Health Care/Oral Contraceptives:

October 2005 issue

The recently announced contracts negotiated by the University for health care are a bad deal for female staff. There is only ONE plan that covers oral contraceptives. During the info session today (10/05), the benefits folks even went over coverage for fertility treatments, which, incidentally, are offered by both HMO options. How Catholic and how un-Vincentian of us to ensure that both plans provide coverage of medicines that increase the chances of making babies, while pushing women who need oral contraception off into some corner.

Response

Source: Gary Miller
Title: Vice-President for Human Resources

The recent plan changes are actually a good deal for all employees. Premium increases were kept well below the national norm and benefits were not reduced. In an era of drastic benefits reductions and rapidly rising premiums, the DePaul University plans are a good deal for both men and women.

In response to the issue raised, please note that there has been no change in DePaul’s position regarding medical plan coverage for oral contraceptives. As such, DePaul complies with Illinois law on contraception equity in health insurance, which requires insurance companies that cover outpatient services and prescription drugs to cover all FDA-approved contraceptive drugs and devices. This statute only applies to fully-insured medical plans. The only fully insured plan that DePaul will offer in 2006 is HMO Illinois and HMO Illinois provides coverage for oral contraceptives. The elimination of the other two fully insured plans – Unicare HMO and Humana HMO – was based on reasons unrelated to plan design. The decisions were made to ensure a continuation of quality health care at an affordable premium.

Also note that there has been no practical reduction in benefits availability for oral contraceptives. Although two plans were eliminated (Humana and Unicare), the combined employee membership was small - roughly 150; the remaining HMO - HMO Illinois – is twice this size. Further, virtually all doctors participating in the Unicare and Humana networks are also in HMO Illinois, which offers the same coverage for contraception. As a result, there is no loss of benefit availability. Additionally, please note that for the very few employees that will need to change doctors to stay in an insured HMO, HMO Illinois has one of the largest provider networks in the state so there are plenty of physicians to choose from.

Finally, note that there is also a forum for employees to have input into the university’s benefits decisions - the University Compensation and Benefits committee. This committee has both faculty and staff representatives.