MONTEREY – Following Salinas Valley Health’s announcement of its own initiative earlier this month, Montage Health recently announced a plan to help teachers with medical costs.
A $5 million contribution to the Community Foundation for Monterey County from Montage Health will create a new Montage Health Fund for Teachers. According to Erika Yanez, Montage Health spokesperson, the fund will provide financial support to all of Monterey County’s public and private school teachers to reduce their healthcare premiums.
“This is a one-time contribution, as part of our decades-long tradition of creating various kinds of innovative programs to help our community members manage healthcare costs,” said Yanez.
Each school will determine the official start dates for their teachers with funds being available to any teacher working in private or public K-12 schools in Monterey County.
Yanez said the management of the funds sits with Community Foundation for Monterey County and the Monterey County Office of Education.
“These funds are for insurance premiums and should be directly distributed through their district,” explained Yanez. “There is not an application process. Launch dates will be released by the districts prior to the end of the school year.”
There are caps on the amount of funds one teacher can get – $1,000 for full-time teachers and $500 for part-time.
“Every day, we count on our teachers to take care of our children,” said Montage Health President and CEO Dr. Steven Packer in his announcement last week. “It is our responsibility to take care of our teachers. I am honored to announce this new fund for teachers, who are critically important to the well-being and development of our community’s youth and future leaders. We’ve found that when we provide pricing concessions to insurers and unions, often the savings are not passed along to the teachers. This program will do just that.”
Earlier this month, Salinas Valley Health announced its own plan to help educators with their medical expenses by way of an agreement between the healthcare system and the Municipalities, Colleges, Schools Insurance Group.
The Municipalities, Colleges, Schools Insurance Group is a Joint Powers Authority created and operating under the Government Code and the Education Code of the state of California.
“Salinas Valley Health recognized that many teachers and other educators in our area were falling through the cracks of unaffordable commercial health insurance plans and low cost government healthcare programs,” said Salinas Valley Health Interim President/CEO, Allen Radner, M.D., in a press release. “The situation was unacceptable. We listened to concerns and diligently worked with MCSIG to provide educators with local, quality care at no additional cost to them.”
The agreement provides members with expanded care options at Salinas Valley Health Medical Center and Clinics with no additional premium costs to the current PPO Select Plan for MCSIG members. The agreement took effect March 1, with new cards to be issued.
Municipalities, Colleges, Schools Insurance Group provides a variety of health care plans to 27 public entities in Monterey County, as well as other regions including Bay View Academy, Big Sur Unified School District, Carmel Unified School District, the city of Seaside, Gonzales Unified School District, Hartnell Community College, King City Union School District, Monterey County Office of Education, Pacific Grove Unified School District, Salinas City Elementary School District, Salinas Union High School District, San Lucas Union School District, Santa Rita Union School District, and South Monterey County Joint Union High School District, among others.
“Educators dedicated to helping our children reach their full potential now have access to the comprehensive network of high quality health care services offered at Salinas Valley Health,” said Kati Bassler, President of Salinas Valley Federation of Teachers, in the release. “We reached this agreement in record time because we have local healthcare leaders who wanted to address this inequity and worked with MCSIG to cut though the financial challenges and red tape to better serve our educators and our community.”
Anyone covered by the MCSIG Select PPO plan can use their current insurance card at Salinas Valley Health, and members are able to use their current insurance ID cards until new ones are issued.
“MCSIG is constantly looking for ways to provide better coverage for our members at affordable rates,” said MCSIG Executive Director, Neddie Sarmiento, in a press release. “We are pleased with what we were able to accomplish working collaboratively with Salinas Valley Health. The result is a win/win for our educators and their families.”
The one year agreement between Salinas Valley Health and the Municipalities, Colleges, Schools Insurance Group is automatically renewable for an additional 12 months unless either party provides 60-day advance written notice to end it.
