Employee Group Health Insurance Oklahoma

State leaders look for more school funding

Word that state officials will look for more money for teachers health insurance is welcomed news to district and state education leaders who earlier had threatened legal action to cover the funding shortfall.

However, education leaders cautioned they would hold state leaders to the funding pledge while putting the lawsuit on a back burner.

At a news conference Tuesday in Oklahoma City, Gov. Mary Fallin, Senate President Pro Tempe Brian Bingman, and House Speaker Kris Steele announced plans "to improve the funding process" for flexible health benefits.

At issue was state funding for teachers' health insurance and how much the Oklahoma State Department of Education would contribute.

Local school district officials say the state board was only partially funding the Employees Flexible Benefit Allowance, creating a two-month shortfall in which there would be no money to pay for district employees' health insurance.

That shortfall would have cost the Sand Springs district about $320,000 and all districts across the state about $34 million, Sand Springs Superintendent Lloyd Snow said.

"This (the funding) is an issue that now seems to be on the right track to a solution," Snow said. "A lot of folks are now saying the right thing. It's a lot better than taking it to court. I am thankful for the associations (OSSBA and CCOSA) getting involved. It was a team effort."

In July, the Sand Springs Board of Education voted unanimously to spend up to $10,000 for pre-litigation research and consulting expenses in preparation for a possible court fight and invited other district to join them. A proposed lawsuit was drafted and by September, Jenks, Union, Yukon, and several districts had voted to join in the suit.

Snow said education leaders will follow the funding effort during the upcoming legislative session.

"We'll monitor the process and progress," Snow said.

The funding decision means "the children of Oklahoma are going to be $34 million better off," Snow said.

Health Insurance Reform Weekly Medical cost trends for 2012 ...

Health Insurance Reform Weekly Medical cost trends for 2012

PricewaterhouseCoopers and Medco Health Solutions released two new views of cost trends in health care during the past week, building on the release of the Milliman Medical Index.   PwC Health Research Institute’s “Behind the numbers: Medical cost trends for 2012,” examines the medical cost trends for employers in 2012.  This new report found “Medical cost trend is expected to increase from 8 percent in 2011 to 8.5 percent in 2012.”  And two main drivers identified by PwC are provider consolidation and cost-shifting to the private sector.

Providing a view of prescription drug utilization and pricing trends, Medco’s Annual Drug Trend Report showed this week that while the overall growth of prescription drug prices is at an historic low (as a result of increased use of generic drugs), the cost of specialty treatments is still increasing at an alarming rate.  According to Medco’s report “Specialty drug trend was 17.4 percent in 2010, fueled by unit cost growth of 11.5 percent.”

Federal

There is no Federal report for this week.

States

ARIZONA: The Department of Insurance (DOI) held a public hearing on rate review as part of its Health and Human Services (HHS) grant activities. The DOI has retained Mercer Consulting to assist in performing a gap analysis to identify areas that need to be addressed in order to comply with the requirements of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). During the hearing, it was noted that the state’s current statutory scheme does not authorize the DOI to review a health insurer’s medical loss ratio, potentially not allowing the state to meet the HHS requirement of having “an effective rate review process.”

The Director of Insurance and the Governor’s office also hosted their first workgroup on the implementation of an exchange. Despite the legislature’s refusal to pass an exchange bill, there is concern at the executive level about a lack of preparedness in the event the ACA is not repealed or found unconstitutional. This week’s topic was the qualified health plan certification, and participants focused on not adding requirements beyond the ACA minimum benefit requirements.

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