Luzerne County denies disclosure of health-care benefits costs
May 24, 2009 RTK request stories
BY MICHAEL P. BUFFER
Citizens' Voice Staff Writer
Luzerne County claims federal law prevents the disclosure of who gets health-care benefits from the county and how much a county employee’s benefits actually cost.
In denying a right-to-know request from The Citizens’ Voice, Sandra A. Zurek, the county right-to-know officer, cited the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. HIPAA establishes standards of privacy for health information.
The Citizens’ Voice is appealing the denial to the Pennsylvania Office of Open Records. The newspaper requested the disclosure of who gets health care coverage and of the cost to provide coverage for two prison board appointees who inappropriately got county health benefits from February 2005 to April 2009.
Luzerne County Solicitor Vito DeLuca has asked an outside law enforcement agency to investigate how the former prison board members, Wister Yuhas and Robert Payne, got county health benefits. Yuhas and Payne have maintained they didn’t do anything wrong, and both said someone else filled out information on application paperwork. The county also denied a request to see that paperwork, citing HIPAA.
“I don’t know HIPPA is applicable,” said Melissa Melewsky, media law counsel for the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association. “They can redact sensitive information.”
Melewsky said the county can disclose names of beneficiaries and cost amounts without disclosing “specific medical procedures” or health problems. Nathanial J. Byerly, an attorney with the Office of Open Records, has asked to county to provide more information explaining the request denial.
The county is partially self-insured and pays two insurers — Geisinger and First Priority Health — to administer plans, which provide access to their health networks. The county pays monthly fees of at least $53 per employee enrolled.
The county pays the cost of health care claims of less than $200,000. The 2009 county budget allocates $12,000 for each employee who gets county health care coverage, but actual costs depend on the cost of claims. The county spent more than $7 million on health benefits in 2008.
Yuhas and Payne were unpaid court appointees to the prison board and not eligible for coverage offered to full-time county employees. President Judge Chester B. Muroski replaced Payne and Yuhas with two new board members on March 9 and lost county health-care coverage April 1.
County application forms for health-care coverage include a warning that knowingly trying to defraud any insurance company is a crime. County officials have said the county prison board never voted to give health-care coverage to Yuhas and Payne, who claimed he never even used his county health-care coverage because he is covered by his wife’s plan.
Yuhas has a family plan, and Payne has an individual plan. Both chose plans that were offered only to prison employees, benefits coordinator Jay Zupa said.
Citizens' Voice Staff Writer
Luzerne County claims federal law prevents the disclosure of who gets health-care benefits from the county and how much a county employee’s benefits actually cost.
In denying a right-to-know request from The Citizens’ Voice, Sandra A. Zurek, the county right-to-know officer, cited the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. HIPAA establishes standards of privacy for health information.
The Citizens’ Voice is appealing the denial to the Pennsylvania Office of Open Records. The newspaper requested the disclosure of who gets health care coverage and of the cost to provide coverage for two prison board appointees who inappropriately got county health benefits from February 2005 to April 2009.
Luzerne County Solicitor Vito DeLuca has asked an outside law enforcement agency to investigate how the former prison board members, Wister Yuhas and Robert Payne, got county health benefits. Yuhas and Payne have maintained they didn’t do anything wrong, and both said someone else filled out information on application paperwork. The county also denied a request to see that paperwork, citing HIPAA.
“I don’t know HIPPA is applicable,” said Melissa Melewsky, media law counsel for the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association. “They can redact sensitive information.”
Melewsky said the county can disclose names of beneficiaries and cost amounts without disclosing “specific medical procedures” or health problems. Nathanial J. Byerly, an attorney with the Office of Open Records, has asked to county to provide more information explaining the request denial.
The county is partially self-insured and pays two insurers — Geisinger and First Priority Health — to administer plans, which provide access to their health networks. The county pays monthly fees of at least $53 per employee enrolled.
The county pays the cost of health care claims of less than $200,000. The 2009 county budget allocates $12,000 for each employee who gets county health care coverage, but actual costs depend on the cost of claims. The county spent more than $7 million on health benefits in 2008.
Yuhas and Payne were unpaid court appointees to the prison board and not eligible for coverage offered to full-time county employees. President Judge Chester B. Muroski replaced Payne and Yuhas with two new board members on March 9 and lost county health-care coverage April 1.
County application forms for health-care coverage include a warning that knowingly trying to defraud any insurance company is a crime. County officials have said the county prison board never voted to give health-care coverage to Yuhas and Payne, who claimed he never even used his county health-care coverage because he is covered by his wife’s plan.
Yuhas has a family plan, and Payne has an individual plan. Both chose plans that were offered only to prison employees, benefits coordinator Jay Zupa said.
