Archdiocese Of Indianapolis

More Employers Put Faith In HSAs

With its major source of revenue - collections from parishioners - growing at just 2 percent every year, something had to change.

So in 2007, the archdiocese replaced its HMO insurance plan with a high-deductible plan coupled with health savings accounts. It also reinvigorated its wellness program and searched for tools to help its 1,600 workers shop for health care.

The results have been dramatic. The archdiocese claims costs have fallen by a third and even with contributions to its workers' health savings accounts, it spends 7 percent less per worker than it did five years ago. That's even after having occasional premium holidays of a month or two and making bonus contributions to workers' accounts.

"What we're essentially doing is shifting from a sickness payment system to a true health plan," said Archdiocese Human Resources Director Ed Isakson , which in 2007 switched all its employees to a high-deductible plan coupled with a health reimbursement arrangement.

There's some evidence nationally that the trend is set to accelerate. Only 8 percent of employers with fewer than 500 workers offer consumer-directed health plans as their only option to employees, according to a 2010 survey by Mercer. Another 8 percent of smaller employers offer it as an option.

Among companies with more than 500 workers, only 2 percent offer consumer-directed health plans as their only options, according to Mercer.

But nearly one in 10 employers say they expect to offer a consumer-directed health plan exclusively within the next five years. And among employers with more than 20,000 workers, 20 percent expect to switch exclusively to high-deducible plans in the next half decade.

That's key, said Mercer's , because those giant employers often set the trend that other companies follow.

"You can definitely see from the statistics that the trend is there," Marks said. "We really are expecting to see stronger growth in the CDHPs [consumer-directed health plans] over the next few years."

After some of the early adopters, such as the archdiocese and Marsh, many large companies avoided making big changes to their health benefits as debated an overhaul to the nation's health insurance system. At times during the debate, critics of the law claimed it would destroy health savings accounts.

But that didn't happen.

School Vouchers: Dr. Ronald Costello, Archdiocese of Indianapolis ...

With the passage and implementation of House Enacted Act 1003, we enter a new era of educational opportunity in Indiana. The Indiana Choice Scholarships (vouchers) and an expanded Tax Credit Scholarship program, will allow more students who meet the economic eligibility requirements to attend non-public (private) schools. As Superintendent of Catholic Schools for the Archdiocese of Indianapolis (68 schools and 22,000 plus students) and a retired public school educator (34 years), I feel that we need to set the facts straight in order to address the concerns which will come with these new opportunities.

The concern is that it is unconstitutional to allow parents to use public tax dollars to send their children to non-public schools. The irony of this position is that we have allowed students for years to receive public funds to continue their postsecondary education. Somehow, we are expected to think it is something different when we talk about K-12 education. The federal courts have upheld the legality of other voucher programs throughout the United States, and there is no reason to believe that it will be different in Indiana. The major legal issues in Indiana will be at the state level, which the courts have been asked to review the law. It remains to be seen how the state courts will decide.

Another argument is that the cost of the vouchers will have a negative impact on the funding of the public schools. It is true that there could be a significant amount of tax dollars that parents will be able to redirect in order to choose a non-public school than the present public school. There are estimates that as many as 20,000 new students could be in non-public schools due to this legislation. What is the cost? The non-public schools will receive 90% of the state support for that student with the other 10% going back to the public schools. It is correct that public school corporations might receive less public dollars, but they will be serving fewer students and the total expenditure per student will increase. Is it not time that the public schools realize that there must be a relationship between the number of students served and the cost needed to serve that number of students? This is a basic budget principle that our Catholic schools have had to deal with for years.

Finally, people argue that the non-public schools receiving vouchers will not be held accountable as the public schools. It is correct that there is a provision in the legislation that would allow the non-public school not to take the ISTEP, but they would still have to take a DOE approved alternative test to the ISTEP test and meet all the same requirements for accountability as the public schools under Public Law 221. Because all of our Catholic schools have been accredited by the state of Indiana for years, we have had to meet all the accreditation requirements of the public schools. Furthermore, under HEA 1003, non-public schools could lose their ability to take more voucher students if they do not maintain satisfactory accreditation status. The timeline for this accountability is far quicker than the present accountability for the public schools.

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