The Hamilton Southeastern (HSE) School administration presented a proposal, contracting with Community Health to employ school nurses, but the nurses spoke out clearly that they want to continue as employees of the school district. The board took no action and Superintendent Allen Bourff told the board administrators will be working to answer questions in the next few weeks before the board is asked to vote on any contract.
Every school building in the HSE District has a nurse which has been employed by the school corporation. These nurses have roughly the same benefit package teachers and most other school district employees enjoy.
Based on a presentation from HSE’s Chief Financial Officer Mike Reuter, some nurses pay would remain the same and some would see a salary increase as a result of the proposed change. But the benefits would be very different if the nurses were to become employees of Community Health Network.
For example, spouses would not always be covered in the Community health insurance plan, the HSE employee plan covers spouses. The annual out-of-pocket employee amount for HSE workers health costs is $4,000, for Community it is $11,400.
Nurses covered by the Public Employee Retirement Fund (PERF) as school employees would no longer be covered under a defined benefit plan (monthly annuity payments after retirement). Nurses vested in the system could get the PERF annuity, but since the formula uses years of service and age, many vested nurses would likely wait into their 60s to be eligible for annuity payments in retirement.
Four school nurses took turns making their case before the school board to remain school district employees. They made arguments that the standard of care would change under Community Health, although Community took issue with that assertion.
The board took the proposal under advisement and plans to get answers to questions posed by the school nurses before the board receives a recommendation from school administrators.
Under the proposed agreement. Community would employ the school nurses, operate the employee health center and take over sports medicine services.
Reuter told the board that Community’s proposal to assume operational and financial responsibility for the school nurse program would result in estimated savings to the school corporation of $1.5 million.
If the board were to approve the proposal, the changeover for the nurses would happen in the 2019/2020 school year.
Thank you for giving a fair an unbiased statement Larry!
This is a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), “Cost-Benefit Study of School Nursing Services.” As the nurses of HSE, we have MANY valid points about how our level of nursing care will be diminished if this proposal is accepted. This is example of one more. We have researched, and found that Community does replace open school nursing positions with LPNs. They sometimes even use a certified Medical Assistant as staff in a school clinic. Needless to say, we currently have an excellent staff of all RNs. This study investigates the cost vs. benefit of a fully RN school corporation nursing staff. Although the initial cost of maintaining an all RN staff was higher, the benefit to the school corporation, of avoiding costly healthcare events, among their staff especially, far outweighed the cost. A co-worker proposed this question this morning: Where would the 1.5mil dollar savings be spent? Is it not the most wise investment of that money to maintain the superior level of care provided to our students, staff and parents? Yes, it is. Keep in mind, this is only ONE small point. There are so many more specifics that we nurses, as the medically educated professionals, in this discussion, can provide. We are just asking the board and administrators to please consider our position, and allow us to continue to provide outstanding care under the HSE umbrella.
The nurses made an excellent case as to why this was not a good plan, not just for them, but also for the schools.
One of the questions that was asked was – “As a business, how would Community plan to make money with this program?” Making up the initial loss over time, raises questions. As someone responded at the school board meeting – “If a program sounds too good to be true, it probably is.”
Hopefully the board will ask lots of questions to understand this program better. I’m one for saving tax dollars, but only when it makes sense. Something about this program seemed ‘off’. It also seemed odd that the administration had pushed forward as far with this program (multiple meetings with school nurses for example) prior to involving the school board.
It will be interesting to see how this evolves….