[Vision2020] ID Public Records Law: UI Health Insurance

[Rosemary]

Visionaries:

 

Saundra has succinctly outlined the issues that concern us regarding health
insurance at the University of Idaho. When Saundra explained to me the
difference in premium cost between the UI and other higher education
institutions in this state I was appalled.  We have all watched in dismay as
the University of Idaho suffered because of the poor, indeed criminal,
leadership decisions in the last decade.  Sure, some of the jackasses
responsible have sauntered into the sunset - or in Bob Hoover's case
inexplicably into a better paying position at a private college in the state
- without a backward glance or guilty twinge at the carnage they created and
then happily left behind. Not all the miscreants vanished in 2003. So,
naturally, when I learned that the premiums paid by UI employees for health
insurance coverage go into a pool called the Health Benefits Trust with sole
oversight under the direction of four UI employees, I get a sinking feeling.


 

"11. HEALTH INSURANCE PLAN AND HEALTH BENEFITS TRUST Any person with a sense
UI history should hear the bells ringing like a four alarm fire when they
learn:

 

The University of Idaho ("University") is self-insured for the health
insurance benefits it provides to employees and retirees. In June, 2007, the
University established an affiliated but independent trust for the purpose
of funding and paying its medical, mental health, dental and vision claims
and their

associated administrative costs under its health insurance plan for both
active and retired employees. This trust, known as the University of Idaho
Health Benefits Trust ("HBT"), was established as a tax-exempt entity under
Section 115(1) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended. TheHBT is
administered by a board of four trustees who are members of the University's
active staffand faculty. The HBT is maintained in an independent trust
account established with U.S. Bank.

This trust account is maintained under the sole control of the HBT board of
trustees."

 

and

 

 "NOTES TO FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

JUNE 30, 2008 AND 2007

Payments under the HBT are initiated via electronic request by University
personnel on a weekly basis based upon processed claim information provided
to the University by its contracted health plan claim administrators. All
retiree-related costs incurred on an annual basis within the HBT apply
toward the calculation of the University's Annual Required Contribution
("ARC") as determined under the requirements of Governmental Accounting
Standard Board Statement 45, "Accounting and

Financial Reporting by Employers for Postemployment Benefits Other Than
Pensions." The funding of the University's liability under GASB 45 is
recorded separately from the HBT under a second trust, the "University of
Idaho Retiree Benefits Trust" as disclosed in Footnote 13 of these financial
statements.  The HBT does not issue a publicly available financial report."

 

http://www.uihome.uidaho.edu/documents/UI%202008%20Audited%20Financial%20Sta
tements.pdf?pid=111453
<http://www.uihome.uidaho.edu/documents/UI%202008%20Audited%20Financial%20St
atements.pdf?pid=111453&doc=1> &doc=1

 

 

I sent a public records request to the UI asking who these anonymous but
strangely powerful trustees were and how they were chosen to serve.  After
ten working days I received their names but my question on how they were
appointed was ignored, and remains unanswered.  It is personally astonishing
to me that letters to Dr. Nellis aren't acknowledged. The most minimally
efficient office establishes that routine protocol early on; even elected
officials in Idaho have mastered the art of pretending to be interested in
constituents.  While the effects of an efficient smooze technique are lost
on the two of us, what isn't lost is our interest in unwrapping the story of
how and why UI employees pay more for less insurance.  We'll follow the
money and let you all know how we are progressing.  And, not surprisingly,
we'll call bull shit whenever we smell it.

 

Rose Huskey  

 

 

 

 

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