David J. Gray, Senior Vice President for Finance and Business/Treasurer, announces selection of third party administrators for medical and prescription drug benefits at Penn State
Dear Penn State employees,
Penn State’s contract with Highmark, its current third party administrator (TPA) for health care benefits, ends on December 31, 2017. Penn State has been hard at work over the past several months exploring medical and prescription drug TPA options as part of a commitment to University employees to continue to provide access to high-quality, competitive health care benefits at an affordable, sustainable cost.
Following an extensive review process, I am pleased to announce that the University has selected Aetna as its TPA for the medical benefits program and CVS Caremark as its TPA for the prescription drug program.
The contracts with Aetna and CVS Caremark, chosen through comprehensive requests for proposal (RFP) processes, will take effect on January 1, 2018, and run through December 31, 2020.
While the details of the agreements are still being finalized, the selection of Aetna and CVS Caremark was made based on criteria that we know are important to our employees, including:
- an expectation of very little provider disruption for medical and prescription drug services;
- Aetna’s and CVS Caremark’s abilities to offer good access to in-network providers across the Commonwealth;
- Aetna’s and CVS Caremark’s programs being in-line with Penn State’s philosophy of providing affordable, high-quality care for employees, while engaging employees to be more involved in the management of their own health; and
- Aetna’s and CVS Caremark’s costs of services being lower, as a whole, than the previous provider.
Throughout the RFP processes, a steering committee comprised of faculty, staff and administrators with expertise in health care, health insurance, finance, procurement, and human resources, guided the University’s decision-making process. They reviewed options and made recommendations for the choices of medical and prescription drug TPAs based on key qualitative and quantitative measures, such as those noted above.
We will be sharing more information about the new agreements in the coming months, including answering important questions about ID cards, access to physicians, etc., through home mailings, the Penn State News site, and Penn State Today. I also strongly urge you to visit the 2018 medical benefits plan design microsite where you’ll will find a broad range of information on the medical and prescription drug plans, the processes for selecting TPAs, and much more.
Sincerely,
David J. Gray, Senior Vice President for Finance and Business/Treasurer