Trustees to meet to discuss health care

Although IU employee health care is on the docket for Friday's meeting of the IU board of trustees, officials insist the contract dispute between Anthem/WellPoint, IU's health-insurance provider, and Bloomington Hospital will not take center stage.\nThe presentation, titled "Update: Employee Health Care Program," will be given by Dan Rives, IU associate vice president for administration and University human resources, according to the meeting's agenda. The presentation is one of a number of issues to be discussed today at the trustees' regularly scheduled meeting at IU-Purdue University Indianapolis.\n"I am not anticipating talking about (the dispute)," Rives said. "I will probably only discuss it if asked."\nHe said both he and the trustees remained "optimistic" the situation would still be worked out before the Dec. 31 deadline. Therefore, he said, he did not feel it was necessary to bring up the dispute during his presentation to the trustees. Rives said the board would discuss a back-up plan in the future should the parties not reach an agreement by the deadline.\nIU officials interviewed over the past several weeks have said the University expects both sides to reach an agreement by the deadline and have not yet begun to develop alternate plans.\nFor seven months, Bloomington Hospital and Anthem -- the health-care provider for IU employees -- have been hinged in reaching an agreement for a contract renewal.\nThe contract will expire Dec. 31, and unless the two sides reach a concession, employees and students under the state's largest health-care provider will be forced to pay significantly higher "out-of-network" fees at Bloomington Hospital and PromptCare clinics, among other Bloomington-area health-care facilities. \nAlong with Rives' presentation, the trustees will be addressed by both IU President Adam Herbert and Ted Miller, president of the Bloomington Faculty Council. \nThe board is also expected to vote on several issues, including the priorities of the 2006-2007 board committees, the approval of individuals to the IU Southeast board of advisors and the ratification of the current structural relationship between the president of the IU Foundation and the University president.