MSU discusses options to cut faculty health care costs

Ideas to reduce the MSU’s faculty health care costs by nearly $11 million were presented at Tuesday’s Faculty Council meeting as part of what could be years of changes to the university’s current system.

A switch from current health care provider Physicians Health Plan, or PHP, to Blue Care Network, preservation of Community Blue as a health care option and creation of an MSU-provided health care option were among the faculty health care recommendations presented at the meeting.

The changes likely are some of the biggest health care decisions to happen at the same time, said Howard Hughes, chairman of the Executive Committee of Academic Council, or ECAC.

“The insurance program at MSU is under a lot of strain,” he said. “Compared to a lot of other places, it’s still pretty good and there’s a strong commitment from upper administration to maintain that some way or another; trying to reduce the cost of it and keep the coverage in effect.”

The proposed changes are expected to lead to a 10 percent reduction in health care costs for the university, UCFA chairwoman Deborah Moriarty said at Tuesday’s meeting. The university spends about $110 million per year on health care.

Changes are expected to be implemented during the next few years, with the first — the generic prescribing program — going into full effect in March. Some faculty members already have begun switching to generic drugs, Moriarty said in the meeting.

Under the UCFA recommendations, an MSU-provided health care program possibly would be established in July 2011 and eventually serve as the predominant base care option. The clinic, which would be the first to launch at a university, could eventually replace the Blue Care Network, Moriarty said at the meeting.

“This would be a major, major step and a place where MSU could be a major leader,” she said. “It has the potential to be terrific.”

UCFA is continuing to work on the program and plans to discuss it at a Friday health care committee meeting, Moriarty said. John Powell, an at-large ECAC member and former UCFA chairman, said the committee is looking at models from other institutions to create something that could suit a university setting.

Moriarty said the committee is continuing to explore other possibilities. According to the recommendations, the committee plans to stimulate campuswide discussion about the benefits of making MSU smoke free.

“These recommendations are only the beginning,” she said. “UCFA has been in the business since 2006 and will probably be in it for a long time.”

ECAC Vice Chairman Robert Maleczka said the changes could be noticed by many faculty members as they begin to go through the Academic Governance system. Physicians within the immediate area near MSU will be part of the Blue Care Network, but it is possible the physician of a faculty member who lives farther away might not be part of the network, he said.

“Things have been changing really since I’ve been here, since 1995, so health care’s a dynamic thing,” he said. “Plans have always been modified from time to time. I think this is a big one in part because of, at least as I understand it, just moving away from PHP.”

John Molloy, a journalism professor, said he has heard rumors of health care changes but has yet to hear anything definitive.

“Until I see something in writing about what the changes are, it’s difficult to react to it,” he said. “They’ve presented their recommendations, but we don’t know about them.”