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Teacher tells board she faced months of billing fights with Meritaine administrator
Summary
A Wilson County teacher described repeated billing errors, unpaid balances and poor customer service from the district's health-plan administrator, urging the board to consider employees' experiences when evaluating a move to the state plan.
Cynthia Osborne, a Wilson County teacher, used her allotted three minutes during the public-comment portion to describe recurring difficulties obtaining coverage and cost-sharing for cancer treatment and related services under the district's administrator, Meritaine.
Osborne said she spent hours on the phone trying to resolve monthly co-pays that reached thousands of dollars and that Vanderbilt specialists told her the insurer had left "over $20,000 of unpaid medical debt" with the hospital. Quoting a Vanderbilt physician, she read from an email: "I am astounded at how obtuse your insurance company is being." She also said a provider list the administrator supplied did not include clinics that provide wig services, forcing her to seek out-of-network care that the plan would not cover.
Board members and the chair expressed sympathy and said staff would follow up to see whether the district could help Ms. Osborne get answers. The comment framed several board questions during the workshop about customer service, dedicated state-plan service lines, and how difficulties with the current administrator factor into the district's evaluation of alternatives.
