Lake-Lehman students get unscheduled half-day off, teachers get new prescription coverage

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LEHMAN TWP. &#8212; Elementary students at Lake-Lehman School District will get an unscheduled half-day off Wednesday while teachers get news of a change in prescription insurance coverage. Superintendent James McGovern said the district will save about $100,000 a year by switching coverage providers, but there are &#8220;no contractual changes&#8221; for teachers.&#8220;The high school was already having a half-day, so we figured it would be easier to get everyone together at one time,&#8221; McGovern said. The district is switching coverage from Express Scripts to US Scripts. A representative from US Scripts will be at a meeting with teachers Wednesday afternoon.&#8220;Any time you change providers you may change cards and stuff like that,&#8221; McGovern said. &#8220;We want to make sure they have a chance to hear about it all as a group and that if they have any questions they can meet privately with the US Scripts representative.&#8221;Lake-Lehman is free to make changes in insurance coverage because the district withdrew from the Northeast Pennsylvania School Health Trust last year. The trust is a consortium of area districts and education agencies, and it currently provides prescription coverage through Express Scripts.Generally, member districts can&#8217;t leave the trust without union approval, and must give the trust a year&#8217;s notice of intent to leave. In 2012 Lake-Lehman negotiated an unusual agreement hat allowed it to seek medical coverage from a different provider while still getting dental and vision coverage through the trust, thus remaining a member.That arrangement ended last year when trust attorney Scott Gartley said it could no longer be honored. Gartley cited a years-long lawsuit between two districts and the trust. Dallas and Pittston Area withdrew from the trust in 2007 and sued for what they claimed was their share of the trust surplus.The suit hinged on whether the trust was &#8220;segregated,&#8221; meaning each district&#8217;s assets were essentially accounted separately, or &#8220;pooled&#8221; with all assets commingled. Gartley said the Lake-Lehman arrangement was only possible while that legal argument was unsettled.When the trust won the &#8220;pooled&#8221; argument, Gartley told the trust board the Lake-Lehman deal could no longer continue because it effectively made the trust segregated. In April 2013 McGovern asked the trust&#8217;s board to change the rules so Lake-Lehman&#8217;s arrangement could continue, but the trust rejected the request and Lake-Lehman fully withdrew from the trust.