The road to tyranny.
Ochsner will make unvaccinated spouses of employees pay $200 per month to remain insuredBY EMILY WOODRUFF | STAFF WRITER SEP 30, 2021
As the deadline nears for Ochsner Health employees to get vaccinated or lose their jobs, the health system is also increasing pressure for employees' family members to get a shot.
Ochsner, the state's largest health system, will now add a health insurance surcharge of $100 per pay period for employees with unvaccinated domestic partners or spouses who are covered under the system's benefits plan, according to a letter Ochsner leaders sent to employees.
The “spousal COVID vaccine fee,” will begin in 2022 and could deduct up to $2,400 yearly from an employee’s bi-weekly paycheck. According to the letter, the fee is only for domestic partners or spouses, not other dependents, such as children, who are covered by the employee’s health insurance and are eligible for vaccination.
The change comes after an evaluation of plan benefits, services and costs, CEO Warner Thomas said.
"The reality is the cost of treating COVID-19, particularly for patients requiring intensive inpatient care, is expensive, and we spent more than $9 million on COVID care for those who are covered on our health plans over the last year," said Thomas in an emailed statement.
It's becoming more common for employers to make unvaccinated people on employer-sponsored insurance plans pay more to cover the high potential cost of COVID care.
Delta Air Lines, for instance, announced it would raise health insurance premiums by $200 per month for unvaccinated employees starting Nov. 1. In a memo to employees, Delta CEO Ed Bastian said that COVID-19 hospitalizations cost the company an average of $50,000 per case.
Thomas said the surcharge is part of an effort to keep health premiums low for employees. Unvaccinated patients accounted for 90% of COVID hospitalizations in Ochsner facilities.
The premium for unvaccinated spouses shifts that cost to those who accept that risk, said Charles Stoecker, a Tulane University professor who studies the economics of health care and vaccination.
"Now those people have some incentives to consider the cost of the care that they're asking other people to pay for," said Stoecker. "If you're asking everybody else to assume the risk for your unvaccinated stay in the ICU, it does make more sense that you should have to kick in more into the insurance pool."
Stoecker said the policy was similar to a common insurance surcharge for smoking.
Employers are well within their rights to require vaccination from employees and people for whom they provide insurance, according to New Orleans attorney Joel Friedman, a professor at Tulane University who specializes in employment and labor law.
“They have a right to minimize their risks,” said Friedman. “If you have a right to fire a guy for not getting vaccinated, you certainly have the right to put in economic disincentives for people who refuse to get vaccinated.”
As a self-insured organization, Ochsner bears the cost directly from COVID patients who are on their insurance plans.
Earlier this month, a judge dismissed a lawsuit from 48 employees of Ochsner Lafayette General over the health system’s vaccination requirement.
In August, Ochsner joined a growing number of hospitals across the country in requiring all employees to be inoculated. A month out from the October 29 deadline, 82% of Ochsner employees are fully vaccinated and around 86% have received a first dose, according to Thomas. Among physicians and hospital leaders, 98% are vaccinated.
Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health System was the first large hospital system in Louisiana to announce an employee vaccine mandate, which will be enforced between the end of October or end of November, depending on the employee's position. Since then, LCMC Health, which operates six hospitals in New Orleans, announced a vaccination deadline of December 30 for employees.
Soon nearly every hospital will need to create a vaccination requirement for employees. The federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services recently announced that any health care facility receiving federal funds would also need to comply with an employee vaccination requirement. CMS has not yet released details or a deadline for that mandate.
The letter from Ochsner said that other health care organizations in the state such as Our Lady of the Lake and LCMC Health would be asking the families of employees to be vaccinated. Representatives for those hospitals said they did not plan to charge a fee for unvaccinated spouses or partners.
Ochsner emphasized that this is not a forced requirement and employee spouses and partners could pursue other insurance coverage.
"This is not a mandate as non-employed spouses and domestic partners can choose to select a health plan outside of Ochsner Health offerings," said Thomas.
Approximately 300 of Ochsner's 33,000 employees have applied for medical or religious exemptions to date. Spouses and partners may also apply for those types of exemptions.
https://www.nola.com/news/coronavirus/article_655e1d94-2220-11ec-9d79-2f7db348f897.html
