District reimburses health insurance dollars

Labor union calls it a negotiations ploy

By EOWYN LeMAY IVEY -- Frontiersman reporter

MAT-SU -- More than 500 classified employees, principals, supervisors and school board members will soon get checks in the mail as the Mat-Su Borough School District returns health insurance savings. The Classified Employees Association, however, is calling the district's publicity of the event a negotiations ploy.

Last week, the school district sent out a press release describing how it was reimbursing more than a quarter-million dollars of surplus funds from last year's health insurance costs. The checks to employees covered by Blue Cross/Blue Shield range from $66 to more than $530 per person.

The checks will only go to those employees who are covered by this plan. Teachers fall under a separate health insurance trust, and other employees may not qualify because of part-time status or because they opted out of the insurance coverage.

Those who are getting money back, district officials say, are benefiting from their own efforts to cut health care costs.

"In part, this reconciliation is a result of cost-saving efforts by employees, such as using the plan's preferred providers and choosing generic prescription drugs," Assistant Superintendent of Finance Jack Sherman said in a press release. "Those same methods helped to limit this year's Blue Cross/Blue Shield insurance increase to only 1.4 percent. Our cost containment efforts seem successful."

The amount employees must pay out of their own pocket for health insurance is based on "composite estimates" provided by the insurance company at the start of each fiscal year. These calculations depend on the number of employees covered and the group's claim history. Employee contributions and payroll deductions are then based on this estimate.

District officials say they have covered shortfalls in the past but are now returning excess funds to the employees.

"In the past two years, the district has paid the difference when health insurance costs exceeded employee contributions," Interim Superintendent Bob Doyle said in the press release. "The district could have kept the difference this year as a way to recoup those losses. However, we know the cost of insurance is a concern for our employees, so we chose to share the savings with them."

Health insurance has consistently been an item of contention during labor negotiations in the district. CEA, representing hundreds of teacher aides, receptionists and custodians in the school district, have not yet settled on a new contract and union leaders say the district's offer on health insurance is a major sticking point.

In response to last week's check distribution, CEA president Sheila Dickman said the district's effort to publicize the event was a negotiations ploy.

"Why would the district, through the media … try to make it look like they are doing a wonderful thing when all they are doing is reimbursing employees their own money?" Dickman said.

She said the district's tactics are continuing to escalate the dispute.

"It's very insulting to the employees," Dickman said.

Based on the district's last-best offer in the ongoing contract negotiations, CEA members would receive a 50-percent reduction in out-of-pocket insurance contributions during the first year of the three-year contract. During the next two years, the district would increase its contribution of $7,900 by $300 each year. CEA contends this would not keep up with the rapidly increasing costs of health care.