{"id":482478,"date":"2026-02-21T19:23:18","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T19:23:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/482478\/"},"modified":"2026-02-21T19:23:18","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T19:23:18","slug":"dps-school-board-votes-to-keep-kaiser-health-insurance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/482478\/","title":{"rendered":"DPS school board votes to keep Kaiser health insurance"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thousands of Denver Public Schools<\/a> employees and their families will be able to keep their doctors with Kaiser Permanente Colorado<\/a> for an additional year after the Board of Education voted Thursday to extend the district\u2019s contract with the insurer.\n<\/p>\n

The school board\u2019s decision comes after DPS leaders\u00a0recommended that directors approve a plan to drop Kaiser<\/a> as one of the providers available to employees who buy health insurance through the district. Under that plan, DPS staff would have been required to get coverage from either MotivHealth Insurance Company<\/a> or UnitedHealthcare<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n

But Superintendent Alex Marrero\u2019s handling of the health insurance bidding process \u2014 which led to an outside investigation and the district\u2019s human resources director being placed on leave \u2014 drew scrutiny from school board members during a meeting Thursday evening.\n<\/p>\n

Directors expressed frustration that they were given two options: either extend DPS\u2019s current health insurance contracts for a year or approve the outcome of the bidding process and drop Kaiser.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile I\u2019m glad there are two recommendations before us, I have to be honest and say that I was disheartened how we got to these two recommendations,\u201d board Vice President Monica Hunter said.\n<\/p>\n

Kaiser spokesperson Elizabeth Whitehead said the insurer appreciated the decision to extend its contract and offer the opportunity to submit a new bid.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are grateful for the opportunity to continue serving DPS employees and their families, and our focus is on meeting and exceeding the expectations of our patients and the school district,\u201d she said in a statement. \u201cWe\u2019d like nothing more than to continue our partnership for many years to come.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kaiser has provided coverage for DPS employees for more than 50 years, but the relationship between the two organizations eroded after district officials said the insurer was outbid last year by three other providers for a three-year contract.\u00a0 \t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

DPS didn\u2019t want to move forward with Kaiser because of costs, so the insurer sent a revised proposal to the district, an action DPS leaders have said violated the bidding process.\n<\/p>\n

The action also led DPS to launch a third-party investigation and place DPS Chief of Talent Edwin Hudson on administrative leave over concerns that he had \u201cinappropriate communication\u201d with Kaiser during the bidding process. The investigation did not find evidence of wrongdoing, district officials have said.\n<\/p>\n

With their decision Thursday, the school board is requiring DPS to reopen the bidding process for insurers later this year. MotivHealth\u2019s and UnitedHealthcare\u2019s current contracts with the district are also extended.\n<\/p>\n

The extension was requested by the Denver Classroom Teachers Association<\/a>, which has criticized DPS\u2019s handling of the bidding process because employees found out from Kaiser \u2014 not the district \u2014 that their health coverage would end on July 1. \t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Kaiser is the most popular insurer for DCTA members, with about 5,800 DPS employees and their families receiving health care from the provider.\n<\/p>\n

Director John Youngquist aimed most of his criticism at Marrero, questioning the superintendent about why he didn\u2019t make a single recommendation on how the district should move forward with health coverage, given it\u2019s an operational issue. <\/p>\n

Marrero, when pressed by Youngquist before the board\u2019s vote, said he was \u201csolidified\u201d on one of the options, but changed his mind and was now \u201c50-50\u201d on how the district should move forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince there were questions related to the process, I\u2019m asking you all to make this decision,\u201d Marrero told Youngquist.<\/p>\n

Marrero said it was unusual for the school board to hold a closed session to discuss a contract bidding process, as members did during a meeting earlier this month: \u201cThe process\u2026 in terms of meddling and interference, unfortunately, had major impacts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Board President X\u00f3chitl Gayt\u00e1n was the only member to vote against extending Kaiser\u2019s coverage, saying that the decision could \u201cweaken the district\u2019s bargaining power.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Get more Colorado news by signing up for our Mile High Roundup email newsletter.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thousands of Denver Public Schools employees and their families will be able to keep their doctors with Kaiser…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":482479,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[3832,9045,1840,217097,217099,3281,97808,526,4142,97,252,9041,253,9042,7206,9537,2558,3,3858,232,6161,3198],"class_list":{"0":"post-482478","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health-care","8":"tag-colorado","9":"tag-colorado-news","10":"tag-denver","11":"tag-denver-classroom-teachers-association","12":"tag-denver-public-schools","13":"tag-doctors","14":"tag-dps","15":"tag-education","16":"tag-front-range","17":"tag-health","18":"tag-health-care","19":"tag-health-insurance","20":"tag-healthcare","21":"tag-insurance","22":"tag-k-12-education","23":"tag-kaiser-permanente","24":"tag-latest-headlines","25":"tag-news","26":"tag-school","27":"tag-schools","28":"tag-superintendent","29":"tag-teachers"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=482478"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482478\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/482479"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=482478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=482478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=482478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}