News
August 5, 2008
PEIA board member says rate hike probable in fall

State employees have enjoyed two straight years with no increases in their Public Employees Insurance Agency health premiums - but a steep jump in medical claims this year will likely force PEIA to propose rate hikes this fall.

"It's likely to be an ugly fall - it really is," Perry Bryant, PEIA Finance Board member and executive director of West Virginians for Affordable Health Care, said Monday.

Claims paid by PEIA for the recently ended 2007-08 budget year jumped more than $35 million, to $454.4 million.

While PEIA bucked national trends and saw prescription drug costs drop more than $6 million to $116.3 million - thanks to aggressive efforts to promote use of low-cost generic drugs - other medical claims jumped significantly.

Inpatient hospital costs jumped 20 percent, to $77.3 million, while outpatient services went up 18 percent, to $97.89 million.

Bryant said it appears more PEIA insurees are going to other states for hospital care.

Out-of-state hospitalizations are more costly, he said, because PEIA does not have the buying power to negotiate discount rates with those hospitals, and because those hospitalizations frequently involve costly specialty care.

"In a state with so many borders, a lot of people of going out-of-state for convenience, and many are also going for very high-end procedures," Bryant said. "It's a tough, tough issue in terms of access to medical care."

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Posted By: Bankruptcy Pending (8:37am 08-05-2008)
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We get a pitiful 3% raise and then they raise our insurance premiums! Guess Manchin doesn't want re-elected or he will put a stop tho this crap or give us a better raise. The economy is going under and we are all better off on welfare.

Posted By: SoTired (8:09am 08-05-2008)
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PEIA is the Perfect Example of an Incompetent Agency.

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