Board of Regents Meeting – 10/27/2009

Present: Anthony Baldridge (GT), Ashley Edwards (GSU), Linda Harley (GT), Samuel Herbeg
(MCG), Robin Kemp (GSU), Tonya Lam (BOR), Cori Loftis (BOR), Diane Norris (MCG) and
Ray Vito (GT).

Board of Regents (BOR) member present: Tonya Lam

• Associate Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs
• 290,000 students in the University System of Georgia
• Office oversees housing, health, various centers, service, etc.

Communication Problems
• Across campuses and at the campus level
• BOR sends e-mails to distinct people including center directors, presidents, provosts, vice
provosts, etc. with instructions to distribute information around campuses.
• Recent study found that most students are not getting the basic information sent in those
e-mails and this can lead to problems (i.e. The health insurance change).

Health Insurance System History

• In 2004, health insurance was handled at the campus/institute level.
• Recommendation to the state was to have mandatory health insurance for all but this
proposal was rejected due to budgetary reasons.
o Main problem was high cost and uncertainty due to no claims history
• At the time many campuses offered voluntary plans (both grad and undergrad).
• State dictates the way contracts can be written and approved.
o Only 1-year contracts can be signed.
 These contracts can exist for a total of 5 years and then a new bidding
process must be initiated.
• In 2004, the BOR took control of health insurance, used a state bidding process, and
signed Pierce and Pierce (PP) as the provider.
• In 2007, the mandatory group of students was split into graduate and undergraduate
o The total benefits was changed from $500,000 to $300,000
o An athletic rider requirement was also added.
• Many riders have been added to the original plan since 2004 and include:
o Athletic
o Wellness “needle sticks”
o Accident Plan
o Hot Lines
• The increase in out of pocket expense was agreed upon by following industry standards
which argue to keep the front end cost lower than the “back dollar.”

Waivers
• Many graduate and undergraduate students have difficulties with the waiver process
• A waiver is given by definition if the insurance is “comparable”
 • Many waivers are denied due to the lack of a mental health component
• The criteria for granting waivers is determined by the BOR
• Many students are denied due to a lack of documentation of the benefits and instead only
produce a card with policy number and plan.
• So long as the benefits are equal and/or greater than the PP plan then the waiver is
granted in generally one business day.
• An additional problem is the ability of some insurance plans to be cancelled in the middle
of the semester/term, which requires investigation from the provider.

Consultants
• A consulting firm was hired to address a number of concerns with the current PP plan and
system
• The firm compared the plans with a number of other campus and found:
o Benefits were comparable
o Premiums average
o Providing of resources to help students (i.e. customer service) was questionable
o Recommendation that insurance for all would be a good thing in general
 This raises the concern that some may be forced out of the system due to
the inability to pay for the insurance plan (graduate especially).
o General concern that some do not have access to insurance
o Believe that the buying power of the system is greater than that of the individual
campuses.
o Found PP to be the most favorable plan due to being the oldest student insurance
company and allows for term by term processing.

Next Steps

Options
• Have mandatory plan
o Have tiers and options
 Begin with a catastrophic plan requirement
• Build other benefits around this basic option
• Create a total of 4 tiers
• Continue with system-wide plan with certain groups
• Allow every institution to adopt its own plan

Action Plan
• Invite every institution to have a graduate and undergraduate task force to develop ideas
and ways to address student insurance

Proposal
• Have institutions come together to design a plan
o Determine which and if any riders
 • Address the current problem that the wellness component requires a payment of $192 for
a $300 procedure
• Address the claims problems in that the company denies most claims but determine if this
is common to most insurance companies.
• Address general problems
o Require reasoning and explanations for changes
o Poor customer service found at PP
• Address problems with exclusions
o Pre-existing conditions
o General cost and how some students must choose to pursue education or wait.
• Address communication problems
o Determine best way to distribute information
o Require a plain language document from PP on the benefits and exculusions

General Plan
• Meet with PP on November 20, 2009 at 10am on Georgia Tech’s campus (location to be
determined)
• Design tier system of insurance
• Address communication problems of both BOR communications getting to students as
well as PP communication difficulties.
• E-mail Cori Loftis at BOR with general concerns and ideas
• Maybe meet twice/year to discuss issues.

White Paper
• A suggestion was made to write up a white paper outlining the primary concerns and
problems that students are facing with PP and then have them deliver their response at the
November 20th meeting.