A lot of people wonder how the health insurance at Mineral County School District is selected. We are all lead to believe that the committee makes the decisions and that Hope Blinco is just an ominous figure behind the curtain. Nothing could be further from the truth.
What a lot of people don’t realize is that Hope Blinco is often the one that is pulling the strings on the Andre Ponder puppet. You see there is a very good reason that Mineral County School District is one of the few places with a HRA plan. The reason for that may surprise you.
The reason the HRA plan remains such a strong option is because Hope Blinco says so. The HRA plan is actually quite terrible for the employee and the employer. It is terrible for the employee because the money belongs to the district, so if don’t use it and leave you lose it. The consequence to staff is when people know they are going to leave the draw down every dime in medical expenses that they can. Every time that happens, it is basically driving up the insurance premium cost because of the utilization.
It is also terrible for the employee because what most people don’t realize is the fact that because the HRA isn’t your money, it generates a bill. The bill lets Hope Blinco know when there are medical expenses incurred on it, often giving her insight into who may be ill, or having medical concerns. If you call out frequently, it allows Hope Blinco to see if there is any amount billed to the HRA for the employee to see if they are seeking medical care. This was the reason I didn’t want anything to do with an HRA. I didn’t want the HR Hooligan snooping into my insurance utilization.
The reason the HRA is terrible for the district is because the bill is only due when used. That makes it nearly impossible to budget the health insurance completely accurately. One HRA bill may be a few thousand and another may be ten thousand. The post usage billing also makes the $1,000 ineligible for grants because coding the cost to the grants would be quite cumbersome. It makes billing that $1,000 to the sites impossible for the same reason.
I know people will think well Hope Blinco says the HRA is fronted money so better option if need that by design. That is by her design, not the HSA. The school could load the 1k in about any increment and period whether it be annually, quarterly, semi-annual, or monthly. She chooses the monthly way to make it less attractive and to ensure that nobody “gets away” with the HSA money because that would be theirs to keep if they quit.
I actually tried to discontinue the HRA and buy out the money into the HSA and Hope Blinco melted down because how dare I make the money theirs to keep should they quit. I never had any health plan btw so I would have gained $0. I wanted to buy out the HRA into the HSA because that would put the employees in charge of the money and let them keep it if they quit. That would be extremely helpful for people nearing retirement, or might need COBRA coverage as the HSA allows usage for that instead of just seeing the money go up in smoke.
What is even worse is once she shoves people into the HRA, the way it is now, they are basically trapped in it. If switch to HSA down the road, lose the HRA money that may have accumulated. All the more reason to buy it out and go to the plan that almost every other employer uses.
If anyone is on the insurance committee, I would recommend pushing for a buy out of the HRA into the HSA. Why should Hope Blinco get to see staff utilization and then heist what is rightfully yours should you quit? Her system penalizes people for being responsible, and penalizes everyone because encourages high utilization before people leave.