SOURCE: Ted Kohan Associate Vice President for Administration Leslie Gabbard / THE POST

Because of a national rise in health-care costs, Ohio University employees will pay a little more next year for their health-care coverage.

"Health-care costs just continue to rise, and that's a major concern for us," OU President Robert Glidden said.

Total university health-care costs will increase by about 15 percent, or an estimated total of $1.6 million, said Ted Kohan, associate vice president for administration.

Of that 15 percent, the university will pay 95 percent of the increase, and faculty members and employees will pay 5 percent, said Greg Fialko, assistant director of benefits for university human resources.

Although the actual premium increase for individual holders has not been determined, faculty members probably will pay the extra costs based on their salary levels, which means employees with a higher salary intake will cover more of the costs than faculty members with lower salaries, Fialko said.

In addition, OU will try to cover the increase over a length of time so individual holders will not have to undergo all costs in one year, Glidden said.

The increase partially stems from a decision made by the Benefits Advisory Committee - a group of representatives from all employee organizations that meets monthly to discuss benefit plans, Kohan said.

About a year and a half ago, the committee decided to switch to a managed care Preferred Provider Organization, which means the university negotiates with health-care providers to receive a discounted price for care, Kohan said. In return, insurance holders must receive care from a specific list of doctors who agree to the discounted fees.

Because of the discounted cost, both the university and faculty members save money with the PPO, which is why the university began to offer the plan, Kohan said.

Before the switch, faculty members were covered under a comprehensive plan, in which employees can use their choice of care-givers for a higher premium cost, he said.

Although the university still offers a comprehensive plan, many faculty members have taken the PPO offer, Kohan said.

But switching to the PPO, along with the nationally increasing health-care prices, forced the overall costs to increase, he said.

Although administrators thought they had budgeted enough money to cover increasing health-care costs, they did not have sufficient data to determine the exact rise and plan usage, Kohan said.

The increase also stems from the fact that costs did not increase at all from last year to this year, which means OU has to balance two years of a normal inflation increase, Kohan said.

Although health care costs may continue to rise, Fialko said OU will try to keep the faculty's cost share at 5 percent.

"We're just trying to keep it at a reasonable level for employees," he said.

Once the PPO plan has been at OU for a few more years, Fialko said costs will not increase by as high a percentage.

Exact premium increases will be decided when the university budget is finalized at the June Board of Trustees meeting, Kohan said.