The Labor-Management Committee met yesterday to go over insurance coverage for all the library's insured employees (bargaining unit, confidential, and management). The meeting began with a review of health insurance claims. Last year was not kind to us as an insurable group.
The chart below shows the dollar value of claims filed by members of our insured group over the past four years. It shows that the total dollar cost of our claims has doubled over that period.
This chart further shows an increase of more than 30% in medical and pharmaceutical claims between 2006 and 2007.
Here's a short breakdown of the data:
Health claims for the renewal period totaled $2,312,466 - up 31.5% from prior year
Medical claims were up by 38%
Pharmacy claims rose by 10.8%
Average monthly membership rose 7.2% (from 494 to 529)
Claims per member per month totaled $364.07, up 22.6%
58 claims over $10,000 were filed for members or dependents (7 of these were for over $50,000, with the largest at $239,943)
Of course, the immediate question asked in the meeting was "what will happen to the cost of our health insurance?" The obvious answer is that if costs increase by 31%, then the cost of the insurance will also increase. The LMC is looking for options to keep people's medical costs as affordable as possible. It's a very complicated and difficult process.
We asked the insurance representatives to come back to us with a wider range of options, and we're working hard to balance affordability and coverage. We'll keep you informed as the process moves forward.
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