RW School Employee Health Care Costs Rising

Employee benefit obligations are rising at the , possibly to the tune of $1.4 million, officials said Monday night.

before final board approval in late March, Assistant Superintendent for Business Angelo DeSimone broke down some of the largest non-salary costs to taxpayers.

According to DeSimone, employee benefits are projected to hit $13.4 million in 2012-2013, about $1.4 million more than the current budget year, a nearly 11 percent clip.

Officials identified one large culprit, too.

Pointing to the spreadsheet, Desimone said: "That is the value of the health claims that we have anticipated in this year and based on our experience – which is not good – we're expecting that the health claims will go up 20 percent next year."

The numbers jumped from $8.8 million in claims in 2011-2012 to a projected $10.6 million in 2012-2013.

Answering a question from member Vince Loncto, DeSimone said claims are factored in weekly and at this time last year, there were far fewer claims.

As of Monday, current claims now are already 10 percent higher that last year's rate, DeSimone said. With half the school year still remaining, DeSimone is assuming a final tally of around 20 percent.

Though the district is not legally able to look at each employee's claims, DeSimone said the district is meeting with Cigna [the healthcare provider] to understand some of the root causes for higher rate of claims. 

"It could be a higher utilization of out of network...it could be we also had more catastrophic situations," he said.

Higher health care costs are somewhat buoyed by state laws passed that require employees contribute more to their pension and benefit plans. That figure this year will likely increase by $600,000 in 2012-2013, to $1.4 million, DeSimone said.

Most of the other budget lines discussed Monday night were projeted to increase by 2 percent, a fairly standard yearly increase, DeSimone said.