By KARI BLURTON
Hays Post
Staff from Insurance Planning Inc. told Hays USD 489 school board members they are doing all they can to rectify a cancellation fee United Heartland Insurance wants to impose upon the district.
At Thursday’s school board work session the board was informed United Heartland Insurance is charging the district a nearly $60,000 cancellation fee for apparently dropping them and switching workers’ compensation insurance to the Kansas Association of School Boards.
Board members contend they never authorized a contract with Heartland Insurance after dropping their former policy by Liberty Mutual this summer.
“How can they enforce a cancellation fee on a policy we didn’t authorize?” board member Sarah Rankin asked.
Dale Chaffin, representative from Insurance Planning Inc., said the district might have been covered by United Heartland for a short time to ensure there was not a lapse in coverage but did not comment on who authorized the coverage.
Chaffin said representatives from IPI are in negotiations with United Heartland.
“The long and short of it is through negotiations and Insurance Planning forfeiting all their commissions to try and rectify the situation … we got the premium down … United is willing to forfeit the cancellation fee as long as they remain your carrier,” Chaffin said.
Chaffin said the United Heartland premium has been negotiated down to $239,000, within $2,150 of KASB’s premium and coverage is not as “risky” as KASB’s.
Board member Josh Waddell said he feels as if the district is being “strong-armed” into keeping a contract with United, but wondered if fighting the contract was worth it.
“Part of me feels a bit spiteful … not happy with the way things went down and I want answers. … And the other part of me is … we are getting the best offer,” Waddell said. “I don’t necessarily like how we are being pushed into it, but at the end of the day, what do we want? We want good coverage at a price that is going to save us some money and we do have that.”
The issue was moved to the agenda for Monday’s school board meeting where board members are planning to meet with representatives from both insurance companies.