Six months after the Lafayette Parish School System began directly negotiating and contracting with providers like local hospitals, the system has saved $2.89 million on employee and retiree mediccal insurance.
Insurance companies, Superintendent Francis Touchet said, negotiate deals with doctors and hospitals. The school system is going directly to providers to negotiate savings above what insurance companies offer by leveraging its 10,000 employees and retirees as potential patients.
It’s a new approach for this area, Touchet said, and in the first six months, the self-insured school system has saved taxpayers $2.89 million. More than $2 million of the savings was from Ochsner Lafayette General Medical Center…