Health Insurance - Welcome
Bucks Montgomery County Schools Healthcare Consortium
The District participates in the Bucks Montgomery County Schools Healthcare Consortium, a management-labor consortium of schools and entities which have joined together in a unique self-funded arrangement as a large group purchaser of medical insurance, prescription drugs and other employee benefits. The purpose of the arrangement is for consortium members to group together to get the best price possible for health care and employee benefits while also focusing on collectively improving employee health and wellness, potentially leading to even greater cost savings.
Website info: http://www.bmshc.org/
Trustees:
- Felicity Hanks, Management Trustee
- Chris Sterman, Labor Trustee
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Important Reminders:
Pay attention to costs, they impact premium rates: There is a misconception that the cost for your medical services beyond your co-pay is the responsibility of the insurance company. It is not. We are self-funded. When we overpay for services, we are costing ourselves more money through increasing premium costs. Keeping costs down without impacting quality services will help lower costs for us all. Explore ways you can continue to get high quality care at a fair cost through Healthcare Bluebook.
Adding/deleting family members or making changes to your plan: Changes may only be made to insurance coverage during open enrollment unless there is a qualifying life event (such as birth of child, marriage, divorce, loss of other insurance coverage, eligibility for new insurance coverage, etc.). Changes due to a life event must be made within 30 days or you will have to wait for the next open enrollment period. For example, if you get married, you have 30 days to add your spouse to the insurance plan or you lose the opportunity to do so until open enrollment. Please pay attention to these timelines.
Removing ineligible people: Persons who are no longer eligible to be covered under a district plan must be removed promptly. For example, if you have become divorced and your former spouse was covered under our plan you must notify HR right away so that person’s coverage can be removed. If you fail to do so, you will be charged the full premium cost (not just the employee contribution amount) for maintaining that coverage.
Responsibility for Premium Contributions during an unpaid leave: All employees who wish to remain on District plans must contribute their share of the premium cost each month. Those contributions are typically made through payroll. If you are on an unpaid leave of any kind or on workers’ comp. leave, you remain responsible to make those payments even though you aren’t receiving a District paycheck. Please make sure you contact HR to make those payments. Failure to do so may result in your removal from the insurance plan.
Questions regarding medical benefits should be directed to Elizabeth Jones, Benefits Secretary at Ext. 4001.