St. Paul teacher health plan agreement stops $4M penalty
St. Paul Public Schools no longer faces a costly penalty from its health insurance provider after the teachers union agreed to wait until 2021 to leave the district’s health plan.
Teachers and teacher aides voted in spring to leave the district’s HealthPartners plan next year for the state-run Public Employees Insurance Program (PEIP), which charges lower premiums.
But with the two-year HealthPartners contract running through 2020, the departure of 4,500 employees would have put the district on the hook for a $4 million early termination fee. The unions have said they didn’t know about the fee at the time of the vote.
Their exit also would have raised premiums for the remaining 1,500 district employees on the HealthPartners plan.
Read more: https://www.twincities.com/2019/09/04/st-paul-teacher-health-plan-agreement-stops-4m-penalty/