4-19-2006

Staff Assembly MeetingMinutes

Wednesday, April 19

Members Present:  Shelly Daugherty, RickSmith, Connie Hickman, Marcia Bertholf, Mary Beth Charleboix,Crystal Roberg, Mike Rorholm, Angela Ruff

The Staff Assembly Executive Council metin special session with Debbie Cerenzia and Ron Prindle from theBenefits Office.  Debbie gave a presentation on the challenges and opportunities weface in trying to keep Health benefits for Gonzaga employeescomprehensive yet affordable.  Highlights of thepresentation included:

  • The rise in health care premiumshas become a national dilemma.  This increase is far morethan the rise in worker’s earnings and overallinflation.
  • While monthly premiums for GUemployees have increased for the past 6 years, comparatively we aredoing a very good job of keeping the increases at aminimum.
  • Gonzaga’s Health Care plan is“self-funded”.  Ourexpenses come from three areas
    • Health care claims
    • Pay Premera to administerclaims
    • Stop Loss Insurance
  • Preventive/Strategic Planningincludes adding additional Health Risk Management programs(without increasing cost to the employee).  The result wouldbe: 
    • Improved employees (anddependents) health
    • Reduced Claims cost – lower HealthInsurance premiums
    • Reduced absenteeism
    • Improved Employee Engagement atWork
  • The Benefits Office was able toadd several enhancements to our Employees Health care benefitsduring 2004-2006 including
    • ZAGFIT
    • HRA
    • Plan design changes giving 100%preventive on medical and dental
    • Integrated Health Benefits CostsMessages (Annual Statement, Newsletters, Group and Departmentmeetings)
    • Employee AssistanceProgram
    • Increased Wellness committeefocus
    • Rudolf Fitness Center – free to employees
  • Current goals include findingcreative ways to manage risks, thus managing costs(HRM)
    • Increased participation in theHealth Risk Assessment.  Right now participation isonly 25%.  Need to usecreative incentives to increase participation.  Need 40% for measurableresults.
    • Coaching
    • Disease Managementprogram 

Summary:  By taking a realistic andpro-active approach to managing health care and the associatedcosts, which are predicted to continue to rise dramatically, we canaccomplish several good things including:

  • Improved personalhealth
  • Improved wellness as acommunity
  • We put ourselves in a betterposition to be able to bargain with future health carevendors.
  • By managing our health care andthe associated costs we have more options open to us in thefuture.  

If you have any questions regardingHealth Care benefits or participation in the Health Risk Assessmentplease don’t hesitate to contact Debbie or Ron in the BenefitsOffice.