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District staff detail health-plan choices, pharmacy steps and $1M historical savings versus NYSHIP
Summary
Business office officials said the district's Long Island consortium health plan has historically saved about $1 million per year compared with NYSHIP and described cost controls including higher co-pays for some drugs and a contract with a Canada-based pharmacy service to lower brand-drug expenses.
At the Three Village Central School District budget workshop, board members and officials discussed rising health-insurance costs and steps the district has taken to control them.
Jeff Carlson explained that, historically, the district's self-insured consortium has cost roughly $1 million less per year than the New York State Health Insurance Plan (NYSHIP) for this district's mix of employees and benefits. He said both plans use UnitedHealthcare as an administrator in many categories but that a local consortium can pilot targeted programs more quickly than the larger state plan.
Carlson described recent changes the district made to slow prescription-cost growth, including higher employee co-pays for some pharmaceuticals and a contract with a Canada-based pharmacy service (identified in the meeting as KA RX) that lets members receive certain brand drugs at no co-pay while reducing plan costs.
Board members asked whether NYSHIP or the local consortium is likely to remain cheaper over the long term and what methods each uses to constrain costs (reserves, formularies, plan design). Carlson said the comparison requires a deeper look and offered to provide a side-by-side plan comparison for the board.
A board member also noted that across the last decade the district's plan choices and management produced about $11 million in savings and thanked unions for cooperation on negotiated raises that helped keep salary growth lower than it might otherwise have been.
Officials recommended further analysis of plan design and long-term trends before making any structural change to the district's insurance arrangements.
