Citrus County board hears Fleet pitch for multi-district health trust; asks insurance committee for more analysis

Ted Rausch, executive director of Fleet, and Dave Stevens, Avail Analytics program manager, told the Citrus County School Board on Feb. 24 that Fleet is a "non profit, educator health trust" designed to pool purchasing power and stabilize health-plan costs for member districts. Fleet staff said the trust now includes 17 districts covering more than 44,000 employees and that member districts have typically seen pharmacy and stop-loss savings that contribute to a projected 7–13% reduction in health-plan costs over one to three years.

Rausch described Fleet’s mechanics as a combination of bulk pharmacy contracts, competitive stop‑loss placement, a shared data warehouse and active repricing of pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) contracts. "We reprice annually the pharmacy programs of fleet member districts," he said, and pointed to a prior example in which a district secured roughly $1.1 million a year in pharmacy adjustments after joining. He added that Fleet files statutory compliance reports and operates under procurement pathways noted in state statute (chapter 112.08), which Rausch identified during his presentation.

Board members pressed presenters on the cost to Citrus and the evidence behind the savings projections. Rausch said the district would pay a one‑time participation capitalization fee of $10,000 and a monthly administrative charge of $22.25 per employee on the plan (PEPM) for enrolled employees; those fees, he said, are set by the Fleet membership. "Those rates … are set by the member districts' superintendents that sit on the trust," Rausch said. He also said the quoted 7–13% savings are net of membership costs in the examples Fleet has run.

Several people on the board stressed local factors that could change the outcome for Citrus, including an existing rural-health pharmacy, wellness centers and Citrus’s recent self‑insurance performance. "We can't afford to get this wrong," one board member said, urging extra caution because Citrus’s self‑insurance fund and local programs may alter the expected savings.

Board members and staff discussed next steps rather than taking immediate action. Multiple trustees urged staff to send Fleet’s materials to the district insurance committee for a deeper, district‑specific analysis and to invite Fleet’s analysts and third‑party experts to the committee meeting. Staff and trustees said the insurance committee would aim to meet before the board’s April meeting so any recommendation could be returned to the full board in April.

Votes at a glance: The board adopted an amended agenda that added a legal/attorney item and pulled agenda item 6 (the Genesis Technology amendment); the motion to adopt the amended agenda (moved by Mr. Frank, seconded by Mr. Kennedy) passed 5–0. The board also approved the support and instructional recommendations on the Goldenrod (mover Mr. Kennedy, second Mr. Frank), which passed 5–0. No formal vote was taken on joining Fleet; presenters said Fleet requires a participation agreement and that Fleet will perform a repricing/due‑diligence exercise if Citrus pays the $10,000 participation fee.

What’s next: The board directed staff to place Fleet information before the district’s insurance committee for analysis and to arrange follow‑up briefings with Fleet staff and an independent reviewer; the insurance committee was expected to meet in March or April to prepare a recommendation to the full board.