OSU examines health care plans for faculty/staff

In the face of rising health care costs nationally, Ohio State is looking to control costs while still providing high-quality health care. The University is in the early stages of reviewing the health plans it offers to faculty and staff.

"Everything is on the table," said Nicholas D. Maul, director of benefits finance and risk management for human resources. "We are evaluating the plans from the ground up."

The review is the first to take place since the plans were implemented in 1994.

A Health Plan Evaluation Committee was formed last spring to study the current systems and make recommendations for changes. The 25-member committee, chaired by Stephen L. Wilson, associate professor of allied medicine, is comprised of faculty and staff members from a cross-section of key University units and organizations.

Rapid increases in the cost of providing health care have forced the University to take action.

"Several recent studies, looking at both Ohio and the nation, have shown that health care costs are running from 10 to 15 percent higher this year than in 1999," said Larry M. Lewellen, associate vice president for human resources. "Ohio State is not alone in facing this issue."

Factors such as rising prescription drug prices, new technologies, increased emergency room use in and out of network, government-mandated health care reform, and the aging University population are contributing to the cost increases, said Judith V. Kadja, director of benefits and wellness services for human resources.

Current premiums are based on projections formed by looking at costs during the calendar year of 1999. "The calendar year we used to project the current year was low, but the costs this year have turned out to be very high," Maul said.

The Health Plan Evaluation Committee is expected to make its initial report, recommending short-term cost reduction changes for fiscal year 2001, to the University administration by mid-December.

Short-term solutions, which could be implemented for April's open enrollment in the health plans, might include increasing copayment rates for office and emergency room visits, urgent care and inpatient stays, and for prescription drug copayments both at retail and mail service pharmacies. Copayments for therapy visits, such as occupational, physical or speech therapies, and outpatient surgery may also be introduced.

Ohio State health plans, by working in partnership with the Medical Center to control costs, have had a $10 copayment for primary care services since 1989, Kadja said. "We've been fortunate that we've been able to keep the copayment low for as long as we have, while still providing quality care to OSU faculty and staff. Many employers are considering moving to a $20 copayment," Kadja said.

Other options under consideration are reducing the percentage paid for covered services and increasing the annual out-of-pocket maximums and annual deductible amounts per person and family. Increasing the annual prescription drug out-of-pocket limit, increasing behavioral health case management and linking premium contributions to level of salary are also being discussed.

The committee has solicited faculty and staff opinions through forums and surveys. "We're asking, ÔWhat is most viable for you? What would be the least painful to change?'" Maul said.

Preliminary findings show staff and faculty are concerned about timely access to primary care physicians; many expressed a desire for choices in providers and health care plans, and felt that in-patient expenses should remain at 100 percent.

Increasing the office visit copay received mixed reactions, but there was support for adding copays to physical therapy, speech therapy and occupational therapy. In general, there was agreement that users of health care services should pay more than nonusers, Kadja said.

As part of the evaluation process, Ohio State is comparing its health benefits to those offered by other employers. "We've compared peer institutions and other universities with medical centers. We're also looking at other central Ohio employers as well as some national comparisons," Kadja said.

Ohio State's peer institutions offer similar medical plans, Kadja said, and many of them are looking to make changes.

The health plan committee is charged with devising substantial changes by fiscal year 2003.

"In regard to long-term changes, we're asking questions such as, ÔDo we need to have four health plans?' and ÔHow do we make the value of the plan comparable for regional campuses and county agencies?' We're looking for new delivery models for health care management," Kadja said.

Preventive care will likely be emphasized more in the future. "In the long term, we'd like to be even more proactive about health care, rather than reactive," Kadja said.

Tough choices will have to be made, Lewellen said. "Ohio State has always prided itself on the excellent benefits we offer," he said. "There is a connection between benefits and salary. To the extent that one goes up, the other is restricted. We need to have a balance to be competitive in the labor market."

Additional forums will be held during winter quarter, on the Columbus campus and at all regional campuses. For more information, visit www.ohr.ohio-state.edu/hprc.htm.

Efforts intensified to improve athletes' progress toward graduation

Ohio State is intensifying efforts to develop student athletes who are winners in the classroom and in the sports arena.

Administrators have adopted a number of proposals made by University Senate's Athletic Council and endorsed by President William E. Kirwan to improve student athletes' progress toward graduation. Chief among them is Office of Academic Affairs (OAA) involvement in oversight of the academic support operation for athletes.

As part of its examination of athletes' academic performance, the Athletic Council's Committee on Academic Progress and Eligibility recommended that Student Athlete Support Services carry dual reporting lines; previously, the office reported only to the athletic director. In addition, David O. Frantz, professor of English and last year's Athletic Council chair, has been appointed to function as a faculty liaison between Student Athlete Support Services and OAA.

David O. Frantz will serve as a faculty liaison between Student Athlete Support Services and OAA.

The new structure, now in place, is endorsed by Director of Athletics Andy Geiger and Martha Garland, vice provost and dean for undergraduate studies. Frantz reports to Garland in his capacity as liaison, and has office space within Student Athlete Support Services in the Younkin Success Center.

"The partnership between Athletics and Academic Affairs provides a great opportunity to look at our population as a subgroup to come up with solutions for the whole student body," said Kate Riffee, director of Student Athlete Support Services. "The connection has been very helpful from an educational standpoint."

Ohio State has been cited externally for its declining athletic graduation rates in light of recently released national statistics, and is taking dramatic steps to reverse those trends and enhance the academic environment for athletes, Garland said. The University already has established academic requirements that exceed National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) guidelines for eligibility. Though the NCAA requires scholarship athletes to enroll full-time (12 hours) in courses that count toward graduation -- including electives -- the Colleges of the Arts and Sciences require that student athletes take at least 35 hours each year that cover the General Education Curriculum, major, or major prerequisite requirements.

"The single biggest thing we need to work on is having student athletes make progress toward a degree rather than just maintaining eligibility," Frantz said. "Then, even if people leave early, they will be on the right track, and when they're ready, they can finish school.

"We also have to change the ethos at the University. The expectation from the outset should be the attainment of a degree," he said.

Garland noted that certain elements of student progress -- such as concerns about the curriculum and enrollment management issues -- are most appropriately broached by a faculty liaison, in this case a longtime OSU faculty member who is respected by colleagues and students. Frantz has taught at Ohio State for more than three decades, is a member of the Academy of Teaching and received a Faculty Award for Distinguished University Service in 1997.

Frantz and Riffee were part of a panel in July that told the University Board of Trustees that reports focusing on the graduation rates of student athletes at Ohio State don't tell the whole story -- in fact, about 90 percent of student athletes who exhaust their eligibility do graduate from the University, and in most cases, athletes' grade point averages match or exceed those of the rest of the student body.

As it developed proposals relating to athletes' academic performance, the panel visited three other institutions -- the University of Nebraska and Florida State and Penn State universities -- whose student-athlete graduation rates exceed Ohio State's. The group, representing the Athletic Council and its Committee on Academic Progress and Eligibility as well as the director of athletics, the vice president for student affairs and Student Athlete Support Services staff, noted that the academic performance of student athletes has been given considerable attention at Ohio State for the past three years. Three years ago, for the first time, athletes' graduation rates dipped below the overall student graduation rates at Ohio State. The trend has continued; for the class that entered in 1993, the six-year graduation rate for athletes was 50 percent, and for the overall student body, it was 56 percent. The national average Division I student-athlete graduation rate is 58 percent, according to the NCAA.

The panel found that challenges at Ohio State, for both student athletes and the entire student population, include the use of the quarter system, the nonuniformity of the General Education Curriculum, the ability to drop courses late in a quarter and the inability to enroll in desired majors in some cases.

"Student athletes are a special set of students about whom we have concerns. We have concerns about all kinds of sets of students," Garland said. "Improvements we make for these students are improvements that will benefit all students."

Among athletes, Ohio State also sees a higher transfer rate out of the University for those whose athletic, not academic, success is unsatisfactory -- which counts against the athlete graduation rate. Ohio State also has more aided athletes than any other Division I institution in the country -- 502 of the University's 850 athletes are on scholarship. Student Athlete Support Services employs seven full-time counselors, a life skills coordinator and manager of study tables and tutors, six graduate student mentors working one-on-one with athletes, and about 70 tutors, proctors and computer lab monitors.

Riffee said that though many athletes' decision to leave OSU is not related to their academic standing, the climate for them while they're here is a factor in their success.

"Everyone who crosses the path of a student athlete needs to have the academic mission in mind," she said. "We must provide an environment that's conducive to graduation. Asking them how things are going in a class is OK. You never need permission to care about an individual."

Other recommendations related to student athletes include:

• Consistently measuring and advising student athletes' progress toward graduation, expanding the successful graduate student mentoring program for athletes, and collaborating with writing and mathematics centers;

• Collecting data on why and when athletes leave, and continuing an outreach program designed to bring them back to finish their degrees;

• Instituting new admissions practices, including faculty involvement in a review of all high school transcripts before any offers of athletic scholarships are made;

• Working with the University as a whole to define progress, streamline the GEC, reduce closed majors, initiate summer programming, and explore the possibility of offering a major in general studies; and

• Improving the climate for athletes, changing attitudes and expectations about academic performance, and celebrating athletes' academic successes more visibly and vigorously.

"This is not just about numbers," Garland said. "If an athlete's career is interrupted, we don't want that interruption to be fatal.

"Ohio State's athletics program is excellent, and we're proud of that," she said. "But we must not lose sight of the need to support these athletes as students first, so they can achieve success once they leave the University."