| Medical premiums set to rise again By Erik Alsgaard
UMCONNECTION STAFF As predicted, medical insurance premiums will rise again next year for participants in the Baltimore-Washington Conference’s health care plan, according to Carole Chaloner Silberhorn, executive director of the Pensions and Health Benefits office. 
Silberhorn | “We may be looking at a significant increase across the board for 2005 over 2004,” she said early this month. Local churches and plan participants will learn the extent of that increase in a mailing this month. The annual open enrollment period will be Sept. 15 to Oct. 15. “We are working hard to ensure the solvency of our plan,” Silberhorn said. “We need everybody’s help to make it work.” The increase could have been more. Earlier this year, the benefits board approved several changes to the health care plan in an attempt to reduce costs and fund the claims stabilization reserve fund. Changes to the insurance plan have resulted in reducing anticipated costs next year by $1 million, said Silberhorn. The changes include higher deductibles and co-payments, and the elimination of some services. The stabilization fund, which functions as a “savings account” for medical expenses, has been at one-third the industry’s standards, said Silberhorn. In 2005, she added, the conference will begin the process of bringing that fund up to where it needs to be. “Opinions are being expressed about these changes and the rate increase,” said Silberhorn. “I’ve received e-mails from clergy saying, ‘You’re taking away my raise.’” Silberhorn said that every opinion is being heard and the board welcomes talking to people at any time. “The claims are what the claims are,” she said. “You can’t tell people not to go to the doctor when they’re hurting or sick.” In 2004, Silberhorn said, the conference has paid out an average of $600,000 per month in medical expense claims. The budget for 2004 is $7.5 million for the entire medical plan. As a self-funded plan, the conference must take in enough money to cover those expenses or dip into the stabilization fund. If those moneys dry up, other sources would have to be sought or the plan could go bankrupt. Silberhorn and others on the board have been preaching ways to contain costs for months. One method for plan participants to save money, she noted, is to utilize the CIGNA 24-hour health information line. “Let’s say you get stung by a bee,” Silberhorn said. “CIGNA has nurses on call “twenty-four, seven” at (800) 564-9286. You can get detailed answers to your questions, directions to the nearest medical facility or pharmacy or other information, very quickly.” In some cases, a quick phone call could save a person a trip to the doctor, or even to the emergency room. And with co-payments for ER visits expected to quadruple next year, the information line could be a big help, she said. Participants will notice another change in the plan next January when they go to the pharmacy. To have prescriptions filled at a local pharmacy will require an annual $100 out-of-pocket deductible. After meeting that $100 deductible, the co-payment will kick in. For users of the Tel-Drug mail-order prescription filling service, there will be no deductible. Silberhorn recommends that more people sign up for this service by calling toll free (800) 835-3784. “(Another) way for eligible participants to handle this increase in deductibles,” she said, “is to increase their contributions to their flexible spending accounts.” That account allows participants to set aside a certain amount of their annual income as money to be used tax-free for medical expenses. In 2003, more than $180,000 was used in this fashion by eligible plan participants. Through July 2004, more than $155,000 had been spent.
Carole Chaloner Silberhorn, executive director of Pensions and Health Benefits for the Baltimore-Washington Conference, submitted her resignation in a letter to Rev. Dan Wright, chairman of the Board of Pensions and Health Benefits, Sept. 17. Silberhorn said that she will be leaving her position for personal and professional reasons. Her resignation will be effective Oct. 15. 'We are grateful for her ministry with us and her many gifts, which she applied to her work on behalf of the conference over the past six years,' said Martha Knight, director of finance and administration. 'I am sure all of us who serve with her as staff colleagues will miss her personally and professionally. We thank God for her service and pray God's abundant grace upon her and her future.' According to Knight, Silberhorn will continue to work closely with conference officers and the P&HB staff until Oct.15 to ensure a smooth transition and transfer of responsibilities. | 
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