 1.

The district provides insurance at no cost to its employees.

A partially self-insured plan means the district could limit its risk per individual and employee, but also limit its risk per aggregate of Cape Girardeau School District employees.

Under the plan, the district would pay a certain amount and then reinsurance would kick in. Reinsurance is like buying a policy with a large carrier that says a person will pay up to a particular amount and the company will cover the rest.

"We've got a good start down the path of our self-insurance road," assistant superintendent for administrative services Neil Glass said.

Glass said the plan resembles the coverage the district's 731 employees had in 2013-2014. Vision insurance, not paid for by the district, will go up about 4 percent, Glass said.

Glass has said $4.6 million is budgeted for employee health insurance this year.

Healthlink, a preferred provider organization, is the insurance plan the district is going to use and it will include all St. Louis hospitals, including Barnes-Jewish Hospital. In- and outpatient service will be with Southeast Hospital, Glass said.

Mutual Medical Plans Inc. of Peoria, Illinois, will administer the plan. The firm will send claims to the district, telling it what the funds are needed for and have an auditor review each claim that comes in.

Saint Francis Medical Center physicians will be available to employees if they are part of the Healthlink preferred provider organization.

"There won't be a lot of disruption of service for our employees," Glass said. Over the next couple of years, he said, its hoped that employees will see deductibles and out-of-pocket expenses reduced, with coinsurance remaining the same.

The vote on the self-funded plan was 6-0 with board member Adrian Toole abstaining due to a conflict.

The board approved the life insurance plan with Assurant 7-0. Each employee is offered a $20,000 life insurance policy, guaranteed for two years, which will cost the district $14,834 a year, saving more than $8,000 from last year. Employees can buy up, as well, Glass said.

The plan was well received by district employees.

"I believe they were excited to have Barnes-Jewish in the network, as well as Saint Francis doctors," he said.

rcampbell@semissourian.com

388-3639

Pertinent address:

301 N. Clark Ave., Cape Girardeau, MO