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PEIA Board Approves Modified Benefit Plan
MetroNews
Charleston, Kanawha County
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The Director of the Public Employees Insurance Agency says the 2012-2013 health care coverage plan for state workers and retirees reflects changes made after a series of public hearings involving state workers and retirees.
"We've probably enhanced about $14 million worth of benefits to citizens of West Virginia through the changes," Ted Cheatham told MetroNews after PEIA's Finance Board approved a revised plan during a Tuesday meeting.
The original proposed coverage plan had included no premium increases, but came with a total of $32 million total in new co-pays and increases to existing co-pays were added along with changes to prescription drug benefits.
The drug changes would have required some state workers and retirees to pay hundreds of dollars more, each year, out of pocket as PEIA officials looked for ways to fill a $42 million deficit.
However, Cheatham says some of those co-pays have now been eliminated and others have been reduced while the drug plans have also been modified. He says the changes will keep costs down for state workers and retirees without putting PEIA in the hole.
"We listened at public hearings. We paid attention. We tried to adjust the plan accordingly," Cheatham said. "So the employees are about $14 million better off coming out of this plan than they were going into (the) public hearings."
Those hearings were held earlier this Fall.
"We did listen to those concerns and try to mitigate what we could to still be fiscally responsible," Cheatham said.
"We really have a difficult job balancing the needs of the state, the needs of the taxpayers and the needs of the employees. It's a very difficult line to walk down."
The revised health benefit plan will take effect on July 1st, 2012.