Co-chairing the Graphic Communications National Health and Welfare Fund's annual trustees meeting are, from left, Philadelphia 14M Pres. Andrew Douglas and Neenah 77P employer trustee Carl Jankowski. Giving the operational overview are fund consultants Elizabeth Dudek and William A. Rivers of The Segal Company.

The Graphic Communications National Health and Welfare Fund got a clean bill of health at the annual trustees' meeting.

The group's auditor said the jointly trusteed fund is "very healthy" after its second year of operation as a self-insured fund.

The fund, previously called the "pooling fund" before it began self-insuring health care in March 1997, ended its fiscal year with $7.4 million in net assets – a gain of nearly $1.5 million.

The Graphic Communications National Health and Welfare Fund offers two model medical plans with major medical coverage; two model dental plans; three model prescription drug plans; and three model vision plans. Other coverage offered includes Medicare supplemental, short-term disability, life insurance, and accidental death and disability.

Medical coverage includes a preferred provider organization (PPO) operated by Private Health Care Systems (PHCS). The PHCS network includes 250,000 providers and 2,100 hospitals. Prescription drug coverage is through National Prescription Administrators (NPA). Vision coverage is provided through National Vision Administrators (NVA). Short-term disability and dental coverage is self-insured, while life insurance and AD&D are covered by Aetna Life Insurance Co. plans.

The average number of participants in the fund grew to 3,650 in 16 locals over the year, but fund leaders are hoping it will continue to expand.

GCIU Vice Pres. Lawrence Martinez, who serves as secretary to the fund, said the plan has "already proven to be a fund that is beneficial to our membership, and more participation would make it even better. Employer and union trustees are encouraging the continued growth of the fund and the continued stabilization of rates."

Catching up with each other during a break at the health and welfare fund meeting are, from left: Sandra Klein, administrator for Grand Rapids 550M's program; GCIU Secy.-Treas. Gerald H. Deneau; and Los Angeles 404M Pres. Frank Young.

GCIU Secy.-Treas. Gerald H. Deneau said the health and welfare fund "provides outstanding potential to benefit our members with superior coverage while saving money for our employers."

"I believe that most employers will not be able to come up with a plan that matches ours because the large number of participants in our plan reduces the overall costs," Deneau said.

Deneau stressed that, since the fund became self-insured, local union and employer trustees no longer had to worry that constantly increasing premiums were going into insurance companies' pockets as profits. With the decision by the fund's trustees to allow employers without joint funds to participate, the fund's benefits were opened to much wider participation, he said.

Carl Jankowski, the employer trustee for Neenah 77P who served as acting co-chairman at the annual meeting, welcomed the end of the pre-self-insured days of painful negotiations with insurance carriers to lower their annual premium increases or the need to offset those increases with benefit reductions.

Now the union and employer trustees are managing their own "company" and "controlling their own overall destiny," Jankowski said.

The trustees approved the first premium increase in the four years since the fund started down the road toward self-insurance. Unlike previous years when locals often were hit with broad and unpredictable fluctuations of rate increases based on each local's experience, the premium increase this year of 10 percent was the same for all locals.

Martinez said the across-the-board increase "re-emphasizes the importance of experience rating in the structure established in the national fund. Any increases are shared equally."

Philadelphia 14M Pres. Andrew Douglas, the union co-chair of the fund, warned that the national slowdown of health care cost increases during President Clinton's national health care debate is predicted to evaporate now that Clinton's proposal is no longer on the table. Health care costs and insurance premiums are now trending upward, he said.

Representatives of the Segal Co., consultants to the fund, said PPO usage increased by nearly 10 percent. Provider discounts through network utilization totaled $7.3 million out of $11.4 million in eligible charges. These discounts accounted for nearly 36 percent of in-network charges.

A representative from PHCS said the company has hired more recruiters to expand its provider network. PHCS also reported it signed a national contract with SmithKline Beecham for laboratory work, which should prove more cost-effective for participants and the fund.

One of the most advantageous features of the national fund for participants is that appeals on claims administered by central data services, inc. (cds) are made to an appeals committee of three union and three employer trustees who have a commitment to their members and employees as well as the fund.

Evansville 571M Pres. Robert Lacey, who chairs the committee, noted that the appeals process had helped reveal problems with the provider network and flaws in the plan design which were then brought to the attention of the executive committee and full trustee board, as well as cds and PHCS.

Trustees approved an amendment to the plan to correct a gap in coverage. The amendment expanded the well child care benefits from birth to 24 months, instead of 18 months as in the original fund plan, and from age 12 to 13 years.

In other areas, the board voted the trustees from the Philadelphia 14M fund – Douglas and employer trustee Joseph Lackman – to a new three-year term. Douglas and Lackman also were elected to continue as fund co-chairs.

Also serving on the executive board are Kansas City 235M Pres. James A. Miller and employer trustee Robert F. Schaeffer; Neenah 77P Pres. Thomas Englebert and employer trustee Jankowski; Grand Rapids 550M Pres. Gordon Beukema and employer trustee Brian Simcox; and Evansville 571M's Lacey and the local's employer trustee Chris Feagans.

Trustees paid tribute to Mary Ann Hand, who retired earlier this year as fund administrator. Douglas said Hand's "many years of tremendous service to the fund and her tireless efforts on behalf of the local funds and participants" will be "sorely missed."