In November 2008, Lumina Foundation for Education awarded $800,000 to the Midwestern Higher Education Compact to implement regional initiatives to improve higher education productivity for colleges and universities that face increasing costs for energy and utilities as well as those for employee and student health care.
MHEC has established two health benefits committees to help it identify potential opportunities for group cost savings programs in the area of health benefits: a Student Health Benefits Advisory Committee and an Employee Health Benefits Advisory Committee
Student Health Benefits
The Student Health Benefits Advisory Committee is currently exploring the feasibility of establishing or participating in an already established region-wide student health benefit program. Such a program would enable both large and small institutions to aggregate their student numbers in order to obtain reduced costs on insurance for the students. A region-wide approach can theoretically be marketed more effectively, reach a wider audience, and lower both the institution’s cost of administering the insurance plan and the student’s cost of purchasing the insurance. For additional information regarding the Student Health Benefits Advisory Committee and its efforts, please contact Jennifer Dahlquist at 612-626-1602 or Rob Trembath at 612-624-1812.
In order to identify which employee health benefits group cost savings programs are feasible, the Employee Health Benefits Advisory Committee first needed to identify what cannot be done. The objective of this committee is not to develop a whole new health care plan for Midwestern higher education. Instead, in an effort to find practical solutions that will not significantly disrupt current health plans already in place, the committee’s focus is on identifying niches within an overall health care strategy where collective group activity can achieve cost savings. The committee has identified some of these niche possibilities and is now in the process of trying to narrow the scope of possible alternatives to those that can be realistically accomplished within the three-year grant time period.
To help in this endeavor, MHEC has retained Ken Hutchinson to serve as a consultant to MHEC and the committee. Ken is the former vice president of human resources for the University of Missouri System. Ken will work closely with members of the MHEC Employee Benefits Committee. Ken served 42 years in higher education administration and has been inducted as a Fellow in the National Academy of Human Resources.
For additional information about the Employee Health benefits Advisory Committee and its efforts, please contact Ken Hutchinson at 573-268-1148 or at hutchinsonr@umsystem.edu or Rob Trembath at 612-624-1812.