The University of Nebraska health care plan is self-supported, and it needs a check-up if it wants to remain well.
On Monday, UNMC employees heard some of the possibilities that lie ahead for the plan.
David Lechner, vice president for business and finance at the University of Nebraska, explained that health-care plan expenses have gone from $38 million in 1994 to $58 million in 2001. Meantime, revenues have fallen below expenses each year since 1996, lowering NU’s health-care trust fund from $28 million in 1996 to $13 million in 2001.
“Our plan is self-supported; it’s not an insured plan,” said Lechner, who spoke to about 50 UNMC employees in the College of Nursing’s Cooper Auditorium. “Blue Cross does nothing more than process paper. Therefore, employees and the university, not Blue Cross/Blue Shield, need to find ways to stop the shortfall trend.”
In recent years, expenses have risen primarily because of usage, not health-care costs, Lechner said. From 1997 to 2001, medical claims increased from $23 million to $38 million, and pharmaceutical costs rose from $7 million to $13 million. Lechner said a substantial amount of money could be saved in pharmacy costs if a concerted effort was made to switch to generic equivalents.
“We, as a group, don’t like generic drugs at all,” Lechner said. “We, like consumers nationwide, want the ones we see on television.”
To examine the structure of the university’s health insurance plan, President L. Dennis Smith, Ph.D., formed the NU Health Care Advisory Committee. Lechner led the committee, which included Don Leuenberger and John Russell from UNMC.
An actuarial firm was hired to look at setting health-care prices, Lechner said, and it concluded that groups within the NU health plan were improperly priced; basic, low and high coverage categories were improperly priced; and that the university needed to maintain its trust reserves. The firm also suggested some changes in the design elements of the NU plan.
Hence, the advisory committee has recommended changes to the NU plan. Design changes would need approval from the NU President’s Council, of which UNMC Chancellor Harold M. Maurer, M.D., is a member.
Among the recommended changes:
- Retirees, because of their different usage patterns, will have a separate rating than active employees.
- Employees/spouse and parent/child each will have its own category. Parent/child participants typically have lower usage of the university health-care plan than employee/spouse participants.
- Ratings will be based on national actuarial data and past experience of the plan.
- NU Credits will not be paid in cash.
- An annual communication plan would be developed to apprise faculty and staff regularly of plan changes and status.
Employees can review the guidelines that the advisory committee has put forth at: www.uneb.edu/Employees/benefits.html. With specific questions regarding the current health insurance plan, contact the campus benefits office at 559-4340 or benefits@unmc.edu.
Photo: David Lechner talks about NU’s Health Plan.