Special PEBB Board Meeting TOMORROW--Suspend HEM Surcharges!

The PEBB board has set a special meeting this Thursday (Feb. 16) from 10 a.m. – 1pm in the PEBB-OEBB boardroom at 1225 Ferry St. in Salem to consider the HEM Joint Labor-Management Committee’s recommendations to change the current HEM.

The primary recommendation of our committee is to suspend the surcharges, but we have also recommended changes to some of the basic rules of HEM. PEBB will be voting on whether to accept any, some or all of our recommendations at this meeting. The board has scheduled time to receive public and written testimony between 11 and 11:30. All board meetings are open to the public.

Given that suspending the surcharges is our primary recommendation, our SEIU PEBB Board representatives will argue for this. This action would give the Board an important opportunity to restore some faith among members that PEBB is willing to reexamine a program in response to our feedback.

Taking the decisive step to suspend the surcharges this Thursday will demonstrate an ability to correct missteps. But as important as the suspension recommendation is, our other recommendations would improve how HEM works. These include charging only $20 (standardizing the opt-out surcharge amount) for married couples when only one spouse chooses to sign up, allowing members to decide at any time during the year if they want to join the HEM (and stop paying the surcharges), and continuing to focus on safeguarding data-security and privacy.

If you haven’t done so already, there is still time to sign the petition to suspend the surcharges – please click here to add your name.

In future HEM joint labor management committee meetings, we will focus on the approach to healthy choices that we think PEBB should explore for 2013. On Saturday, March 31 our Union will host a Health Care Summit in Salem where we will have a break out on HEM. Our committee members will be looking to you to get thoughts on the direction the PEBB board should go as we look for strategies for dealing with unsustainable cost increases in our health care. We encourage you to save the date.

In unity,

Keary DeBeck, DOJ, Salem
Sabrina Freewynn, OHA, Portland
Wednesday Martin, DHS, Roseburg
Lois Yoshishige, UofO, Eugene
Shaun Parkman, Alternate, OHA, Portland
Siobhan Martin, Staff Advisor

hemcommittee@seiu503.org