PSJA ISD must disclose health insurance info
Forget the state’s requirement that a public entity (political subdivision) must respond to a public information request within 10 business days. In the case of PSJA ISD, it took six looooooooong months for The Advance to finally get what it requested LAST AUGUST. The date was Aug. 16, 2021, to be exact.
What were we looking for? # A copy of the RFP for the health insurance contract voted on during the Aug. 9, 2021 board meeting.
# Copies of the RFPs submitted by the seven vendors.
# The list of the people (names) who sat on the district’s selection/rating committee.
# A copy of the list showing how the vendors were rated by the committee in sequential form: 1-7.
# A copy of the health insurance contract between the district and the winning vendor, Puro Aseguro, Inc.
# A copy of the consulting contract PSJA ISD has in place with the health insurance consultant who spoke at the Aug. 9 board meeting and who recommended that Puro Aseguro Inc. be awarded the health insurance contract.
# A copy of the “Disability Agent Commissions.”
# A copy of the Agent Commissions PEPM/Medical Administration.
# Any and all emails between PSJA ISD staff and the consultant who spoke at the board meeting regarding the board vote Aug. 9, 2021.
Been a Long Time Coming
Under the Texas Public Information Act, if a public entity decides to ask for an opinion from the Office of the Attorney General, it must notify the requester. The Advance was never notified that the district was seeking an AG opinion.
Why was the district’s health insurance business in question? Because it had become a topic of conversation. The district’s long-standing health-insurance provider had been cut loose; the work given to another vendor. So, yes, people are going to talk. In PSJA, everything is always about politics until proven different. If a vendor has submitted the best bid (request for proposals), then they should get the work.
The only way to decide who submitted the best proposal is to actually see the paperwork. That’s why newspapers dig for the facts – to set the record straight.
It’s hard, though, when there is a six-month time lag.
A copy of the AG letter sent to PSJA ISD dated Jan. 27, 2022 was delivered to The Advance last week, and as it turned out, the information we requested last August is indeed subject to public disclosure.
According to that letter, PSJA ISD was asserting that making the requested information public may “implicate the proprietary interests of (the vendors that bid on the work).”
The vendors had time to also battle release of said info, had they been concerned about anything proprietary, but none came forward, according to the AG letter.
The Office of the Attorney General also wrote in the Jan. 27 letter that PSJA ISD had not provided information pertaining to all nine requested categories. Meaning, the district was not objecting to the release of all documents; just some.
As such, read the letter, the AG assumed that the categories not in dispute had already been turned over to The Advance.
Six months later, The Advance still has nada. Except for the copy of the AG letter stating that some of the information should have already been released, and the information in dispute had been ruled public information.
The only thing the district can withhold is the health insurance policy number.
Don’t need the policy number to look at the information we’re seeking. Namely, why did PSJA ISD change its health insurance carrier last year?
The district can always file suit against the AG, seeking to withhold certain information, but with that comes some bad PR and word of mouth.
“What can they be hiding?”
So, what should have taken 10 business days for the release of some of the information requested, turned into more like 126 business days. Not too far off the mark.
Oh, and also, the district missed the 15-day window to notify The Advance that it was seeking an opinion from the Texas AG, but why get picky?