Staff Health Care Committee: August 2012 Highlights (A MUST READ)

FY14 Health Care Design Plan Considerations

1. Remove the ability to waive coverage (opt out). This would bring about 500 employees back on the plan and recover anywhere between $217,000 - $600,000 in health care charges paid by employees, depending on their plan and dependent enrollment.
2. Drop the 500 Plan. There are currently less than 5% of UA employees utilizing the plan.

3. Establish a tier system for families, so families with more children (probably up to 3) would pay more. This would also apply to the employee + child(ren) rate, which currently is the same regardless of how many children are enrolled.
4. Develop a new High Deductible Health Plan (HDHP), while maintaining the existing one, that will qualify for a Health Savings Account (HSA). Items to consider:

1. Any individual that is covered under another medical plan (Military, Alaska Native, etc.) is not eligible to participate in the HSA.
2. If spouse participates in Flexible Spending Account (FSA), the HSA is not available through UA.
3. HDHP with HSA in which the plan covers more than the employee, the plan automatically moves to the family deductible.
4. The funds roll over from year to year.
5. When employment ends the employee keeps the account.
6. Monies are only available as they are deposited into the HSA
7. Employee is solely responsible for ensuring federal guidelines are met.

For more information visit the following links:

Statewide Voice
Joint Health Care Committee (JHCC)

Staff Health Care Committee (SHCC) meetings are open to all UA staff. The next meeting of SHCC will be held August 28, 2012 at 9:00 am. You may call in at 800-893-8850 and the pin is 4236369. When calling in please put your phone on mute.

You may also provide your feedback, concerns, questions or comments to any SHCC member via email. See committee members and email addresses below.

Staff Health Care Committee Members:
Melodee Monson (UAA) – mamonson@uaa.alaska.edu
Constance Dennis (UAA) – cmdennis@uaa.alaska.edu
Carolyn Simmons (UAF) – clsimmons2@alaska.edu
Catherine Williams (UAF) – cat.williams@alaska.edu
Mary Sue Dates (UAF) – marysue@alaska.edu
Maria Russell (UAF) – mtrussell@alaska.edu
Gwenna Richardson (UAS) – gjrichardson@alaska.edu
Elizabeth Williams (UAS) – eawilliams2@alaska.edu
Mae Delcastillo (UAS) – madelcastillo@uas.alaska.edu
Ivan Leibbrandt (Statewide Administration Assembly - SAA) – Ivan.leibbrandt@alaska.edu
Heather Arana (Statewide Administration Assembly - SAA) – hrarana@alaska.edu
Monique Musick (Statewide Administration Assembly - SAA) – mmusick@alaska.edu

Staff Council - April 2012 Highlights

Staff Health Care Committee discussed how effective a Patient Care addition may be to the current compensation package, where it would be, and who would pay for it.  Clinics on campus are being re-looked at and Chancellor Rogers believes it can be done.  There is currently no tobacco policy in place.  Chancellor Rogers wants the tobacco surcharge on new hires beginning July 1, 2012.  Committee members were tasked to reach out to individuals who use tobacco products to gather suggestions/incentives/comments on how to encourage users to quit.

President Gamble agreed to establish a Healthcare Task Force.  This would be a one-time task force.  The task force will not replace the Joint Health Care Committee or the Staff Health Care Committee, it will look outside the box, consider options, review and research plans.  The goal of the committee is to have proposals in by the end of August for proposed changes to take place and decided upon in December 2012.  The committee will have equal number of staff, faculty and administration.

Chancellor Rogers commented on how the current legislative session went great and the University came out ahead.  Their focus will be on some long standing issues such as the sewer lines and moving some parking lots.  Funds have been provided for advising, new programs, honors programs, 50% of staff raises, repairs to the engineering building, etc.  The voices heard the loudest were those not directly associated with the University.  He visited the Northwest campus and Chukchi campus in support of those partnerships.  He mentioned that it is important to attend any of the Staff Appreciation events this year and if a supervisor tell you no, you need to refer that issue to his office.

To-date there have been 160 signatures collected on the Health Care petition created by the Staff Affairs committee.  The signed copies of the petition have been submitted to UAF Staff Council President, Pips Veazey, to forward to Staff Alliance and Chancellor Rogers.  Signatures are still being collected.  There have been staff who have voiced a concern about signing the petition because of repercussions they may face from the administration.  For those who are concerned about repercussions they have been encouraged to visit the blogsite and place a comment anonymously.

A survey was conducted regarding the Code of Conduct sent out by President Gamble to all staff.  To-date there have been over 640 comments/responses submitted.  As of today the code of conduct has been unofficially withdrawn with a comment that President Gamble will work with governance in creating Institutional Values.

Chancellors Cornerstone Award – there were 91 nominations.  The committee reviewed all nominations and submitted four staff members to Chancellor Rogers for a decisions, along with recommendations for increasing the award prizes.  Committee felt the award for the Chancellors Cornerstone was deficit in comparison to other awards.

A system governance retreat will be held in June 2012 those in attendance will include President Gamble, Donald Smith, etc.

There are no changes to the University’s tuition waiver at this time, Standard Academic Progress (SAP) is the holdup.  Staff Affairs is beginning to work on a document that will be geared toward staff.

Thank you to all those who provided their notes to be included in this blogsite.

Health Care Petition - Comments

We, as the employees of the University of Alaska Fairbanks, want to express our concern that staff are not feeling valued. Health care costs are increasing at an alarming rate, longevity and loyalty do not appear to be rewarded by the administration, and current compensation packages make it challenging to sustain a family.


The healthcare increases implemented for FY 13 will be detrimental to the University’s efforts to recruit and retain staff. We request that the University system seek to mitigate these costs for FY 14 to prevent a competitive disadvantage among peer institutions and other state agencies. We furthermore ask to see additional choices developed to preserve our current PPO options, and incorporate Health Savings Accounts, Supplemental Insurance options, HMO options, and innovative solutions to broaden choice and potentially reduce costs.

To sign this petition either see your UAF Staff Council representative or see Mary Sue Dates at 110 Eielson Bldg.  For rural sites please email your comments to marysue@alaska.edu

Staff Council - March 27 Highlights

Michelle Bartlett – Summer Sessionsa. In-state tuition for everyone
b. Students who take at least 6 credits can receive assistance in finding a job
c. 14 credits for the cost of 10 credits – grades must be a C or better
d. 28% discount on dorms
e. Tuition awards of 3 credits – grades must be a C or better

Mae Marsh – New EEO Director
a. Advocate for the process
b. Ensure UAF is in state and federal compliance
c. Goal is early resolution
d. Staff Council mentioned that UAF has no defined grievance process, only as mentioned in the Board of Regents regulations and policies.

Health Care
a. The cost was an administration decision and not the Joint Health Care Committee (JHCC). Melanie Arthur (JHCC representative) explained that the proposals by JHCC were pushed aside for the administration choice. In December 2011 the JHCC passed an action item to explore clinic access for UAF. Donald Smith, Executive Director – Labor & Employee Relations, UA Statewide, was contacted in March for an update. At the time of contact there had been no action taken.
b. Vendor contracts (Blue Cross, Premera, Caremark, VSP, etc.) are up for review and renewal. Once signed they are 5 year contracts.
c. Council requested the Staff Alliance (staff governance for all of the University of Alaska) form a task force to investigate a wide range of issues from how benefits and premiums are projected and calculated, if the various health care services are being effectively used [WIN for Alaska, disease management, Best Doctors, etc.]), making the policy makers aware that the current health care model and direction is broken, options for systemic changes that can bring health care coverage back in line.
d. President Gamble sent a letter to the legislature regarding a “cost avoidance of 7 million dollars” for the university. This “cost avoidance” moved 7 million dollars from the university shoulders to staff.
e. In July staff can expect a pay deduction due to the rising cost of health care.
f. There is talk about the 500 and 750 plan going away and being replaced with the High Deductible Health Plan (HDHP) with a possible Health Savings Account (HAS). To date there are 197 staff on the 500 plan, 2517 staff on the 750 plan and 1377 staff on the HDHP. The maximum allowed in the flexible spending account has decreased to $2500, federal guidelines.
g. It was recognized that nothing can be done to change the implementation of health care premiums this year. It was widely expressed that we are on a continuing unsustainable path.

Tobacco Policy
a. The proposed “tobacco-free hiring policy” has evolved from the previous “tobacco surcharge.” After speaking with UA Statewide Human Resources, the tobacco-free hiring has not been instituted, however if President Gamble approves of this policy it will go into effect in UAKJobs beginning July 2012. Staff governance has not been provided with any information regarding this policy.
b. It does not seem like President Gamble is giving up on this even as we doubt the large amount of touted health care savings ($21 million over 5 – 10 years).

General Notes
a. Staff Council, at the prompting of Chancellor Rogers, is looking at reorganizing to a smaller group to be elected at large (instead of by unit) with the hope that they can achieve greater attendance (move from 37 unit to 17 at-large). There is the sense that some unit representatives don’t communicate well or at all with their constituents, so this proposal is intended to broaden the communication.
b. Tuition Waiver – Staff council rejected the changes to the tuition waiver based on insufficient time for review. The changes were received on March 23rd by the Staff Alliance. Staff Council did not receive these changes until March 27th. One of the changes states: “Employees and dependents receiving education benefits must maintain Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP) in order to qualify for educations benefits.

Thank you to other representatives for your notes and comments from the staff council meeting.  Providing those items allows this blog to be as inclusive of topics and conversations as possible.

Staff Affairs - April 2 Meeting

Health Care:
It was agreed there is need to be more options.  The committee discussed the option of Higher Dedcutible Health Plan (HDHP) with a Health Savings Account (HSA).  To have the health savings account the pharmacy  plan would need to be re-worked.  It is not clear to us, as we have not had the time to do much research, this would be a great option of UAF staff.  The health savings account allows you to make withdrawals outside of medical expenses and the amount in the HSA rolls over every year; neither of these are an option with the flexible spending account.

The committee agreed to create a petition for staff to sign expressing our concerns about health care and how staff feels devalued in the lack of fight for them by the administration.  It is agreed the petition would not be electronic as it is important to get actual signatures.  The petition will also provide represented staff and faculty to sign showing support of the unrepresented staff.  Once the petition has been approved by the UAF Staff Council President, it will be sent out to all staff council representatives to staff signatures.

As signatures are gathered completed pages will be provided to the UAF Staff Council President and Vice President with a request to provide copies of the signed petition to the Joint Health Care Committee, President Gamble, Chancellor Rogers, the Board of Regents, etc.

Tuition Waiver:
Discussion about the possible changes to the tuition waiver recognize the increase in benefits with the increase in possible credit hours taken each semester and each academic year.  However, concerns were voiced about capping credit hours and that the waiver would fall under the Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP) for students.  The committee agreed to revew the proposed changes and SAP, then come back to the next meeting (April 16) to discuss a written outline such as SAP.  The outline would be reflective of staff using the tuition waiver.

Tobacco Policy:
The committee is in favor of a Tobacco Free Campus and not a Tobacco Free Hiring Policy.  It was stated UAKJobs has already instituted the Tobacco Free Hiring with a question asking if the applicant or any depedent living in the household uses tobacco.  Before going further in action to draw up a motion, it was decided a member of the committee would contact UAF Human Resources to verify the UAKJobs information.  See Staff Council Notes regarding this issue.

Staff Council: January 2012 Highlights

1. Ann Ringstad, Dir. Community Advocacy, UA System, reported on the Juneau Legislative session: the House of Reps is reviewing the budget that the governor approved on Dec 15th. Some University requests were removed by the governor, such as deferred maintenance and the power plant funding, but the Chancellor is hoping the House and Senate will put them back in. The pay raise for staff was still included.

2. The Staff Council motion to NOT alter the Tuition Waiver benefit was forwarded to system governance who will pass on to President Gamble.

3. The Strategic Direction team is conducting separate listening sessions for internal stakeholder groups at UAF on Feb 14th. Times/locations TBA. There will be 3 sessions, one each for staff, faculty and students. If you are both a staff and student, please try to attend them both. Come prepared to ask hard questions and make comments.

4. On Feb 10th, Staff Council is hosting an Open Forum/Q & A with the Chancellor from 12:30 to 2pm in the Wood Center.

5. On Feb 6th from 3:30 to 5pm, there will be a Faculty Seminar with Dr. Claudia Lampman, at UAF - Wood Center Carol Brown Ballroom. Dr. Lampman, Professor of Psychology at UAA, will lead a faculty seminar on student bullying, incivility and aggression. The seminar is jointly sponsored by UNAC, UAFT, and UAF Faculty Senate. For additional information please contact, Jayne Harvie, at jbharvie@alaska.edu. Staff have been encouraged to participate.

6. The Chancellor is kicking off an Employee of the Month award soon--in Feb or March. More details to come. Bernie Karl has offered the prizes for the next 12 months: a night at Chena Hot Springs and tour of Geothermal project.

7. Chancellor Rogers discussed several upcoming construction and renovation projects including dedicated space for the Honor's program, a new dining facility, additional on-campus housing, work on West Ridge buildings, and the new addition connecting Duckering /Bunnell buildings.

8. Health Plan: The Tobacco surcharge is definitely NOT going to be implemented for FY13. However, new employees hired CANNOT be tobacco users. No implementation date has been set for this new policy. This is in line with other large companies, such as Providence Hospital and AK Airlines. In March, we should be receiving info about health care costs and how it will affect our paychecks in FY13. Expect to see an increase in premiums.

The next Staff Council meeting is February 17, 2012 8:45 am WC Carol Brown Ballroom.
 
Highlights provided by Debbie Gonzalez of Unit 3.

September Meeting of the UAF Staff Council

What happened at the September meeting?

Pips Veazey, Staff Council President, explained the most pressing issues for the Staff Council for the 2011 fall semester:

1. Staff Compensation - The Alaska Staff Alliance Compensation Working Group is proposing a minimum of a 3.5% increase for FY13 given inflation, recent increases in employee health care contributions and the loss of step increases. Juella Sparks will be representing Staff Alliance at the Board of Regents meeting in Juneau this week to address this issue.
2. Health Care - Another major focus for the first semester will be on proposed changes to our health care benefits, that are still in discussion. One change going into effect July 1, 2012, is the tobacco surcharge. The tobacco surcharge will add $600 a year to an employee's annual cost for health care if the employee or a dependent enrolled in UA’s health plan uses a tobacco product or has used tobacco products within the past six months and has not demonstrated eligibility for a waiver from the surcharge.
3. Employee Tuition Waiver - The employee tuition waiver is being reviewed and changes have been proposed for the upcoming year. Input is currently being solicited about the proposed changes; the Staff Affairs Committee is drafting a resolution stating staff does not support changes to the employee tuition waiver benefit. Problems with the proposed changes include negative tax ramifications, the punitive approach to paying for failed classes, and details about the connection with the benefit to “satisfactory academic progress”.

For additional business discussed during the meeting see: Healthy Challenge, Emergency Management Policy, United Way Campaign, and Winter Warm-up articles.

Your feedback is always wanted. If you have concerns, comments or questions that you would like us to address at the next Staff Council meeting please contact one of your representatives so your voice can be heard.  If you would like to remain anonymous let us know and we will respect your wishes.

Health Care Audit

The health care audit done by Consova is completed.  There are currently 200 cases being reviewed to evaluate whether removal of dependents is required or not.  The cases are being evaluated case by case.  The cases are being reviewed because some employees are not responding to requests made, additional paperwork is needed, etc.

UAF Staff Council is looking into how much this audit processed has benefited the university and its employees.

What Happened at the June Meeting?

New motions are being made and/or readdressed to the UAF Staff Alliance.  These motions include: smoker surcharge, employee tuition waiver, and a new health care task force.

What are these motions?

• Smoker surcharge requests the removal of the smoker surcharge to the FY13 Health Care Plan.
• Employee tuition waiver relates to not supporting any alteration of the current waiver to include a 6-month waiting period for new hires and the repayment of tuition waived for any classes failed.
• Health care task force - this is requesting a new group to be established to help review the health care plans provided by UAF.

Chancellor Rogers - Updates

Chancellor Rogers, recently back from Juneau, was able to provide updates on several topics concerning UAF.

• The budget is in the House Finance Subcommittee. At this point it appears Cooperative Extension may receive $190,000 and the Health Budget may receive $175,000. UAF submitted a pay raise package suggesting 60% / 40%. This would mean that 60% would come from General funds and 40% would come from Non-General funds. However, it appears this may be changed to 50% / 50% which is a short fall of $1.6 million.
• Trying to get federal funding for the Life Sciences project.
• Capital budget is extremely meager at this point. Governor Palin will have a marginal impact on UAF as she is concentrating on unemployment and K-12 issues.
• There are several hoops that must be jumped through if monies are accepted from the Stimulus Package. Example: weekly reporting on how the monies are being spent, and they must be spent rather quickly.
• There are options through the State of Alaska that UAF may be able to capitalize on to help with the budget issues. There is a Cops Grant that UAF Police Dept may be able to apply for to help with there concerns.

The Chancellor was exciting at how the Staff Appreciation Day is coming together. He realizes it will cover a variety of topics and is encouraged and excited to see all the effort being put into making this an event that will recognize staff, orient new staff, provide professional development in a fun environment.

UAF Staff Alliance Met Alaska Legislature

UAF Staff Alliance met in Juneau February 25th. Juella Sparks and Martin Klein were there for 2 days meeting with Alaska Legislators to advocate for UAF budget. There are 3 items worth noting from this trip.

1. There is real concern about another multiple appropriation budget for the university this year.
2. There is a fundamental and essential need for someone to be in Juneau advocating for UAF, possibly a Political Action Committee. UAA has established this committee and they are being utilized to the fullest extent. This would be a membership and dues paying based committee.
3. The federal economic stimulus bill is wreaking havoc with spending plans with the Alaska Legislature.

Budget & Compensation Revisited

A 4.5% "grid increase" has been requested for the FY2010 budget and it will probably be the last time a "grid increase" is used to include our step increases within the budget request. It looks like the System will not be going back to the old way of doing step increases. Other options are being investigated. The Staff Compensation Task Force (SCTF) is looking into other ideas, including merit-based raises, using an end-of-year bonus concept, and others. They are always looking for ideas, so feel free to pass them on if you have one.

There is also a high probability that health care premiums will be going up as early as July 1, 2009. There is still discussion and calculations to be made to determine exactly how much the increase will be; we will let you know as soon as we hear anything.

Another item SCTF is working on is the fact that the "grid increase" request for FY2010 is 4.5%. Being that the request is based on cost-of-living in Anchorage, which is currently already at 4.6%, the chance that the new rates almost definitely won't cover the cost-of-living increase in addition to the health care premium increase is incredibly high. The SCTF is meeting next week and hope to get some answers and ideas.