Harlingen CISD benefits committee recommends keeping Ameritas dental, switching critical-illness to Cigna and basic life to The Standard

Harlingen Consolidated Independent School District benefits staff and consultants recommended several ancillary benefit renewals and vendor changes at a benefits committee meeting, and said the recommendations will be presented to the full board for action.

First Financial representatives said the consultants recommend keeping the district’s current dental arrangement with Ameritas because of a long-running “Dental Rewards” carryover feature and service quality. “We’re not chasing price. We chase quality of product, quality of service at a competitive price,” said Jason Walters, regent manager for First Financial for Central South Texas. The consultants said Ameritas’s rewards program has added carryover dollars to participants’ annual maximums and that switching carriers would forfeit those accumulated rewards.

The committee was told vision coverage would remain unchanged and that the district is still under a rate lock with the current vision vendor. Rachel Puentes, the district’s director for employee benefits, confirmed there would be no change proposed to vision for the coming renewal.

On voluntary critical-illness coverage, consultants recommended moving from Aflac to Cigna after receiving competing proposals from MetLife and Cigna. The consultants said Cigna matched the existing plan design and came in at lower cost, and recommended the switch as a cost-saving measure for employees who purchase that indemnity benefit.

For district-paid basic life coverage and the voluntary term-life options, the committee was told The Standard (Standard Insurance Company) offered additional value-added features, including an increased guaranteed-issue amount for newly eligible employees and a three-year rate guarantee. Consultants told the committee the Standard’s guarantee-issue increase would allow employees with existing guaranteed issue amounts to increase coverage during open enrollment without medical underwriting. The consultants presented a projected reduction in employer cost of about $20,000 annually on the basic-life line compared with current pricing.

Committee members and staff emphasized these are recommendations from benefits staff and First Financial; formal action was not taken in the committee. The items were described as action items that would appear on the board agenda for final approval at the August 5 district board meeting.

What’s next: staff said they will present the renewal and vendor-change recommendations, the competitive bids, and detailed plan documents to the full Harlingen CISD board at its forthcoming meeting so board members can vote on contracts and any plan-design changes.