APS and new healthcare provider

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:He’s struggling. Have some grace.

When isn’t he?

As a parent, I appreciate him. I think he says a lot of the things that staff want to say but most don't feel comfortable. He fills that role, and it's needed. Without him I probably would not even have known about this big issue and many others.

What's important to staff should be important to parents.

He speaks as a singular voice on things that all staff does not agree upon. If you dare challenge him one of his groupies will attack you. It’s really toxic IMO

Who is the "he"? Not everybody is watching sb mtgs, on facebook, aem, etc. I want to steer clear of this person.

Let’s bring this discussion back to the health care issue. And APS’s handling of it. Please??

I don’t really think it was handled poorly. They gave us notice in advance of open enrollment. What were they supposed to do?

How about not exclude KP to begin with?

[Insert Michael Scott 'Thank you!' GIF]
If 50% of your employees are on a single provider, and that provider's been available for over 30 years, then it really behooves whoever is in charge of benefits to either A)make sure they're available next year, or B) provide advance warning as to what's going on and why. The scale of the disruption, and the likelihood that it is the result of APS screwing up their RFP or having really messed up priorities, makes it unacceptable to just wait for open enrollment to let people know.

I hope people start filing FOIAs soon.

I haven’t seen any evidence that it was written in a way to exclude Kaiser, other than a few people stating that Kaiser doesn’t offer PPO plans (they do)

If a significant number of your employees are currently on the Kaiser HMO plan, then writing an RFP that requires PPO plans seems pretty likely to cause some disruption, wouldn't you say?

No, because it required both HMO and PPO

Kaiser offers both HMO and PPO.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:He’s struggling. Have some grace.

When isn’t he?

As a parent, I appreciate him. I think he says a lot of the things that staff want to say but most don't feel comfortable. He fills that role, and it's needed. Without him I probably would not even have known about this big issue and many others.

What's important to staff should be important to parents.

He speaks as a singular voice on things that all staff does not agree upon. If you dare challenge him one of his groupies will attack you. It’s really toxic IMO

Who is the "he"? Not everybody is watching sb mtgs, on facebook, aem, etc. I want to steer clear of this person.

Let’s bring this discussion back to the health care issue. And APS’s handling of it. Please??

I don’t really think it was handled poorly. They gave us notice in advance of open enrollment. What were they supposed to do?

How about not exclude KP to begin with?

[Insert Michael Scott 'Thank you!' GIF]
If 50% of your employees are on a single provider, and that provider's been available for over 30 years, then it really behooves whoever is in charge of benefits to either A)make sure they're available next year, or B) provide advance warning as to what's going on and why. The scale of the disruption, and the likelihood that it is the result of APS screwing up their RFP or having really messed up priorities, makes it unacceptable to just wait for open enrollment to let people know.

I hope people start filing FOIAs soon.

I haven’t seen any evidence that it was written in a way to exclude Kaiser, other than a few people stating that Kaiser doesn’t offer PPO plans (they do)

+1

Show some evidence of this or stop spreading misinformation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It was handled poorly and employees can’t do anything about it. We got an apology. That’s it.

Or, APS handled it as any employer would and employees are just mad.
Or, something in the middle. Maybe APS made some sort of deliberate or unintended mistake to exclude Kaiser, maybe they didn't. But the teacher's representative group AEA should have been aware contract was expiring and there's always a chance of changes.
I will agree that holding all the sessions about the insurance/whatever it is the teachers need to do during the school day is ludicrous, thoughtless, and serves Syphax employees' schedules rather than teachers.

There are, as I see it, three possibilities:
1) APS excluded Kaiser by accident (i.e. wrote the RFP in such a way that Kaiser can't or wouldn't bid), and upon realizing their mistake, chose to just go forward and force everyone else to live with it with the absolute bare minimum notice.
2) APS excluded Kaiser due to some misplaced sense of priorities (such as fewer providers means processing fewer payments, less back-end paperwork). That would mean APS places a lower value on keeping the health benefits of 50% of its workforce than on an opportunity to reduce its own administrative burden. In this scenario, APS also didn't feel the need to let anyone know it made this choice until the last possible moment.
3) Kaiser chose not to participate despite APS offering ostensibly reasonable terms it had offered in years past (seems pretty unlikely given that Kaiser is generally one of the more affordable and centralized providers, but we can entertain it as a possibility). In this case APS still failed to let people know what was going on, both to get them ready, and to give them a chance to agitate for Kaiser to change its tune.

In all three scenarios waiting until the open season to let people know what happened is just an appalling management failure. In each scenario, letting things play out like they did just suggests a total clock-punching mentality on the part of Syphax, doing the bare minimum and then just shrugging if things go wrong. And now the burden of that incompetence is being borne by the people who are actually responsible for carrying out APS' mission. Considering our tax dollars go to achieving that mission, people have a right to be unhappy.

Provider changes are a part of life, and happen to lots of employers. But the way this provider change was handled is unacceptable. This is a basic function of any medium or large scale organization and they managed to screw it up. Even if they didn't screw it up (as in scenario 3), their lassitude and failure to communicate turned it into a screw up. You can't expect an organization to accomplish its mission well if it turns a basic function (negotiating providers) into a disruptive event for half its employees, and then can't be bothered to do a to help ease the disruption.

Apologies don't fix that kind of failure. People should be fired over it.

I think there's a 4th scenario: APS was looking to streamline for cost effectiveness. Which is an acceptable and prudent business practice, in and of itself.

You're describing scenario #2. If you want to trim costs, why wait until the last moment to tell people? Also Kaiser is not the most expensive option.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:He’s struggling. Have some grace.

When isn’t he?

As a parent, I appreciate him. I think he says a lot of the things that staff want to say but most don't feel comfortable. He fills that role, and it's needed. Without him I probably would not even have known about this big issue and many others.

What's important to staff should be important to parents.

He speaks as a singular voice on things that all staff does not agree upon. If you dare challenge him one of his groupies will attack you. It’s really toxic IMO

Who is the "he"? Not everybody is watching sb mtgs, on facebook, aem, etc. I want to steer clear of this person.

Let’s bring this discussion back to the health care issue. And APS’s handling of it. Please??

I don’t really think it was handled poorly. They gave us notice in advance of open enrollment. What were they supposed to do?

How about not exclude KP to begin with?

[Insert Michael Scott 'Thank you!' GIF]
If 50% of your employees are on a single provider, and that provider's been available for over 30 years, then it really behooves whoever is in charge of benefits to either A)make sure they're available next year, or B) provide advance warning as to what's going on and why. The scale of the disruption, and the likelihood that it is the result of APS screwing up their RFP or having really messed up priorities, makes it unacceptable to just wait for open enrollment to let people know.

I hope people start filing FOIAs soon.

I haven’t seen any evidence that it was written in a way to exclude Kaiser, other than a few people stating that Kaiser doesn’t offer PPO plans (they do)

If a significant number of your employees are currently on the Kaiser HMO plan, then writing an RFP that requires PPO plans seems pretty likely to cause some disruption, wouldn't you say?

No, because it required both HMO and PPO

Kaiser offers both HMO and PPO.

That was my point. People are incorrectly stating that the RFP was written to exclude Kaiser because it is an HMO only. That’s false

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:He’s struggling. Have some grace.

When isn’t he?

As a parent, I appreciate him. I think he says a lot of the things that staff want to say but most don't feel comfortable. He fills that role, and it's needed. Without him I probably would not even have known about this big issue and many others.

What's important to staff should be important to parents.

He speaks as a singular voice on things that all staff does not agree upon. If you dare challenge him one of his groupies will attack you. It’s really toxic IMO

Who is the "he"? Not everybody is watching sb mtgs, on facebook, aem, etc. I want to steer clear of this person.

Let’s bring this discussion back to the health care issue. And APS’s handling of it. Please??

I don’t really think it was handled poorly. They gave us notice in advance of open enrollment. What were they supposed to do?

How about not exclude KP to begin with?

[Insert Michael Scott 'Thank you!' GIF]
If 50% of your employees are on a single provider, and that provider's been available for over 30 years, then it really behooves whoever is in charge of benefits to either A)make sure they're available next year, or B) provide advance warning as to what's going on and why. The scale of the disruption, and the likelihood that it is the result of APS screwing up their RFP or having really messed up priorities, makes it unacceptable to just wait for open enrollment to let people know.

I hope people start filing FOIAs soon.

I haven’t seen any evidence that it was written in a way to exclude Kaiser, other than a few people stating that Kaiser doesn’t offer PPO plans (they do)

If a significant number of your employees are currently on the Kaiser HMO plan, then writing an RFP that requires PPO plans seems pretty likely to cause some disruption, wouldn't you say?

No, because it required both HMO and PPO

Kaiser offers both HMO and PPO.

That was my point. People are incorrectly stating that the RFP was written to exclude Kaiser because it is an HMO only. That’s false

APS needs to come out and put this on their website. People would maybe chill out a little if they actually addressed this thing being stated as fact to get people riled up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It was handled poorly and employees can’t do anything about it. We got an apology. That’s it.

Or, APS handled it as any employer would and employees are just mad.
Or, something in the middle. Maybe APS made some sort of deliberate or unintended mistake to exclude Kaiser, maybe they didn't. But the teacher's representative group AEA should have been aware contract was expiring and there's always a chance of changes.
I will agree that holding all the sessions about the insurance/whatever it is the teachers need to do during the school day is ludicrous, thoughtless, and serves Syphax employees' schedules rather than teachers.

Yeah. There is a group of people (both employees and parents) who assign malicious intent to almost anything APS does. It doesn't matter if it's an HR issue or a policy to cut down on disruptive behavior in schools. If you visit another APS-focused page, you will always see someone mad about something and others jumping on making everything a huge a deal. The difference between APS and other employers is that there isn't necessarily a FB page to give people a platform to air their grievances.

My sister is a MS teacher in another part of the country. She was visiting this weekend when news was breaking about the health care change. She read some of the stuff on AEM and was appalled at all of the teachers' complaints, ranging from calendar complaints to the health care issue and beyond. She also mentioned that she would get in trouble if she posted negative things about her employer on a semi-public FB page. And she is in a union that has teeth and in a liberal part of the country.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It was handled poorly and employees can’t do anything about it. We got an apology. That’s it.

Or, APS handled it as any employer would and employees are just mad.
Or, something in the middle. Maybe APS made some sort of deliberate or unintended mistake to exclude Kaiser, maybe they didn't. But the teacher's representative group AEA should have been aware contract was expiring and there's always a chance of changes.
I will agree that holding all the sessions about the insurance/whatever it is the teachers need to do during the school day is ludicrous, thoughtless, and serves Syphax employees' schedules rather than teachers.

Yeah. There is a group of people (both employees and parents) who assign malicious intent to almost anything APS does. It doesn't matter if it's an HR issue or a policy to cut down on disruptive behavior in schools. If you visit another APS-focused page, you will always see someone mad about something and others jumping on making everything a huge a deal. The difference between APS and other employers is that there isn't necessarily a FB page to give people a platform to air their grievances.

My sister is a MS teacher in another part of the country. She was visiting this weekend when news was breaking about the health care change. She read some of the stuff on AEM and was appalled at all of the teachers' complaints, ranging from calendar complaints to the health care issue and beyond. She also mentioned that she would get in trouble if she posted negative things about her employer on a semi-public FB page. And she is in a union that has teeth and in a liberal part of the country.

Maybe that is the difference. Right now, there isn't much they can do but complain on private message boards and speak at SB meetings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It was handled poorly and employees can’t do anything about it. We got an apology. That’s it.

Or, APS handled it as any employer would and employees are just mad.
Or, something in the middle. Maybe APS made some sort of deliberate or unintended mistake to exclude Kaiser, maybe they didn't. But the teacher's representative group AEA should have been aware contract was expiring and there's always a chance of changes.
I will agree that holding all the sessions about the insurance/whatever it is the teachers need to do during the school day is ludicrous, thoughtless, and serves Syphax employees' schedules rather than teachers.

There are, as I see it, three possibilities:
1) APS excluded Kaiser by accident (i.e. wrote the RFP in such a way that Kaiser can't or wouldn't bid), and upon realizing their mistake, chose to just go forward and force everyone else to live with it with the absolute bare minimum notice.
2) APS excluded Kaiser due to some misplaced sense of priorities (such as fewer providers means processing fewer payments, less back-end paperwork). That would mean APS places a lower value on keeping the health benefits of 50% of its workforce than on an opportunity to reduce its own administrative burden. In this scenario, APS also didn't feel the need to let anyone know it made this choice until the last possible moment.
3) Kaiser chose not to participate despite APS offering ostensibly reasonable terms it had offered in years past (seems pretty unlikely given that Kaiser is generally one of the more affordable and centralized providers, but we can entertain it as a possibility). In this case APS still failed to let people know what was going on, both to get them ready, and to give them a chance to agitate for Kaiser to change its tune.

In all three scenarios waiting until the open season to let people know what happened is just an appalling management failure. In each scenario, letting things play out like they did just suggests a total clock-punching mentality on the part of Syphax, doing the bare minimum and then just shrugging if things go wrong. And now the burden of that incompetence is being borne by the people who are actually responsible for carrying out APS' mission. Considering our tax dollars go to achieving that mission, people have a right to be unhappy.

Provider changes are a part of life, and happen to lots of employers. But the way this provider change was handled is unacceptable. This is a basic function of any medium or large scale organization and they managed to screw it up. Even if they didn't screw it up (as in scenario 3), their lassitude and failure to communicate turned it into a screw up. You can't expect an organization to accomplish its mission well if it turns a basic function (negotiating providers) into a disruptive event for half its employees, and then can't be bothered to do a to help ease the disruption.

Apologies don't fix that kind of failure. People should be fired over it.

I think there's a 4th scenario: APS was looking to streamline for cost effectiveness. Which is an acceptable and prudent business practice, in and of itself.

It's not just about administrative streamlining for APS, it may have to do with insurance costs and how insurance rates are set.

APS has, what, 5K employees plus dependents? It does not have the insurance pool of Fairfax (25K) or Loudoun (12K) or MoCo (20K). Dividing up your pool of insured lives between different insurance companies means higher costs in each pool. Dividing them up between different products with one company can have lower insurance costs. It has to do with risk, reinsurance, rate setting, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It was handled poorly and employees can’t do anything about it. We got an apology. That’s it.

Or, APS handled it as any employer would and employees are just mad.
Or, something in the middle. Maybe APS made some sort of deliberate or unintended mistake to exclude Kaiser, maybe they didn't. But the teacher's representative group AEA should have been aware contract was expiring and there's always a chance of changes.
I will agree that holding all the sessions about the insurance/whatever it is the teachers need to do during the school day is ludicrous, thoughtless, and serves Syphax employees' schedules rather than teachers.

Yeah. There is a group of people (both employees and parents) who assign malicious intent to almost anything APS does. It doesn't matter if it's an HR issue or a policy to cut down on disruptive behavior in schools. If you visit another APS-focused page, you will always see someone mad about something and others jumping on making everything a huge a deal. The difference between APS and other employers is that there isn't necessarily a FB page to give people a platform to air their grievances.

My sister is a MS teacher in another part of the country. She was visiting this weekend when news was breaking about the health care change. She read some of the stuff on AEM and was appalled at all of the teachers' complaints, ranging from calendar complaints to the health care issue and beyond. She also mentioned that she would get in trouble if she posted negative things about her employer on a semi-public FB page. And she is in a union that has teeth and in a liberal part of the country.

People have to deal with insurance changes all the time and have to switch providers and don't get any notice--but their boards and CEOs don't have a public meeting every two weeks where they have to sit there quietly while you stand there and yell at them for three minutes, with zero fear of reprisal because your job is protected.

At my last job--where they literally took away our comprehensive insurance one year and replaced it with a high-deductible plan, and also took away our short term disability option while I was pregnant--I had an "anti-disparagement" clause in my employment contract. I could have been fired for cause (no severance, no unemployment) for saying the kinds of things that get posted every day on AEM.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It was handled poorly and employees can’t do anything about it. We got an apology. That’s it.

Or, APS handled it as any employer would and employees are just mad.
Or, something in the middle. Maybe APS made some sort of deliberate or unintended mistake to exclude Kaiser, maybe they didn't. But the teacher's representative group AEA should have been aware contract was expiring and there's always a chance of changes.
I will agree that holding all the sessions about the insurance/whatever it is the teachers need to do during the school day is ludicrous, thoughtless, and serves Syphax employees' schedules rather than teachers.

There are, as I see it, three possibilities:
1) APS excluded Kaiser by accident (i.e. wrote the RFP in such a way that Kaiser can't or wouldn't bid), and upon realizing their mistake, chose to just go forward and force everyone else to live with it with the absolute bare minimum notice.
2) APS excluded Kaiser due to some misplaced sense of priorities (such as fewer providers means processing fewer payments, less back-end paperwork). That would mean APS places a lower value on keeping the health benefits of 50% of its workforce than on an opportunity to reduce its own administrative burden. In this scenario, APS also didn't feel the need to let anyone know it made this choice until the last possible moment.
3) Kaiser chose not to participate despite APS offering ostensibly reasonable terms it had offered in years past (seems pretty unlikely given that Kaiser is generally one of the more affordable and centralized providers, but we can entertain it as a possibility). In this case APS still failed to let people know what was going on, both to get them ready, and to give them a chance to agitate for Kaiser to change its tune.

In all three scenarios waiting until the open season to let people know what happened is just an appalling management failure. In each scenario, letting things play out like they did just suggests a total clock-punching mentality on the part of Syphax, doing the bare minimum and then just shrugging if things go wrong. And now the burden of that incompetence is being borne by the people who are actually responsible for carrying out APS' mission. Considering our tax dollars go to achieving that mission, people have a right to be unhappy.

Provider changes are a part of life, and happen to lots of employers. But the way this provider change was handled is unacceptable. This is a basic function of any medium or large scale organization and they managed to screw it up. Even if they didn't screw it up (as in scenario 3), their lassitude and failure to communicate turned it into a screw up. You can't expect an organization to accomplish its mission well if it turns a basic function (negotiating providers) into a disruptive event for half its employees, and then can't be bothered to do a to help ease the disruption.

Apologies don't fix that kind of failure. People should be fired over it.

I think there's a 4th scenario: APS was looking to streamline for cost effectiveness. Which is an acceptable and prudent business practice, in and of itself.

You're describing scenario #2. If you want to trim costs, why wait until the last moment to tell people? Also Kaiser is not the most expensive option.

Right. Sorry. But streamlining costs doesn't necessarily mean keeping a plan just because it isn't the most expensive option. As far as notifying employees, everyone should have been alerted by APS and especially by AEA that contract was up and is going out for a bid, that nothing is guaranteed, and there may be changes. That's all they would have needed to say. They would not have been able to say what plans were going to be offered, yet; and notifying employees any sooner would not help significantly help them with any head start on finding new doctors before knowing who their new insurance carrier would be and which plan they would have.

[Anonymous]

So I get why APS teachers are upset about losing Kaiser. I had it once and if you are used to that system, it can work very well. It's annoying to have to change all your doctors! I can empathize with that.

But, like others have said, this is just the status of healthcare in this country. Insurance companies change. And if you are going to have one, BCBS is a good one to move to. I will agree the dramatics about missing work to make new appointments is not helping. Yes, that might happen, but again, this is just what it's like. That's not a legal or sound reason for APS to KEEP Kaiser despite the bid process. So. Yes, it sucks and is annoying, but it's also just how things work with medical insurance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:He’s struggling. Have some grace.

When isn’t he?

As a parent, I appreciate him. I think he says a lot of the things that staff want to say but most don't feel comfortable. He fills that role, and it's needed. Without him I probably would not even have known about this big issue and many others.

What's important to staff should be important to parents.

He speaks as a singular voice on things that all staff does not agree upon. If you dare challenge him one of his groupies will attack you. It’s really toxic IMO

Are you staff?

Yes, I am. I can also guarantee that had we stuck with Kaiser There would be at least a few people complaining right now “ why were we offered Kaiser when their employees are striking? if they can’t handle the workload they have why should we have it as an option?”

[Anonymous]

I’m sure APS was caught off guard by the response. They are offering a plan with more coverage for less money per month and people are upset by it. I don’t know that I would have expected that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It was handled poorly and employees can’t do anything about it. We got an apology. That’s it.

Or, APS handled it as any employer would and employees are just mad.
Or, something in the middle. Maybe APS made some sort of deliberate or unintended mistake to exclude Kaiser, maybe they didn't. But the teacher's representative group AEA should have been aware contract was expiring and there's always a chance of changes.
I will agree that holding all the sessions about the insurance/whatever it is the teachers need to do during the school day is ludicrous, thoughtless, and serves Syphax employees' schedules rather than teachers.

There are, as I see it, three possibilities:
1) APS excluded Kaiser by accident (i.e. wrote the RFP in such a way that Kaiser can't or wouldn't bid), and upon realizing their mistake, chose to just go forward and force everyone else to live with it with the absolute bare minimum notice.
2) APS excluded Kaiser due to some misplaced sense of priorities (such as fewer providers means processing fewer payments, less back-end paperwork). That would mean APS places a lower value on keeping the health benefits of 50% of its workforce than on an opportunity to reduce its own administrative burden. In this scenario, APS also didn't feel the need to let anyone know it made this choice until the last possible moment.
3) Kaiser chose not to participate despite APS offering ostensibly reasonable terms it had offered in years past (seems pretty unlikely given that Kaiser is generally one of the more affordable and centralized providers, but we can entertain it as a possibility). In this case APS still failed to let people know what was going on, both to get them ready, and to give them a chance to agitate for Kaiser to change its tune.

In all three scenarios waiting until the open season to let people know what happened is just an appalling management failure. In each scenario, letting things play out like they did just suggests a total clock-punching mentality on the part of Syphax, doing the bare minimum and then just shrugging if things go wrong. And now the burden of that incompetence is being borne by the people who are actually responsible for carrying out APS' mission. Considering our tax dollars go to achieving that mission, people have a right to be unhappy.

Provider changes are a part of life, and happen to lots of employers. But the way this provider change was handled is unacceptable. This is a basic function of any medium or large scale organization and they managed to screw it up. Even if they didn't screw it up (as in scenario 3), their lassitude and failure to communicate turned it into a screw up. You can't expect an organization to accomplish its mission well if it turns a basic function (negotiating providers) into a disruptive event for half its employees, and then can't be bothered to do a to help ease the disruption.

Apologies don't fix that kind of failure. People should be fired over it.

I think there's a 4th scenario: APS was looking to streamline for cost effectiveness. Which is an acceptable and prudent business practice, in and of itself.

You're describing scenario #2. If you want to trim costs, why wait until the last moment to tell people? Also Kaiser is not the most expensive option.

Is this true? In every place I have worked that offered a Kaiser option, it WAS the most expensive plan offered. And not by a little, but premiums on the order of 2x or 3x more.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It was handled poorly and employees can’t do anything about it. We got an apology. That’s it.

Or, APS handled it as any employer would and employees are just mad.
Or, something in the middle. Maybe APS made some sort of deliberate or unintended mistake to exclude Kaiser, maybe they didn't. But the teacher's representative group AEA should have been aware contract was expiring and there's always a chance of changes.
I will agree that holding all the sessions about the insurance/whatever it is the teachers need to do during the school day is ludicrous, thoughtless, and serves Syphax employees' schedules rather than teachers.

There are, as I see it, three possibilities:
1) APS excluded Kaiser by accident (i.e. wrote the RFP in such a way that Kaiser can't or wouldn't bid), and upon realizing their mistake, chose to just go forward and force everyone else to live with it with the absolute bare minimum notice.
2) APS excluded Kaiser due to some misplaced sense of priorities (such as fewer providers means processing fewer payments, less back-end paperwork). That would mean APS places a lower value on keeping the health benefits of 50% of its workforce than on an opportunity to reduce its own administrative burden. In this scenario, APS also didn't feel the need to let anyone know it made this choice until the last possible moment.
3) Kaiser chose not to participate despite APS offering ostensibly reasonable terms it had offered in years past (seems pretty unlikely given that Kaiser is generally one of the more affordable and centralized providers, but we can entertain it as a possibility). In this case APS still failed to let people know what was going on, both to get them ready, and to give them a chance to agitate for Kaiser to change its tune.

In all three scenarios waiting until the open season to let people know what happened is just an appalling management failure. In each scenario, letting things play out like they did just suggests a total clock-punching mentality on the part of Syphax, doing the bare minimum and then just shrugging if things go wrong. And now the burden of that incompetence is being borne by the people who are actually responsible for carrying out APS' mission. Considering our tax dollars go to achieving that mission, people have a right to be unhappy.

Provider changes are a part of life, and happen to lots of employers. But the way this provider change was handled is unacceptable. This is a basic function of any medium or large scale organization and they managed to screw it up. Even if they didn't screw it up (as in scenario 3), their lassitude and failure to communicate turned it into a screw up. You can't expect an organization to accomplish its mission well if it turns a basic function (negotiating providers) into a disruptive event for half its employees, and then can't be bothered to do a to help ease the disruption.

Apologies don't fix that kind of failure. People should be fired over it.

I think there's a 4th scenario: APS was looking to streamline for cost effectiveness. Which is an acceptable and prudent business practice, in and of itself.

You're describing scenario #2. If you want to trim costs, why wait until the last moment to tell people? Also Kaiser is not the most expensive option.

Is this true? In every place I have worked that offered a Kaiser option, it WAS the most expensive plan offered. And not by a little, but premiums on the order of 2x or 3x more.

That’s interesting we are other options High deductible plans? Kaiser is the cheapest premium for APS employees but it does come with limitations obviously.