The Virginia Private Colleges Benefits Consortium is a 501(c) (9)
employee welfare benefit plan within the meaning of ERISA and constitutes a
benefits consortium under Section 23.1-106 of the Code of Virginia. Seventeen
private colleges, each a member in good standing of the Council of Independent
Colleges in Virginia, Inc., are members of the Consortium.
These colleges are:
Appalachian College of Pharmacy
Appalachian School of Law
Averett
University
Bluefield University
Bridgewater College
Emory & Henry College
Ferrum College
Hampden-Sydney College
Hollins University
Mary Baldwin University
Randolph-Macon College
Roanoke College
Sweet Briar College
Southern Virginia University
University of Lynchburg
Virginia Union University
Virginia Wesleyan University
The Consortium covers 3,500 employees (6,300
lives in total) with medical, dental and vision benefit plans. The number of
covered employees by college ranges between 45 and 450. The Consortium is
governed by an 18-member Board of Directors. The President of each member
college serves, or selects a senior administrator to serve, on the Board. In
addition, the President of the Council of Independent Colleges in Virginia is a
Board member. All governing authority rests with the Board.
The Board has hired a benefits consultant (Marsh
& McLennan Agency), claims administrators (Anthem Health Plans of Virginia,
Inc., IngenioRx and Delta Dental of Virginia) and other vendors to provide
administrative, consultative and legal services.
The Consortium has developed 11 medical and five
dental plan designs for use by its member colleges. Each college may elect to
offer up to three medical and two dental plan designs to its eligible
employees. Plan designs offered for medical benefits include PPO, Open-access
HMO and high-deductible health plans. Member colleges may offer up to
five tiers of coverage: Ee only, Ee plus child, Ee plus children, Ee plus
spouse, and Ee plus family. Colleges are free to require covered employees to
contribute to the cost of coverage. The Consortium does not prescribe employee
contribution levels. Any such employee contributions are collected by the
college via payroll deduction. Terminated employees may continue their coverage
under COBRA. COBRA contributions are collected for the Consortium by a
third-party administrator.
The Consortium operates on a self-insured basis.
Contribution levels are set recognizing claims experience, plan design,
demographics and industry experience at each individual member college.
Contribution rates are set by the Board of Directors upon approval by an
actuarial services firm on a prospective experience rated basis. The
contribution rates for each college represent a blend of individual college
claims experience and overall Consortium claims experience in accordance with a
risk management strategy which includes both claims pooling and individual
stop-loss insurance.
The Consortium’s independent auditor is Brown,
Edwards & Company, L.L.P.
For Healthcare Transparency in Coverage information use the
below link and EIN 27-1367957.
https://www.anthem.com/machine-readable-file/search