Plainfield Schools has the same policies that Brownsburg offers and recently employed an independent consulting firm to compare the State policy with the ones offered by the Central Indiana School Employees Insurance Trust (CIST). It was determined that the State policy would cost Plainfield Schools $400,000 more and the coverage would not be as good as the coverage offered by the CIST. By the way, Brownsburg has almost twice the employee count as Plainfield.
Besides the cost, the State policy does not offer the convenience or cost benefit of the Novia clinic currently offered at Brownsburg (and recently opened for Plainfield). The State policy would not have the opportunity to quickly modify policy wording when changes are needed, and appeals would not be handled through local staff. In addition, the controls and pricing would be determined by State officials, instead of local decisions made by the CIST Board. There would be no local control and very little local input in the insurance decisions of our employees.
At present, the CIST rates are lower and the claims experience has been good. To date, the only participants in the State policy have been by schools with high rates and high claims experience which continue to increase the cost of the premiums.
