The idea of the redesign is to shift some of the costs to the people who are actually using the plan and therefore make them more conscious of costs. The other option is to split the increase among all the employees participating in the plan. Kastelic said that her husband had an expensive surgery recently. Because they used a Blue Cross doctor, money was saved. Patty Kastelic said that a list of the network doctors is available in a booklet and is on the web.
Employees can also ask their doctors if they are network providers.
Christensen asked if people using emergency rooms for routine problems would be charged more for out of pocket. She said that we don't want to discourage people from going to the emergency room who really need to. Kastelic said that she would be giving a report to the Board of Regents in February. Kastelic said that for now, plan changes would be made so that the costs don't increase as much. The idea is to do something now so we can avoid a larger employee contribution in 2000.