University Times

The price that employees pay for Pitt health insurance won't increase for the two managed care plans to be offered here beginning July 1.

But employees will pay more for Comprehensive (deductible) plan coverage. Monthly rates for Comprehensive will increase from $23 to $59 for individuals, from $95 to $175 for parent/children coverage, from $124 to $215 for husband/wife coverage, and from $174 to $273 for family coverage.

The University recently signed a three-year deal making UPMC Health Plan the sole provider of medical insurance for Pitt employees.

Pitt dropped Highmark Blue Cross/Blue Shield, which had insisted on a 23 percent rate hike and a one-year contract.

UPMC Health Plan will offer three options, beginning July 1 (the start of Pitt's fiscal year) and continuing for three years:

* Comprehensive, which replaces the Highmark comprehensive plan that had been available to Pitt employees.

* A Point-of-Service plan, which replaces Highmark's SelectBlue plan.

* An "Enhanced Access" HMO. It's the same HMO that UPMC Health Plan has offered to Pitt employees for the last two years. Highmark's Keystone HMO (which featured the same benefits and employee costs as UPMC's HMO) will be eliminated. Currently, about 2,200 faculty and staff are enrolled in UPMC's HMO, said James W. Edgerton, Pitt assistant vice chancellor for Compensation and Benefits.

The University will continue to pay the full cost of HMO coverage for individuals. Under all of the other coverage options that Pitt will offer beginning in July, employees will pay some share of the total costs. Those employee contributions will range from $31 to $273 per month.

For the schedule of employee and University contributions under each plan, see chart.

Pitt's Human Resources office will mail more detailed benefits information to employees soon, including a statement of Pitt benefits currently received by the employee.

Of approximately 8,500 Pitt employees, 1,000 opt out of the University's health plans because they receive coverage elsewhere — through their spouses' health insurance, for example.

All employees who use Pitt health insurance, not just those currently enrolled in Highmark, will have to fill out forms indicating their insurance choices during the open enrollment period from March 20 through May 26.

That includes employees now enrolled in the UPMC Health Plan HMO who simply want to remain in it. Such employees must declare that they want to continue in the plan.

Similarly, employees who wish to continue opting out of Pitt health coverage must re-state that they have alternate coverage.

— Bruce Steele