IPPC update on the rising cost of health insurance

As reported at the Oct. 25, 2018, community meeting, the rising cost of health insurance requires strategies to manage the increase in costs. Thus, the Institutional Policy and Planning Committee (IPPC) charged the IPPC Subcommittee on Budget and Finance with the necessary additional work to review and discuss the College’s health care benefits, with particular but not exclusive attention to the following:

• The components of health care expenses in the operating budget; 
• costs to administer the College’s health care benefit;
• medical claims history and projection;
• the design of the current plan (for example, copay amounts); and
• the employee share of health care benefits, both the current Skidmore structure and the market, primarily higher education institutions similar to Skidmore.

The subcommittee will work with Human Resources to develop options to reduce the growth rate of health insurance expense in the College’s operating budget, and determine a process for gathering staff and faculty input as needed.

The subcommittee will provide regular updates to IPPC, and report and provide recommendations by the May 10, 2019, IPPC meeting.

To increase representation, two staff members were invited to join the subcommittee. Members of the community with questions, comments and concerns are encouraged to contact any of the members of the expanded subcommittee listed below.

Regular Committee Members:
Vice president for finance and administration and treasurer (Chair): Donna Ng
Faculty member serving as vice chair of IPPC: Tim Harper
Faculty representative from the IPPC: Grace Burton
Member of the president’s cabinet: Michael Orr
Exempt staff member from IPPC: Lisa Hobbs
Non-exempt staff member from IPPC: Carolyn Lundy
Student Government Association vice president for financial affairs: Abdul Shokur ‘21
Regular guest: Bill Duffy

Additional members for work on cost of health insurance:
One exempt staff member: Lisa Tuttle
One non-exempt staff member: Terri Kindl
Brett Last and Laura Goodwin from Human Resources will be invited as consultants when necessary.