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JEFFREY S. SOLOCHEKThe School Board approves spending $84,064 to cover fees long overdue to Hernando Healthcare.
BROOKSVILLE - Dead and buried two years, the school district's defunct self-funded health insurance program continues to cost taxpayers money.
The School Board approved an $84,064 payment on Tuesday to cover fees long overdue to Hernando Healthcare, which runs Brooksville Regional and Spring Hill Regional hospitals. That amount, agreed upon by school and hospital officials, is 40 percent of the total owed.
A handful of smaller claims remain unsettled, with negotiations ongoing, district finance director Carol MacLeod said.
The outstanding charges remain in limbo, MacLeod explained, because the district's former third-party insurance administrator disputed whether they were filed before the deadline to make claims under the old policy. Providers were given 60 to 90 days to seek payment after the self-insurance program expired, she said.
Board member Robert Wiggins asked whether the district was seeking reimbursement from the administrator, Robey Barber/CSBA, for these charges. The payment covers a portion of the discount the district would have received if Robey Barber/CSBA had paid the claims within 30 days of being completed.
Karen Gaffney, the board's lawyer, said the administration is reviewing the paper trail that would show whether the claims were filed and paid in a timely fashion. Troubles have arisen, she said, because the administrator has not provided all the necessary documents to the district.
Hernando Healthcare chief executive Tom Barb said his company has offered to help the district pursue repayment from Robey Barber/CSBA. He said the hospitals frequently were not paid on time, and the payments were not always accurate.
Hernando Healthcare agreed to accept a percentage of what it was owed, Barb said, because something is better than nothing. He termed the settlement "fair."
"We try not to sue our neighbors," Barb said. "We convinced our company (the deal) was good for our community and it was good for us."
The school district turned to a self-insurance program in the late 1990s amid employee complaints that the existing insurance was delaying payments, and often not paying claims at all. Robey Barber/CSBA was brought in to help the district secure the best deals with health care providers, and to pay the bills.
Over time, the self-insurance program became a big money loser. The board was forced to dip into its operating budget to cover a deficit of about $3-million. Officials said the system devastated district finances, and blamed it for the board's inability to better pay employees.
The current payments represent the final remnant of the old program, which was replaced by BlueCross BlueShield in 2001, MacLeod said. She said the district included the money in its 2002-03 budget, and the current year financial plan should not be affected.
- Information from Times files was used in this story.