MORGANTOWN – “It’s not often lately that any organization can give good news with regard to benefits,” Morgantown Utility Board Chair Barbara Parsons said. “Especially health care benefits.”
Even so, MUB leadership believes it’s achieved a “win-win” in the face of a 16% increase to be implemented for local government employees through the state’s Public Employees Insurance Agency in the upcoming 2025-’26 fiscal year.
The utility’s board of directors voted unanimously this week to move MUB from PEIA Plan A (high premium, low deductible) to Plan C (an IRS-qualified high deductible plan).
“Plan C is a high deductible, low premium plan, and that scares some people off sometimes because of the high deductible,” MUB Comptroller Chip Royce said. “But what we would like to do is for MUB to pay the deductible; to front load the deductible for both the single and family plans for Plan C.”
MUB will basically deposit the deductible amount into health savings accounts for each of its 136 employees who elect to take the coverage.
Royce admitted the change will require an educational component for employees, but the benefits will ultimately be exactly the same.
“They’ll get their card. They can use it. They can swipe their card for the deductible and any medical expenses, and MUB’s already paid for it,” he said.
The money deposited into an HSA stays with the employee. What isn’t used in the upcoming fiscal year, rolls over. If an employee leaves MUB, the HSA goes with them.
By switching to Plan C and covering employee deductibles, the utility board anticipates a savings of $237,000 in the coming fiscal year over staying on Plan A.
“It sounds like a no-brainer,” board member Sam Workman said.
“It’s huge,” Royce agreed.
Meanwhile, in Westover, the Mountain Line Transit Board is working out its plan to absorb what’s expected to be a $114,588 jump in PEIA costs.
The board will make its final decision when it convenes next week. It met in executive session this week to run through the numbers.
Mountain Line employees are under the high-premium, low-deductible Plan A.
In years past, the increases have been split between Mountain Line and its employees.
In the 2023-’24 fiscal year, the transit board and employees split a 15.6% increase (representing about $91,000 total) evenly. Overall, Mountain Line covered 75% of insurance costs ($439,277.28) and employees covered 25% ($146,919.24).
Coming into the current fiscal year, costs rose an additional 14% (again, about $91,000). This time, Mountain Line took on 75% of the increase and a total of 77% of insurance costs ($519,671.61). Employees covered 23% ($158,436.39).
The question before the board now is how to divvy up the $799,584.00 in PEIA Plan A costs Mountain Line expects to pay in 2025-’26.
“We want to try to make it as affordable as we can,” Mountain Line CEO Maria Smith said. “Again, you know, Mountain Line doesn’t have a lot of money to sink into things like this. Our operational costs go up, but not necessarily everything else does.”
Mountain Line has 79 employees. This year, 53 of those employees are participating in the PEIA coverage.
Smith said she believes the increases in recent years have been PEIA catching up to the private insurance market.
Further complicating matters is recent talk of eliminating the program altogether.
“I don’t know if that’s going to happen, but regardless, we should probably do our homework and keep an eye on what’s out there and what’s available,” Smith said. “If we come across something that’s better, that would be the same quality of service for our employees but less expensive, then that’s something we should consider.”
The 2025-’26 fiscal year begins July 1.
