Health Plan

The Native American Schools Health Plan has developed a program for Native American Schools which provides health benefits to school employees and does not pay profits to a health insurance company. The concept is called self-funding.

Under a self-funded plan, the employer sets money aside to pay for employee and dependent health care costs. If the employee or dependent does not use the monies set aside for health care benefits, the monies remain in the plan to be used by the employer.

The Native American Schools Health & Welfare Plan has made arrangements for the participating schools to contract with Summit Administrators, a Third Party Administrator. Summit Administrators is responsible for the processing of claims for health benefits, payment of stop loss insurance, reports, preparation of IRS reports, COBRA and HIPAA administration and much more. Summit Administrators has been affiliated with Third Party Administration of self funded plans for over 20 years and specializes in providing these services to Native American owned business.

The Native American Schools Health & Welfare Plan has assisted the participating schools in securing a stop loss insurance company. A stop loss insurance company is a company that limits the risk of self-funding by protecting the employer against excessive losses due to large claims, or too many claims.

The Benefits

Under a self-funded health benefit plan, the employer can develop health care benefits that are meaningful to the school employees and that are within the budget limitations of the school. Initially, it is recommended that the benefit follow a prototype that has been developed by the current participating schools This prototype is designed to provide benefits most commonly needed by the employees, including a wellness benefit that promotes healthy employees. Furthermore, the plan is designed not to pay for services already paid for by public sector programs such as IHS, thus saving the school's financial resources for meaningful employee health care benefits.

In addition, once the school has established a utilization pattern and adequate financial reserves for future needs, the plan may be modified to add or change benefits as deemed appropriate. For example, several schools have indicated the desire to implement a Medicine Man benefit or enhanced wellness programs.

Life insurance is a critical part of employee benefits. As a result, the Native American Schools Health & Welfare Plan has made arrangements with Lincoln Financial Group to provide employee and dependent life insurance, Short Term and Long Term disability programs at a very competitive price. Like the health benefit plan, the life insurance programs can be customized to the needs of the employer and the budget available to the school.

The Advantages

Native American Schools Health Plan has been assisting grant schools with their employee benefit needs since 1988. As a result, There are several advantages to being a member of the Native American Schools Health & Welfare Plan. Summarized below are just a few of the reasons that every grant school should consider joining this association.

The benefit designs and programs recommended by the Plan have been evaluated and implemented by schools and have a proven successful track record.

There are over 18 schools with over 1,400 employees participating in these plans and a result, we can secure discounted rates for most of the benefits recommended.

The members (typically the Executive Directors of each school) meet on a quarterly basis to review the operation of the plans, experiences of the employees, and the performance of the insurance companies and administrators. From these meetings recommendations are made to improve the program on an ongoing basis.

Education forums are held on a regular basis in order to keep the members aware of the various issues and laws that affect employee health care needs.

The exclusive agent for the programs is CURE Inc. CURE Inc. and it's principals have been providing the management services to the schools since inception. They are expert in the employee benefit requirements of Native American Grant Schools and are always available for employee meetings, school board meetings and consultation to the administration of the school.

In addition to health and life benefit programs, there are employer assistance programs available through CURE Inc. that include property & casualty programs, Pension plans (401(k)) and consultation services as needed.

This list of reasons for grant schools to join this program could go on for several pages. Why not call us and find out why your school should join the Native American Schools Health Plan.