MANSFIELD — Employees of Mansfield City Schools will experience a slight change with their health insurance, starting next year.
During a special meeting on Tuesday evening, the Mansfield Board of Education authorized the district to enter into a contract directly with Medical Mutual of Ohio for medical, dental and pharmacy coverage.
This means the district will withdraw from participation in the Ohio School Benefits Cooperative.
The district will also purchase stop-loss insurance through Voya Employee Benefits via the Central Ohio School Stop-Loss Organization. Changes will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2019.
“Medical Mutual just plans on scraping your group number and moving everybody over,” said Maggie Neely, area vice president at Gallagher Benefit Services. The Medical Mutual group number will remain the same, and new cards will be issued to reflect the enhancement of Medical Mutual’s national network.
Mansfield City Schools has been with Medical Mutual for approximately 20 years, but has participated in the Ohio School Benefits Cooperative (OSBC) since 2013.
With this change, the district will still be with Medical Mutual, but will purchase insurance directly through Medical Mutual, instead of going through the OSBC as the middle man.
From a cost perspective, withdrawing from the OSBC has the potential to save the district around $450,000 in fees, stop-loss rates and pharmacy rebate credits. Preventative coverage is at $8 currently. Benefits will now follow the Affordable Care Act, so preventative benefits will now be at no cost to the members.
Neely said a team called “Explain My Benefits” will sit down with Mansfield City Schools employees to walk them through the new system on an individual basis.
“They’ll have someone sitting next to them explaining what everything is point by point,” Neely said. “We’ll also set up a kiosk in subsequent years to explain benefits and products for those who would like assistance.”
For the average district employee, everything will stay the same. However, the board acknowledged there may be some anxiety around the transition.
“We need to be really sensitive to the concerns and fears of the employees,” said board President Judy Forney. “There are a lot of changes, and for some people change is a little scary. All of us are going to have to be patient.”
