The September 1999 Health Plan Update distributed to all members of the Mississippi State and Public School Employees' Helath Insurance Plan gave notice of a major change to the plans which several staff members consider disturbing.  Specifically that  as of January 1, 2000, the Plan will include a single network available to all participants, the AHS State Network.

    Advanced Health Systems, Inc.,  is a wholly owned subsidiary of Blue Cross, Blue Shield of Mississippi (1)  operating at 3545 LAKELAND DR E ,  JACKSON MS 39208 and is a Mississippi Corporation.  Sharon Kovarik, Benefits Specialist, Department of Finance and Administration, stated at the October 7, 1999 Staff Council Meeting at the University of Mississippi that the Health Insurance Management Board and the Department of Finance and Administrations had decided last year that the number of HMO options should be reduced from 4 (The Base plan option and the Network Option, which offered a choice of 3 networks) to only one plan.  Requests for bids on the contract were sent out and three companies bid, with AHS, Inc., being awarded the contract for FY2000 in March or May of 1999.  (Sharon Kovarik, October 7, 1999 Staff Council Meeting at the University of Mississippi)

    Mary Brandt Jensen, Associate Professor at the University of Mississippi, received her September 1999 Health PLan update pamphlet on or around September 20.  At that time she e-mailed Mickey Brown, Manager State Network Contracting, AHS, Inc.  to find out if her doctors were on AHS's plan.  Mr. Brown's reply made it clear that the AHS State network plan was still under development and that they were concentrating on including doctors from Mississippi only at that time.  He also suggested that Ms Jensen should contact her doctors and urge them to join the AHS State Network plan.  She distributed the e-mail to several other state employees, and all of them checked with their doctors and in most cases they had never heard of AHS, Inc. and/or had never received any information about AHS' State Network Plan.  In some cases the Physicians group had received information but had chosen not to sign onto the plan.  No Physician or group contacted by this small group of State Employees had signed up with the plan. Mickey Brown admits that as of October 11, 1999 only one group of Physicians had signed up to the AHS State Network Plan in the Oxford/Lafayette County area. (2)   Cabrina Oliver, Manager of Employee Benefits at the University of Mississippi, did say that representatives from AHS, Inc., would be meeting with North Mississippi Physicians Group on Thursday, October 21, 1999.

Traci Mitchell, President of the University of Mississippi Staff Council, stated that as of October 26, 1999 AHS, Inc. has not informed her or Clay Jones, Director of Human Resources at the University of Mississippi, that the two groups have come to an agreement.  She did assure me that she is vey concerned about this issue and she is working hard to keep abreast of all new information.
The Staff Council met in a special session on Friday November 5, 1999. (see Minutes of Meetings)
One of the items on the agenda was the resolution proposed by Mary Brandt Jensen and Anne M. Klingen. After much discussion the resolution failed by a vote of 1 yes, 17 no. (18 Staff Council Members attended)
The Staff Council felt that many of the items called for in the resolution have already been done or are in the process of being acted upon, and that passing a resolution requesting these changes would not be advantageous. Many Staff Council Members do think that it will be beneficial to the State Insurance Plan to have one network, since it will cut down on the administrative costs that arose from having multiple networks. Clay Jones had figures showing how much the State Insurance Plan had to pay out last year and that the state paid out significantly more then was paid into the plan. Traci Mitchell contacted Anne Klingen on behalf of the Staff Council to emphasize that the vote against the resolution was not a vote against the genuine concerns of state employees, but instead a vote against the specific resolution. The Staff Council would like to entertain another resolution on this issue, one that is stated differently. Please contact Anne Klingen if you have any suggestions for wording a new resolution to the Staff Council.

   Traci Mitchell brought up the issue of the changes in the State Insurance Plan at the MASCO meeting (Mississippi Association of Staff Council Organizations) when they met on the University of Mississippi campus on November 11, 1999.  During that meeting the other MASCO members agreed that they had concerns about the changes in the State Insurance Plan also, but the physicians in their areas are signing on to the AHS State Insurance Plan, so they will not have a loss of coverage.

    The University of Mississippi Faculty Senate met on Thursday, November 10, 1999.  At that meeting they voted unanimously in favor of the resolution proposed by Mary Brandt Jensen and Anne M. Klingen with just a few minor changes.

    It is possible to call AHS, Inc. at 1-800-294-6307  to find out if your doctor has signed up for the AHS State Network Plan.  The Department of Finance and Administration plans to make a listing of the doctors on the plan available sometime on their web page.  AHS, Inc. plans to have a directory of participating physicians available by December 1, 1999,  which is 2 months past their original planned publication date. (Sharon Kovarik, October 7, 1999 Staff Council Meeting at the University of Mississippi)

We have also received a copy of the Contract offered by AHS, Inc., to Physicians and a letter from Dr. Phillip Loria, M.D. to his patients explaining why he is not going to sign the AHS Contract.