90 Degrees Benefits Blitzkrieg
By Bill Rusteberg
For the first time in almost 20 years the TRS ActiveCare government health plan for Texas school districts must compete for business. Previously this government funded public health plan held a monopoly on Texas school business, protected by statute from commercial competition.
Human nature such as it is, when there is no competition complacency reigns in the board room.
Stetson Roane would have none of that. Known as a problem solver, he was determined to find better health care for his employees. There is no such thing as an unsolved problem according the Mr. Roane.
Stetson Roane, Superintendent of the Raymondville Independent School District in deep South Texas wanted something better for his employees and was determined to find it. Many of his employees couldn’t afford TRS ActiveCare insurance and that was unacceptable. And many of those who did have TRS ActiveCare couldn’t afford to use it.
He found what he believed to be a loophole in the statutes and led the first Texas school district to challenge TRS officials by implementing a commercial health plan option for his employees in 2019. As a result over 100 previously uninsured employees were able to afford comprehensive health care coverage for the first time. And they were able to afford to use it too.
The El Paso Independent School District quickly followed suit.
Since then approximately 140 districts have followed. Numerous vendors have entered the fray, offering commercial health plan options. But no one has had the apparent success the scope of which a small San Antonio TPA (Owned by Blue Cross of Alabama) has had in capturing school business. (See Very Smart Risk Management Strategy for Texas School Districts).
That success is reflected in the presentation made to the TRS Board of Trustees yesterday, April 14, 2021. The presentation offered concerns about the financial impact on TRS ActiveCare by districts offering TRS ActiveCare alternative plans.
See The TRS ActiveCare Feeding Frenzy
You will note carefully from the information provided in the link below the presentation’s emphasis on cost shifting through plan design, specifically (1) No hospital network and (2) Specialty drugs.
This describes the FBS / 90 Degrees Benefits program to a “T”. Most of the other vendors are simply offering status quo managed care health plans. The 90 Degrees model is quite different.
IN MY OPINION THIS IS INDICATIVE OF THE IMPACT FBS (90 Degrees Benefits) IS HAVING WITH THEIR APPARENT SUCCESS IN CAPTURING A SIGNIFICANT NUMBER OF TRS ACTIVECARE SCHOOL DISTRICTS .
From what I’ve been able to ascertain I expect FBS / 90 Degrees Benefits will double their Texas school business this year totally +30,000 covered lives.
See pages 18-23.- TRS BOARD MEETING
90 Degrees Benefits (Formerly Caprock Health Plans) has competition too. And there will be more to come. That’s good news for Texas educators. Competition is always a good thing, long missing for almost two decades among Texas school districts.
The question now is what is TRS ActiveCare trustees going to do? Will their friends at the Texas legislature come to their rescue? Will the monopoly be reinstated? Or will Sleepy TRS ActiveCare Trustees & Clueless Texas Legislators kick the can down the road and hope for the best?
