The Health Care Committee examined and compared each individual benefit of the current plans (Preferred Care Community and Blue Choice Value) to ensure that there would be no loss of benefits.

The Health Care Committee extracted, line-by-line, the better benefit from each plan, to develop a customized District plan. In other words, if Preferred Care Opportunity had a better benefit in a specific category than Blue Choice Value, the committee used that benefit to establish the customized plan. The committe also did a side-by-side comparison with the Traditional Blue Cross and Blue Shield with Major Medical plan, to make certain that a plan was developed that was comparable, and even better in some areas than the plans currently offered.

Enhancements were then added to this customized plan - such as an increase to the eyewear allowance - and the plan became known as the Enhanced Plan. The Enhanced Plan is provided to members who were hired before 1991 at zero cost, and those hired after 1991 will pay 15% of the cost of the Enhanced Plan, which is a better plan at a cheaper price than they would have paid on January 1st for Blue Choice Value or Preferred Care Opportunity.

The committee also worked to develop an Economy Plan, which is a benefit plan that contains higher co-pays and deductibles as an alternative for members who would rather pay lower monthly premiums at a 5% contribution rate, as opposed to a 15% contribution rate.

The newly developed plans – the Enhanced and the Economy plan – were then sent out to bid.

Two carriers: Excellus Blue Cross and Blue Shield and MVP, stood out above the rest of the competitors.

The committee interviewed both insurance carriers before making a unanimous decision to select Excellus Blue Cross and Blue Shield as the sole provider of health insurance benefits to all employees in the Rochester City School District.