Health Care Plan Changes Approved

On Monday, November 26 statewide administration informed JHCC leadership of their intent to go forward with JHCC's nine motions and changes to our FY14 health care benefit. Click here to read the memorandum.

Opt Out Information

 The explanation from Donald Smith, CHRO and Erika Van Flein, Director of Benefits for ending the Opt Out option is that it will increase the size of the employee pool, which will theoretically decrease the health care costs for all employees. Employees currently cover 17% of the total health care costs of university employees. Ending the Opt-Out option will spread that 17% over a greater number of people. A counterpoint to this position is that it is also possible that some of those opt outs brought back into the pool will bring high health care costs increasing total health care costs.

Currently there are 473 (of a total of ~4,500) employees who will be impacted by taking away the Opt Out option. Some hard to define costs associated with this decision are: the number of employees who will leave the university as a result, the costs of replacing those employees, the possible additional costs to the plan, and more importantly the impact of another reduction in benefits or increase in cost of benefits to the morale of our employees. The potential benefit is decreasing the overall cost each employee pays.

What are your thoughts on the administration’s explanation and position on this?

JHCC Recommended Changes to Health Care Benefit

From the UA Staff Alliance blog at http://www.uastaffalliance.wordpress.com :

**Please note the JHCC memorandum has been updated from the original post.

On October 16 and 17 the Joint Health Care Committee met to review the suggestions coming out of the Health Care Task Force.  At that meeting they passed eight motions recommending changes to our health care benefit to the statewide administration.  They forwarded these motions to the administration on November 1. Please read JHCC Oct Motions for details.

Two changes were recommended that have received mixed responses from staff. They are a spousal surcharge and taking away the Opt Out choice. Please note that the staff representatives on the JHCC voted against taking away the Opt Out. The Staff Health Care Committee will meet on November 27 to discuss these changes. We’d like to hear from you before we take a position with the administration on the changes. Please leave your comments here and/or email Donald Smith, Chief Human Resources Officer at donald.smith@alaska.edu or Juella Sparks, chair of Staff Alliance at juella.sparks@alaska.edu .

FY14 Staff Compensation Increase Update - Memo from President Gamble and Request for Staff Feedback

To All Non-Represented Staff,

On November 1 Staff Alliance members received a memorandum from UA President Pat Gamble regarding the staff compensation increase for the FY14 budget. He has included a 3.25% compensation increase in the operating budget being brought before the Board of Regents Wednesday Nov. 7 for their approval.

Please go the Staff Alliance blog at: http://www.uastaffalliance.wordpress.com to read President Gamble's explanation and to tell us what you think of this compensation increase. To submit your feedback, click on the words ‘Leave a Comment’ located on the grey bar immediately below the message.  We will report back on how the Regents vote.

Alliance has also started a conversation on with President Gamble on other ways to meaningfully compensate and reward staff. Please use the blog to provide us with your thoughts and ideas.  You can post your feedback on the blog using the blue 'Leave a Comment' link located below the message.   

UA Staff Alliance

UA Health Care Task Force Recommendations - IMMEDIATE STAFF FEEDBACK NEEDED!

This summer a special Health Care Task Force composed of staff representatives from across the UA system met to research and propose possible solutions to offset increasing health care costs. They were charged with thinking of out-of-the-box solutions for cost containment. Their proposals were recently summarized and shared with the Joint Health Care Committee (JHCC). The JHCC will be meeting in Anchorage next week to discuss these recommendations. You may review the document here:http://www.alaska.edu/files/governance/HCTF-final-report.pdf

The current staff members on the Joint Health Care Committee are Melodee Monson from UAA (anmam@uaa.alaska.edu) and Gwenna Richardson from UAS (gjrichardson@uas.alaska.edu). If you want to provide them with feedback before the JHCC meeting in Anchorage next week I strongly encourage you to do so.

Please keep in mind that these are suggestions alone and do not represent any final decisions regarding our health plan or benefits. This is your opportunity to use the governance system to make your opinion heard. I strongly encourage all of you to review this document and weigh in on the discussion. 

For more information on the JHCC or SHCC there was an excellent article in the August Statewide Voice (http://www.alaska.edu/voice/2012/august-issue-69/system-news/health-care-1/) that I encourage you to read.

Thank you! Here's to your health!

Staff Council

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