Board adopts membership rule revisions and cafeteria plan updates; routine votes carried unanimously

At its Aug. 31 meeting the Health Service System Board approved several routine but significant administrative changes.

Membership rules: Acting Director Mitchell Griggs presented revisions to the membership rules for the coming plan year that notably change disabled-dependent certification procedures. Under the revisions, health plans (rather than HSS staff) will determine disability status for dependents and perform any required recertifications; members retain appeal rights and HSS will perform a review if members dispute plan determinations. The Board moved, seconded and adopted the changes unanimously.

Cafeteria plan updates: The Board also approved standard annual updates to the Section 125 cafeteria plan documents for 2018. Changes included updating the acting executive director name, adjusting flex-credit values for certain employee groups, adding the Blue Shield Trio product and the Vision Premier plan to the plan table, and updating policy numbers and pre/post-tax designations for several voluntary benefits (for example, pet insurance and legal assistance). The motion to accept the cafeteria-plan updates passed unanimously.

Other votes: The Board approved earlier-meeting minutes and later unanimously voted to cancel the regular October meeting (while asking members to hold the date for potential executive-director interviews) and to replace the November meeting with an educational forum. The Board also convened and returned from a closed session to hear a member appeal, then voted not to disclose closed-session deliberations or report actions taken in closed session, consistent with administrative code provisions.

All recorded motions at the Aug. 31 meeting carried unanimously; where individual vote tallies were not recorded in the public transcript, the Board recorded outcomes as unanimous and without dissent.