University Benefits Committee Hosts Health Plan Info Session

Members of the University Benefits Committee and Harvard Benefits held the first of three planned information sessions on the 2015 University healthcare plan Friday afternoon, according to an announcement emailed to faculty and non-union staff.

The closed event, hosted at the Center for Workplace Development on Mount Auburn Street, featured a question-and-answer session with UBC affiliates.

University administrators formally announced changes to the University healthcare plan for faculty and nonunion staff last September, citing the burden of rising healthcare costs. The plan consisted of reduced premiums and also introduced deductibles for the first time, which faced controversy when professors in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences unanimously passed a motion in November to ask the Harvard Corporation to reverse the changes. In response, University President Drew G. Faust wrote in a community-wide letter that the University would keep the changes but would also establish a fund to mitigate cost increases for some employees and explore alternative plan designs for the future.

“For the 2016 plan, we are looking at a lot of different options, and the president asked us to look into whether we should also offer a tiered network product,” Robert C. Clark, former dean of the Law School and current UBC member, said after the information session. “It adds another level complexity because we are not sure if the products we could get are good.”

Clark also said that the UBC is considering a limited-network plan, similar to the program that he experienced while a professor at Yale, that restricts patient choice of provider but could potentially cover more services.

“It’s all simple...but you can only go to this or that hospital,” said Clark. “It costs more, but it covers a lot of stuff.”

The next two information sessions will be held on March 16 and March 20 in Longwood and Cambridge, respectively.

—Staff writer William C. Skinner can be reached at wskinner@college.harvard.edu. Follow him on Twitter @wskinner.