Changes to the Southwick-Tolland-Granville regional School District’s employee health benefits caused a stir among some employees recently.
A group of teachers and staff filled the room during a School Committee meeting earlier this month to protest the change and ask for reconsideration.
In response to the concerns, the School Committee held a special meeting yesterday to weigh its options.
“The Committee understands the complaints teachers have about health insurance changes,” said Schools Superintendent Dr. John Barry. “We are working on some ideas to improve the situation.”
Barry said he could not comment on specifics, but said “we are probably going to need additional executive session discussions before we are ready to define the steps we’re going to take.”
Barry said the change was made outside of regular collective bargaining as allowed by MGL 32B sections 21-23.
‘This was put in place about a year ago,” said Barry.
He said the law allows the committee to expedite changes to benefits. Barry said the committee chose to take this option because most of the other 14 members of the Berkshire Health Group, the district’s health insurance provider, voted to do this.
“We kind of had to go along with that,” said Barry.
The main complaint of the employees was the switch to a deductible plan.
“We have never had that before,” said Barry, who added that some other employers that are members of the Berkshire Health Group offered two options to employees – one was the deductible and the other was the non-deductible plan.
Barry said the committee chose to offer the deductible plan only based on cost savings.
School Business Manager Stephen Presnal said the difference in savings was substantial.
“We plugged in the numbers and by moving to the deductible option we’ll see a savings of just over $400,000,” said Presnal. “And because Southwick-Tolland has a 50/50 plan with employees, both the district and the employees save.”
In addition to the initial savings, Presnal said there is another 25-percent savings in year one for employees.
“In year two and beyond, whatever savings are achieved will be split 50-50,” he added.
Presnal said depending on the employee you talk to, the change in plan could be financially beneficial. Because of the deductible, which Barry said is less than $2,000 per employee per year, employees must pay out-of-pocket for any medical expenses up to the deductible. After that, the insurance company pays. For a single, healthy person who does not go to the doctor often, the deductible plan will save them quite a bit, said Presnal.
