The Millcreek School Board approved a change to its health insurance network in a 7\u20132 vote, transitioning from Blue Cross Blue Shield to the third-party administrator Meritain. Officials emphasized that any staff member who has seen an in-network provider under Highmark within the past 12 months will continue to be covered.<\/p>\n
Dr. Joseph Jablonski, the district\u2019s Director of Human Resources, noted that the decision followed extensive research into the potential impacts of the change.<\/p>\n
Dozens of teachers at the School board meeting expressed concerns about moving to an Aetna network. According to Millcreek School District Union President Ryan Bickel, a majority of surveyed staff opposed the change, citing worries about continuity of care and long-term effects on their families.<\/p>\n
Millcreek Township School District President Gary Winschel stated that there will be no changes to deductibles or co-pays and estimated that the switch could save the district approximately $1 million annually. The savings, he said, will help address a projected budget deficit and support classroom resources.<\/p>\n
Teachers\u2019 contract negotiations are set to begin January 1, and Union President Bickel noted that board decisions made now could influence those discussions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Millcreek School Board approved a change to its health insurance network in a 7\u20132 vote, transitioning from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":147909,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[67422,66559,20313,67423,136,138,137,67420,67421,67419,61235],"class_list":["post-147908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-erie","tag-aetna","tag-blue-cross-blue-shield","tag-budget-deficit","tag-employee-benefits","tag-erie","tag-erie-headlines","tag-erie-news","tag-health-insurance-network","tag-meritain","tag-millcreek-school-board","tag-teachers-union"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147908\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/147909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}