It’s no secret that health-care costs make up a large portion of school budgets, and the problem can sometimes be that district officials do not have the time to look into what packages would be most cost effective.
Now, Capital Region BOCES is spearheading a program that would help advise school districts about the best health-care programs for them. The project is being led by South Colonie School Board Member Robert Domenici, who is acting as a part-time president of the project, BOCES Assistant Superintendent for Management Services Mark Jones, and Dana Piazza, who Domenici said plays the role of an insurance expert.
Essentially what this is, it’s a not-for-profit initiative made by the BOCES Board of Education to help school districts manage their health care, Jones said. `The initiative is really to gain better management and control over those costs and, ultimately, reduce the costs of government.`
Throughout the school year, districts are constantly trying to control costs, save money and modify the budget as time goes on. Jones said something as complex as the health-care system is hard for the district to invest a lot of time in researching even though the benefits packages continue to increase in cost. He said the purpose of this program is to help alleviate those costs.
Piazza, who is acting as the benefits administrator for the operation, said BOCES can act as a neutral party and discuss packages with various health-care vendors, as well as experts in the industry, to plan out what the best options are.
`When we come up with those types of ideas, we can share them across the continuum of districts that are having the same problem,` she said. `It’s sort of a no-brainer that if you have somebody looking at this [health care] and nothing else, you’ll get to a solution, or at least an idea or concept that you can provide to people as a potential solution.`
BOCES officials have been working on this program over the past year, said Jones. Domenici said they wanted to have all the legal entities in place and a clear vision of what they wanted.
With everything being done on a 12-month cycle in the public sector, Jones said, they were trying to keep ahead of that and looking for more long-term solutions instead of quick fixes.
`It’s about the much longer term gains within a better management system,` he said. `This is an investment in a way to manage differently.`
There are some problems working in the public sector, Piazza said, since their program might be working on a different timeline then some of the health-care vendors. She said they are trying to develop a better game plan with the vendors so they can know where BOCES’ budget should be and what the rates are so they can produce a better budget.
`There’s another avenue we’re trying to pursue, and that is aligning our schedules and calendars to get to better and more accurate forecasting,` Piazza said.
Jones said they hope to also bring the unions to the discussion, along with the districts and health-care vendors. The best way for that to happen is using best practice health insurance committees. This would allow labor unions and district management to discuss what the issues are, as well as how the health-care system works.
Domenici said the program will also help districts look into things they don’t need that are generally included in medical packages.
`In there, they’ll stack it with everything they can think of because it makes an added value,` he said. `What they’re doing is educating them and saying, ‘You’ll never use this, no one in your system is using this and so why are you paying for that benefit,’ and tailoring the medical packages so they fit the base you’re trying to support.`
BOCES is looking to develop a Web site that would have some of the educational materials online, Piazza said. They are also going to try to improve the different data that is being reported through the health insurance committees. This would allow districts a chance to hear what options are available to them and make a collaborative decision with the unions.
She said they will also be looking for experts in the health insurance industry that could bring their skills from the private sector into the public sector.
`We want to try and bridge those relationships much more and take advantage of the expertise we’re very fortunate to have in this region through four major carriers,` she said.
There are currently five districts in the area that have already expressed interest in being a part of this project, Jones said.
Piazza said getting a program like this off the ground takes time.
`We have multiple years behind us of not doing everything the way we could have,` Piazza said. `And we have to go in stages to get people where they need to be. We’re behind what the industry offers, we’re behind the private sector. There’s lots of attention and information out there in the country all the time with what’s going on in healthcare. But until you take the time and sit down on a district or municipality specific basis, folks don’t have a chance to learn and ask questions and apply relative thinking to how it can help them.“
