EVSC School Board Hears Proposal to Establish Employee Health Clinics

Two employee health clinics may soon be established following a proposal presented to the Evansville Vanderburgh School Corporation Board of School Trustees tonight.

The clinics, which will be free to be used by eligible employees and their covered family members, will be a cost savings for those employees and ultimately the EVSC, as well as providing the opportunity to improve the quality of employees’ overall health and well-being.  This is one part of an ongoing effort by the EVSC. Past actions have included wellness consultants and revised insurance plans which slowed the upward trajectory of the cost of insurance that is occurring in the EVSC, as well as across the United States.  An added benefit of cost control will be the ability to reallocate compensation from health insurance to wages, while still providing affordable options for high quality healthcare.

For example, a 1% increase in wages for all EVSC employees would total about $1.5 million.  The increase in insurance costs for this school year totaled $3.5 million. If the EVSC had not seen that spike, that funding could have been used for a wage increase.

In 2008, the EVSC’s medical plan total cost was $30 million. Since that time, EVSC has undertaken several cost-savings measures including changing healthcare insurance plan designs, negotiating new cost-containment increases and incorporating wellness initiatives to help employees be as healthy as they can. In 2012, the EVSC spent $26.5 million on healthcare insurance.  “Naturally, despite all the changes we have already made, if we don’t change our framework – it would be difficult to imagine a time when our employees could receive increases in their wages. Not only is that model not sustainable, but it is not good for our employees,” said Superintendent David Smith.

“I applaud the Board’s vision and pro-active stance for providing health care coverage for our employees,” Smith said when addressing the board during the meeting tonight.   “Because of this paradigm shift, I firmly believe you are positioning our corporation to provide not only better access to health care, but we are also establishing a protocol that will control and contain the cost of this very expensive benefit afforded to our employees.”

Because of the continuous climb of healthcare costs across the nation, the EVSC has continued to look for additional ways in which to save money for the corporation and its employees. The healthcare clinics are part of an overall strategy to help in this endeavor.  Through Old National Insurance, which provides comprehensive consulting services to EVSC for life, long term disability, dental, vision and medical plan benefits, requests for proposals were solicited and the committee of EVSC employees investigating options is recommending Tri-State Community Clinics as the proposed provider for the two health clinics.

EVSC’s average health plan cost per employee has grown at a rate much less than the rest of the state, through the active work of the corporation and Old National Insurance.

Supt. Smith said that EVSC employees currently have access to one health insurance plan design.  “One of the benefits of a health clinic is that it incentivizes employees to be better healthcare consumers.  Studies have shown that when employees have a choice in healthcare designs in conjunction with a healthcare clinic – they choose the design that best fits their family needs, which may be at a lesser cost to them and to their employer,” he added.

Services to be provided for employees covered by the EVSC health plan include those that are normally provided in a primary care setting and the healthcare providers will have the ability to retrieve electronic medical records for all patients. All primary care services, laboratory services, as well as basic maintenance and antibiotic prescriptions will be provided at no cost to the covered employee or covered family member.  The clinic will also have a wellness component through Deaconess LifeQuest to help employees make healthy lifestyle choices. The proposal calls for a 24-hour call-in line for any health questions and wellness visits by nurses throughout the EVSC, as well.

The contract is still undergoing some revision and locations for the clinics have not yet been selected, although it is known that the clinics will not be located in any EVSC schools.