Vermilion Parish School employee insurance claims climbing

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Three months into the calender year, Chris Hebert, an insurance agent with Dwight Andrus Insurance, informed the school board that claims are $764,000 more than the same time last year.
Hebert gave a power point presentation to the Vermilion Parish School Board and a packed house on Thursday. He showed the board the good and bad numbers dealing with health insurance.
Hebert showed the financial numbers for January through March of 2017 and 2018. In every category, the financial numbers are higher.
The biggest financial jump is in outpatient care. This year, there have been $749,579 worth of outpatient care. The same time last year, it was only $438,500.
Inpatient care also jumped by $280,000 a year.
The higher trend has Hebert concerned, so he gave the school board recommendations to try to lower the claims.
Hebert is recommending to the school board that more school employees use what is known as “Teledoc.”
Hebert explained that Teledoc is a service that is provided for free to the school employees who have health insurance. The plan has been around for more than a year, and only 58 out of 1,569 employees used Teledoc in the last year.
Teledoc lets you call a doctor on the phone and give him or her the symptoms of the illness. The doctor listens to the patient and makes recommendations by either prescription medicine or recommending the patient seek more medical help. You can even facetime doctors and show them pictures of your rash or sore, Hebert added.
Had more people done this last year, cost in claims would have dropped $87,000, Hebert added.
Another recommendation Hebert made was to encourage employees to use generic drugs instead of brand name drugs.
The first three months this year, insurance claims for drugs totaled $1.2 million for school employees. Hebert is hoping that by encouraging employees to request generic drugs instead of brand named drugs, it will save the insurance company $235,000.
His recommendations for employees to follow could save $500,000.
“We need to come together as a team,” said Hebert. “We need to put out pamphlets and educate the employees.”