An attorney for Tyrone Borough said the reason that retired borough police officers will no longer be covered through Municipal Employers Insurance Trust is because it doesn\u2019t provide Blue Cross\/Blue Shield benefits, nor does any other insurance provider.
\n\u201cNobody wants to write for retirees,\u201d said Altoona attorney Lee Oswalt this morning. \u201cYou just can\u2019t get it. We took a hard look into it and found that it\u2019s no longer available through anyone.\u201d
\nRecently, four retired borough officers, George Sessaman, Dennis Borman, Jim Lego and Tom Cooper received letters in the mail stating the current medical\/prescription coverage through MEIT will cease and that as of May 1, the coverage would be provided through Geisinger Health Plan \u2013 the company which provides benefits to all other borough employees.
\nThree of the officers, Sessaman, Borman and Lego, expressed their dissatisfaction for this switch. They said the borough switched their coverage without informing them beforehand.
\n\u201cThis is not the insurance coverage that I selected under the contract in which I served and retired under,\u201d said former interim police chief George Sessaman, the most outspoken of the retirees. \u201cThis plan would cost me more with prescriptions, I would have to co-pay doctor visits. This was not something that we were even asked to switch to. I received a letter and was expected to sign.\u201d
\nOswalt said he understands why the officers may be upset about the situation, but said the borough did everything properly and the officers could talk to the union regarding why the officers weren\u2019t notified beforehand.
\n\u201cAgain, we\u2019re not ceasing to provide coverage,\u201d said Oswalt. \u201cThese officers need to understand that Blue Cross\/Blue Shield just isn\u2019t available for purchase any longer. We can\u2019t provide it because no one will sell it to us.\u201d
\nOswalt also expressed his dissatisfaction in the way Sessamen, in particular, and the other officers reacted to the situation.
\n\u201cFrom our perspective, he\u2019s just throwing a temper tantrum,\u201d said Oswalt, noting that Sessaman placed a phone call to Tyrone Borough\u2019s Director of Administration Phyllis Garhart and threatened court action with expletives. \u201cI think everybody has to remember there are 80 million people in the country that don\u2019t have insurance coverage at all, and these guys are whining about the fact that they\u2019re going from one plan to another. I\u2019m just not sure what the problem is.\u201d
\nOswalt also said Sessaman recently accosted a part-time borough police officer and had \u201cquite a confrontation with him,\u201d even though the part time officers don\u2019t receive insurance benefits or have anything to do with it.
\n\u201cAll he had to do was call and say that he was concerned about this,\u201d said Oswalt. \u201cWhat he does instead is scream at her through the phone. That\u2019s not a professional way to handle things, but I can tell you we are having discussions, through appropriate union channels, regarding this situation. The union has been very professional in the approach.\u201d
\nOswalt also said the borough is currently looking at other insurance options for better coverage and for a better price. He said the reason for the switch from MEIT to GHP was a substantial cost savings to the borough.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
An attorney for Tyrone Borough said the reason that retired borough police officers will no longer be covered through Municipal Employers Insurance Trust is because it doesn\u2019t provide Blue Cross\/Blue Shield benefits, nor does any other insurance provider. \u201cNobody wants to write for retirees,\u201d said Altoona attorney Lee Oswalt this morning. \u201cYou just can\u2019t get […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46861","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news-in-the-tyrone-pennsylvania-area"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46861","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=46861"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46861\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=46861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=46861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=46861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}