| Changes loom in medical benefits by JOHN W. COLEMAN JR.UMCONNECTION staff The Baltimore-Washington Conference Board of Pensions and Health Benefits will hear preliminary suggestions from its Medical Benefits Sub-Committee in January for possible cost-cutting changes to the conferences health insurance plan for 2005. Those changes are expected to include increases in premiums and higher deductibles and co-payments for medical and dental care and for prescription drugs. With help from CIGNA, which administers the conferences self-insured plan, the committee is looking for ways to shave $1 million in claims from the conferences projected 2005 healthcare insurance budget. The budget is based on a forecast of $6.5 million in claims expenditures for 2004. The board expects claims paid in 2003 to reach $5.5 million when totals are reported in January. Committee members are considering significant changes in the plan, including: - higher deductibles and co-payments for use of primary care physicians and specialists;
- higher maximum out-of-pocket expenses;
- a greater cost for participants to use healthcare providers not in the CIGNA network;
- mandatory mail-order delivery of prescription drugs, which typically costs less than purchasing drugs from pharmacies;
- three-tier pricing for co-payments for generic, preferred brand and brand drugs;
- higher deductibles for dental care and a drop in the percentage of dental costs paid by the plan.
 We dont have a choice; we must make structural changes to the plan, said Carole Chaloner Silberhorn, director of the Office of Pensions and Health Benefits. If we dont, premiums could rise as high as 40 percent and that would be disastrous for everyone.
The annual conference voted in June to increase premiums by 15 percent and add a requirement that plan participants pay 10 percent of their premium in 2004, including retired clergy and surviving spouses who previously paid no premiums.  Despite likely increases in costs for plan participants, the committee hopes to avoid recommending changes in eligibility for coverage and in key healthcare benefits, said the chairman, Frank Gould of Centenary UMC in Shady Side.
Our committee is working closely with staff and professional consultants to carefully determine our future needs and options, said Gould, and to ensure that we continue to offer a viable healthcare plan for our clergy and lay employees. Were trying to evaluate what changes may be most palatable. If we kept the plan as it is and passed on the true cost of premiums, it could cause an uproar among participants, Gould concluded. Budget savings would be used to maintain current benefits and bolster the liability fund for future retiree medical benefits, according to Silberhorn. That fund currently contains only about one-fourth of the $42 million required by the General Board of Pensions and Health Benefits. We have other reserve funds that are underfunded, but these savings wont help replenish them, said Silberhorn. Staff and committee members are examining how the new Medicare legislation passed by Congress and signed by President Bush will affect coverage of retirees under the plan. Right now, the details just arent clear, Silberhorn said. It wont be surprising if what was originally passed changes entirely by 2006 when it is scheduled to take effect. The committee and the full board will meet Jan. 7. The committee will meet again Jan. 22 to finalize its recommendations and may present them to the board at its Jan. 28 meeting. | 
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