ST. JOHN | Insurance benefits for Lake Central School Corp. employees will change on Jan. 1, and out-of-pocket costs will increase.
At last week's School Board meeting, Superintendent Larry Veracco reviewed the changes worked out by the employee benefits committee.
“We are faced with an 8 percent increase in health care costs,” he told the board.
The employee benefits committee helped create the changes in employee costs that will allow the school district to keep “the very high quality insurance we offer our employees,” Veracco said.
This committee includes representatives from each of the district’s 10 schools and meets monthly as a subcommittee of the negotiating team to address changes and improvements to the corporation health plan, he said.
Lake Central School Corp. provides Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield health insurance for full-time employees. The corporation also offers Anthem Dental Blue 200 and Anthem Blue View Vision.
Employees will pay an additional $260 annually in health insurance premiums. There’s no change in employee contributions for dental or vision insurance for those who are enrolled in the employee plus children plus spouse or family health insurance plans.
Out-of-pocket deductible costs will also go up from $700 to $1,000, Veracco said.
Those employees who choose to use out-of-network health care providers will have between 20 to 50 percent of their costs covered by the insurance plan, he said
Prescription co-pays will include up to $10 per generic prescription. There will also be a $100 deductible for nongeneric medications.
The School Board contributes $7,904 toward the individual cost of the health care plan for each teacher who elects a single plan.
In August, the board began contributing an additional $2,000 for a total of $9,904 toward premiums for those with employee/children, employee/spouse and the family plans.
This added $2,000 replaces the credit formerly given to family plan members, Veracco said.
In addition, the School Board provides $50,000 in life insurance for each teacher.
Veracco said the district will need to begin making plans for the federal Affordable Health Care Act that takes effect in January 2014.
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