MEMBERS AND ALTERNATES PRESENT:
Beam, Linda
Jeffrey, Valerie
Brown, Donald
Chambers-Salazar, Polli
Cohen, Jeffrey
Elliott, Momi
Hayden, Diane
Leiby, Mary Ann
Chairperson
President’s Appointee
ECCFT
ECCFT (Alternate)
ECCFT
ECCE
President’s Appointee (Alternate)
ECCFT
Newton, Michael
Trevis, Michael
President’s Appointee
President’s Appointee
Turano, Debbie ECCE
MEMBERS AND ALTERNATES ABSENT:
DeSanto, Michael
Higdon, Jo Ann
Lindberg, Lynn
Miranda, Gloria
POA (Alternate)
Co-Chairperson
President’s Appointee (Alternate)
President’s Appointee
POA
President’s Appointee
Robertson, Gary
Sutton, Philip
ALSO ATTENDING:
Jamie Kaplan, Keenan & Associates
Thomas Brown, El Camino College
Open Meeting and Introductions/Roll Call
The meeting was called to order at 1:05 pm by Linda Beam.
Roll call and introductions were made. Thomas Brown is attending for JoAnn Higdon at this meeting.
Approval of Minutes – May 27, 2014
Linda asked the group if they reviewed the May 27, 2014 minutes.
We may need to remove Mary Ann from minutes as Mary Ann said she did not attend.
Linda requested that the sign in sheet from last time be pulled for verification.
Linda said meetings are held at 1:00 pm, but we can re-address it or keep as is. Due to class schedules, the Faculty needs to have them at 1:00 pm.

September 23, 2014
El Camino College
Insurance Benefits Committee Meeting
Page 2 of 6
Premium and Claims Reports
Dental Expense Loss Ratio from August 2012 through July 2013 was 88.13%.
Dental Expense Loss Ratio from August 2013 through July 2014 was 89.49%.
Vision Paid Loss Ratio from August 2012 through July 2013 was 78.53%.
Vision Paid Loss Ratio from August 2013 through July 2014 was 80.23%.
Momi asked when El Camino reevaluates the dental plan. Linda explained how Keenan is the broker, but Delta Dental is the plan administrator and they handle the claims and processes, including taking care of administrative components. Two years ago the District found out the loss ratio was 98%. El Camino had Keenan do a recalculation with their actuary and it was determined that the District needed to increase their employee contributions in 2012.
Linda said that a Paid Loss Ratio in the 80’s is a good number. The District would like to make sure they have sufficient money in the account to take care of the claims.
She explained that Keenan’s underwriting department looks at the trends to evaluate the plan and a recommendation is then made to El Camino. There may also be an increase to the cost of dental services. That is why they decided to make an adjustment and increase the rates.
Linda explained how the vision plan works. El Camino has a contract with VSP and that is negotiated every two years. Because of the Affordable Care Act, a component within the law, an additional charge of 2% (service fee) was added to the rates, even though the utilization remained the same.
Linda also explained how the Delta Dental PPO plan is self insured and they monitor the use through the Premium & Claims reports.
Medical, Dental & Vision Updates
The District has 11 med plans to choose from on CalPERS. It’s nice to offer a variety but it is more complicated to administer.
Delta Dental Premier PPO rates were decreased by 0.24%. Delta Care HMO rates have increased by 2%. VSP vision rates have increased by 5.2%.
This information will also be available on the District website, including the District and employee contributions. Depending on what plans the employee chooses, will determine what the employee contributions will be.
The 2015 Maximum District Contributions for medical are:
Employee Only – $590.00
Two party – $1,022.00
Family – $1,328.00

September 23, 2014
El Camino College
Insurance Benefits Committee Meeting
Page 3 of 6
Jeff asked why these numbers have not changed. He said it was imposed on Faculty. What is the structure of the District contribution and is it based on each bargaining unit?
Linda said each unit has a provision in their contract for the benefits package. For Faculty, these are the numbers for the benefits that were in the contract. The Classified unions also agreed to these numbers. At this time these numbers are the same as Faculty and all employees have the same contributions. As time goes on, these are the areas that each group can bring to the table to change.
Tom Brown asked if there was a request to change the contribution amounts. Linda said he can discuss this with his union. She also said all proposals are shared with members and this was not something discussed in depth.
Jeff asked if this is something that cannot be brought up for 2 years. He said it’s fixed for
2015, but what about 2016? Linda said she thinks the contract cannot be opened up since it is a 3 year contract. All groups have the same 3-year contract.
Debbie Torano asked what the difference is between Delta Dental Premier and DeltaCare.
Jamie explained the difference between the two plans.
Momi asked how many years the DeltaCare plan has been in place.
Valerie said that the District has had the plan in place for many years. She also mentioned how the Delta Dental PPO plan has a huge network and there is an employee contribution for two party and family coverage. Valerie also said the DeltaCare plan is more restricted based on a smaller network of dentists; however, it does include an orthodontia benefit. She has observed that most changes made during Open Enrollment are employees moving from the HMO to the PPO plan.
For medical plans, the Blue Shield Net Value HMO plan went up 22.73%. The United
Healthcare HMO and PERS Choice plans had a decrease in premiums. Out of the 11 plans,
3 of the plan premiums decreased and the other 8 plans increased. If you look at the open enrollment document, you can see the differences in cost from last year to this year for each of the plans.
Linda asked if anyone had questions regarding contributions and rates. We contract with
CalPERS and they negotiate on El Camino’s behalf. They have done a good job on cost containment by keeping rates low.
Momi asked for details about the CalPERS dependent verification audit.
Linda explained how CalPERS is contracted with HMS Employer Solutions. As of now, school employees are scheduled for December 2014 and January 2015 for the audit. She said if you have dependents on your health care coverage, HMS will be contacting each person to verify the eligibility of their dependents. If you have children on the plan, they will request the front page of tax forms and you can block out the income section when turning it in. Their income tax filings indicate who are lawful dependents and spouses. They want employees to show proof for dependents so they can qualify for coverage. They will send a

September 23, 2014
El Camino College
Insurance Benefits Committee Meeting
Page 4 of 6 letter to the last known address on file and provide a few options for showing proof of eligibility. Employees can mail, scan, or fax the documents to HMS once completed.
Linda explained to the Committee that opposite sex domestic partners may have medical coverage only when one partner is over age 62 so you can preserve Social Security.
Michael Newton asked if dependents that are removed during open enrollment will come off the plan effective January 1, 2015. Valerie said yes and to contact her for the form.
Linda advised the members not to ignore the dependent verification form in the mail. If it is ignored, CalPERS will drop dependents, so they NEED to send in the form. It is a right that CalPERS has to remove them with no proof. Due to cost factors, they want to make sure only eligible dependents are covered on the plan.
Open Enrollment & Health Fair
The Health Fair will be held on Thursday, September 25 th from 9:00 am – 12:00 pm in the
Student Activities Center. It’s a chance to meet with carriers and vendors. The CalPERS representatives will only be there from 9:00 am – 11:00 am. Valerie said that CalPERS also has webinars available on their website to answer questions and give information to employees about their plans.
She asked the union representatives to please remind members that Open Enrollment ends on October 10, 2014 for employees to make changes, if needed. The Human Resources department has a variety of forms, with instruction sheets, available in the office.
American Fidelity will have a representative at the Health Fair. Their Open Enrollment period is from November 3, 2014 through December 2, 2014 and Valerie will send out email reminders.
CalPERS used to mail Evidence of Coverage booklets to each member’s home, but they are now going green and the booklets are posted on their website.
One change for all 2015 HMO plans, is that the chiropractic coverage is now under the medical benefits, instead of being outsourced.
Linda Beam said she is trying to make all information available on the Human Resources website through a link. Valerie will send an email with the link, when available.
New Business
Don Brown said he doesn’t think it was the desire of the Committee to have it this way, but he would like to discuss the idea that if any negotiations are made this year, then benefits should be included in COLA. He doesn’t know if it was the Federation’s fault that it wasn’t brought up. He suggests that there be an increase in COLA on the allowable maximum. He would like the group to make recommendations to always consider benefits when COLA is

September 23, 2014
El Camino College
Insurance Benefits Committee Meeting
Page 5 of 6 being discussed in negotiations. He would hate to hear that the District refused to put it on the table as part of the discussion. He feels strongly that the Committee has potential to go on record with their position on this topic. Even though the contract is set, he would still like to discuss it this year. Benefits are part of pay packages and somehow it was left out of the discussions this year.
Linda said contracts are settled with two larger units starting in 2014 through December 31,
2016. There are 3 different units here. The POA would like to be respectful of each bargaining unit’s autonomy.
The Federation will represent their own members. Linda wants to be fair to the Federation members that are at the table. There were different priorities that were presented at the table at that time.
Jeff said that we have Classified, Faculty and Police. For the unrepresented groups, which are Management, Supervisory, and the Classifieds who are not represented by any organization, the President makes recommendations for the Board to decide.
Don said there were losses in the imposed contract. We were not all divided before; we were one mind and this creates complications now. The whole reason the Committee was set up in the past was because all groups were separated. It would be much better to be able to have a means to work together once again on potential improvements in the benefits package.
Linda said salary and benefits are the basic tenets of negotiation. This Committee can take a look at how many and who is in each plan, and the current level of benefits that are being provided. They have had the Delta plan for a while now which is status quo. They can possibly add orthodontia coverage, but it will be more money.
She also said implants are a common topic of discussion. As members get older, dental implants are more common instead of dentures. If it is important to members, maybe they would like to know what it would cost to add that as a benefit. We can have the opportunity to take a look at that next go around. One possibility is to do a survey to find out what areas of benefits are of interest to our employees. The Bargaining units can then decide if that’s something they want to pursue.
Linda is not sure if this Committee can go back to what it was a number of years ago. There are now 4 separate groups and the numbers can change for each group.
Momi asked what the goals are for next year.
Linda said that things are in a period of transition.
Don said it used to be a true management committee and they tried to make changes over the years, usually for cost savings. Then it was employees versus management. They looked at a JPA at one point in time. The employees voted for it, but management voted against it.

September 23, 2014
El Camino College
Insurance Benefits Committee Meeting
Page 6 of 6
He said there are actual models of employee health committees. The Los Angeles
Community College District has a working model that is worthy of inspection.
Linda said at the next meeting the group can discuss this. It can be more of an investigative committee to include cost saving activities and what’s in the best interest of members, because knowledge is important. Since benefits are a huge resource for employees, “Rhe
Direction of the Committee” will be added to the next agenda.
Legislative Updates
The Legislative updates were put on hold until the next meeting because there was not enough time to review everything.
Agenda Items for Next Meeting
Linda said the Committee has great opportunity to manage benefits and business pieces.
She said to send any agenda items to her or Valerie for the next meeting.
Last year had a lot of changes going on with the Affordable Care Act. Governor Brown just signed into law that all employees will receive sick leave. For every 30 hours employees work, they will get sick leave, including hourly, subs and student assistants. This will change the methodology and they will have to track and monitor whether or not student assistants and custodians are eligible.
We strive to keep the Committee updated as Federal and State legislative changes affect the community.
Meeting Adjourned
The meeting was adjourned at 1:58 pm. The next meeting will be held on October 28, 2014 at 1:00 pm at El Camino College in the Library, Room 202.