The inevitable impact of changes in UNM employee health insurance on faculty and staff members was the focus of discussion during a town hall meeting on campus Tuesday.
Susan Carkeek, associate vice president of Human Resources, outlined four insurance plans that will be reviewed by different University committees before President Bill Gordon chooses one.
"Any kind of change of this magnitude would create a fair amount of disruption and communication issues and other consequences that would come around from making such a radical change in our insurance program," she said.
Another downside Carkeek mentioned was that premiums are likely to increase by double digits regardless of which plan the University selects.
"We are considered a fairly sophisticated health consumer," she said. "We are using more benefits than we pay in premiums."
Carkeek said rates went up more than 15 percent last year and that she expects the same or more this year
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The four plans include the current configuration of three Health Maintenance Organization options and one Preferred Provider Organization; a dual option only plan; a dual option plan with an HMO option; and a core medical option that would provide one health insurance plan for all employees.
Carkeek said the core medical option is not possible because of a state statute instituted in 1978 that freezes employer contribution.
She added that she had high hopes for changing the statute with the new governor who will be in office next year, but even that change would eventually bring a new round of controversy and University discussion.
Carkeek told the crowd of about 50 that with the main HMO options, Lovelace Hospital and Presbyterian Hospital, the employee does not have the choice to follow doctors if they leave their organizations. Many faculty and staff members raised concerns that if the University switches from three HMOs to two with the combination dual option plan, employees will lose doctors they had under a previous HMO.
Carkeek said the dual option and combination dual option plans include the "out of network" benefit that will allow employees to stay with one primary care physician, even if the doctor leaves an organization.
In addition, she said, one of the considerations is keeping a broad panel of doctors under each plan that employees can access. Carkeek said negotiating power will increase and the "out of network" benefit is expected to cost less than the current PPO carrier under the dual option and combination dual option plans.
Other staff and faculty expressed approval with the new options, despite any upheaval it would cause.
John Marr, a library information specialist, said the combination dual option plan offered a very attractive feature by allowing employees to see an "out of network" doctor on one occasion and an HMO doctor on another.
"It's a good benefit and useful to have," he said.
Carkeek said the University should receive the health insurance bids by January, a Bid Review Committee will make recommendations in February and a decision will be announced in March.
