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By KELLY RYAN
© St. Petersburg Times, published September 8, 2001
LARGO -- Parents from Azalea Middle School have complained to the state Department of Insurance that the Pinellas County School Board's policy requiring student athletes to have a particular kind of accident insurance is unfair and possibly illegal.
For almost 10 years, the district has required students who participate in extracurricular activities to purchase accident insurance through a company the district selects. Even families with their own health insurance have to purchase a student accident policy through the district.
The rationale? That the district can't be sure that a family's private coverage will last through the entire school year unless the coverage comes from a district-approved policy.
Robert and Susan Bryant don't buy that.
They have told the state that they shouldn't have to buy extra insurance for their seventh-grade son to play basketball when the family already pays for medical insurance. They think the district is violating state insurance laws by requiring coverage from a certain company and not providing the option for a waiver from the requirement.
"They can require us to have insurance," said Robert Bryant, who works for an insurance company. "But there's not a choice between companies. There's not an option to purchase private insurance, and there's not an option to prove that you already have insurance."
Late Friday, School Board attorney John Bowen said a phone call from state insurance officials confirmed for him that the policy is appropriate. The state regulates insurance companies, not school districts, the state told Pinellas' Risk Management Department.
Bowen also cited a state statute that allows a district School Board to find some way to insure student athletes against injury. Unless someone comes forward with a more compelling reason that the policy is wrong, he said, he won't recommend that the School Board change it.
"It's not of concern to the Insurance Department," Bowen said. "Likewise, it's not a concern to me."
Bryant is standing firm. He said that a compliance officer with the state told him Pinellas' requirement, and the sole-source insurance policy, is illegal and that the state will investigate the insurance company and counties that have similar policies, including Hillsborough.
If Pinellas won't budge, he and his wife will file a lawsuit against the district.
Whether the policy is appropriate or not, it raises a philosophical question: Why require students who participate in extracurricular activities to have insurance at all?
"The last thing we want to see is for the student to be hurt on the field," said district spokesman Ron Stone. "To have the family have this kind of a policy at least provides a safety net for every parent."
Bowen said the insurance requirement makes financial sense, too.
It was approved in May 1992, after the district noticed an increasing number of families who said they were insured but were actually not because they had lied or because it had lapsed. When their children were injured on a sports field, they filed a claim against the school district for help with medical bills.
Then when the district would not pay unless negligence was proved, the district often got sued. Though the families rarely, if ever, prevailed in the suits, it was a nuisance for the district, so it selected an insurance provider and required students to use it to reduce the number of claims.
One year after the policy was put into place, officials said at the time, the number of claims related to extracurricular activities dropped by half.
"It doesn't relieve us from liability if we're negligent," Bowen said. "But sometimes even when we're not, if there's no insurance, they sue anyway because there's nowhere else to go but us."
The policy caused an uproar in the year after it was passed. But public discussion about it has mostly subsided.
The district finds the insurance provider through a competitive bidding process. The company that provides the insurance is the MEGA Life and Health Insurance Company. For most students, the policy costs about $7 a year and provides $25,000 worth of coverage. The higher risk of injury makes the policy cost between $66 and $79 for varsity football players.
While his battle continues with Pinellas schools, Bryant said he will pay $6 for his son to have the required coverage so he doesn't have to sit out the hoops season.
"It's not his fault," Bryant said.