School board sees hike in insurance

CENTERVILLE — Accident coverage and its cost for students and parents were the main concern of the St. Mary Parish School Board at its monthly meeting Thursday.
Carmel Breaux, consultant for the St. Mary Parish School Board, presented several cover-age plans for student accident insurance that the board had to choose from for the 2017-18 school year.
Breaux recommended that the board remain with the same insurance carrier, Zurich, instead of going with Ameritas Life. She said Ameritas Life would cost more after catastrophic coverage, which is used to cover athletics, student travels and extracurricular activities, is combined with the general premium.
Zurich’s catastrophic coverage is included with the general premium provided.
Zurich’s premium cost increased almost $5,850 for the next school year. Breaux said student accident insurance claims have been in-creasing consistently nationwide.
Student accident insurance is meant to be a supplement to the student’s primary insurance provided by the parents. Student accident insurance has been acting as primary insurance since more families qualify for Medicaid under the Affordable Healthcare Act.
The new insurance coverage will fully cover some current services but the maximum coverage amount has been reduced. For example, physiotherapy, X-rays, MRI, radiology and prescription drugs are currently covered 80 percent up to the maximum coverage amount of $1,250 for physiotherapy, $500 for X-rays, MRIs, or radiology, with no maxi-mum for prescription drugs.
Under the new cover-age plan, physiotherapy, X-rays, MRIs, radiology and prescriptions drugs will be fully covered to the maximum coverage amount of $250 for physiotherapy, $400 for X-rays, MRIs or radiology, and $100 for prescription drugs.
Board member Pearl Rack raised concerns about parents being required to pay medical expenses when the school board provides coverage.
“Parents are not aware of the insurance and what is offered as coverage,” said Rack
Breaux suggested that the paperwork should be sent separately from all other paperwork that usually goes home with students during the first week of school, or that the insurance be explained to parents during orientation for sports or other activities.
Alton Perry, chief financial officer, said that coverage information about the student accident insurance could be placed on the school board’s website so that parents can always have access to that information.
Breaux did reiterate that student accident insurance is a supplement to the student’s primary insurance and that depending on a student’s health coverage may or may not require parents to still come out of pocket.
Also on Thursday, the school board approved the re-establishment of the Community Eligibility Provision, in which schools with a majority low-income student population do not collect meal applications and served meals for free. The cost of the meals is then reimbursed by federal funds.
Through this initiative, the school board has raised an additional $314,000 in revenue. For the next school year, there will be 14 schools in St. Mary Parish that will participate in this initiative.
The school board also approved the multipurpose building at Morgan City High School will be renamed The Ogden E. “Oggie” Stansbury Multipurpose Building.
In addition, the 2017 St. Mary Parish Principals’ Association Scholarship Winners were presented. The Michael Payton Memorial Scholarship for District One was presented to Jason Cross of West St. Mary High School. The Tommy Bourgeois Memorial Scholarship for District Two was presented to Olivia Kraemer of Berwick High School. The St. Mary Principals” Association Scholarship for District Three was presented to Caylee Deshotel of Morgan City High School.