About Us

Letter from the Chairman

Sandy Mers

Thank you for visiting the Scioto Health Plan, Southeast Division OHI website (SHP). On behalf of the SHP Trustees I’d like to share a little information about our history and vision for serving public employees and their families with competitive benefit options.

HISTORY
The SHP has been providing competitive employee benefits in the Southeast Ohio market for almost 3 decades! We proudly provide over 2,500 members in southern Ohio with Medical, Prescription, Dental, and Life Insurance benefits.

LEVERAGING HEALTHCARE EXPENSES
The SE Ohio market is challenged with limited provider options and higher unemployment rates that lend to our escalated healthcare costs. These costs are generally disproportionate to peers in other Ohio markets. In order to take control of our benefit direction, we partner with other public employers to leverage greater purchasing power and influence legislative impact on healthcare. This is achieved through Optimal Health Initiatives (OHI); a Trust founded by SHP in partnership with sister consortia across Ohio and Indiana.

OHI provides a multi option forum for effecting greater influence on employee benefits for public employers. There are three (3) membership levels to meet varying interests and employer needs:

• Political Action: As a Level 1 Associate Member, you would be represented by OHI in the jointly owned Coalition of Benefit Organizations (COBO), where we are able to provide information, education and influence to legislative representatives.
• Vendor Contracts: Level 2 Associate Members benefit from the OHI leveraged vendor service partner contracts. Although the contracts are negotiated through OHI, Associate Members OWN their individual contracts.
• Risk Pool Options: There are currently 3 regional risk sharing pools available to public employers desiring an expanded shared services, jointly administered option. Each pool provides local management including plan design, vendor selection, local asset ownership, and onsite staff selection.

Leveraging our purchasing power and engaging our employees in a collaborative advisory setting has provided a forum for maneuvering our health plans in an ever changing environment.

Our mission continues to be able to provide employees and their families the most competitive and cost effective benefits possible. As we move forward in a time of increased costs, we will maintain our success by working smarter, leveraging additional cost efficiencies, and providing political influence.

Sandy Mers,  Board Chair of Scioto Health Plan 

Leadership Team

Elaine Shafley
Chief Executive Director
eshafley@planmanagementservice.com | 614.873.6398

Elaine has over 30 years of employee benefit management experience with an emphasis on self-funded plan management. She has successfully organized collaborative groups and coalitions to affect greater purchasing power. Elaine and her team have successfully grown the Shafley Plan Management Services (SPMS) client family from 10 employer groups to over 84 in Ohio and Indiana. This growth is in part due to an expanded distribution system with independent agents/brokers/consultants. Her industry experience includes Third Party Administration, Carrier/Medical Management, and Workers’ Compensation.

Elaine believes her best education is received each day from the many clients, employees, and service partners she is able to spend time with and learn from. Formal education includes The Ohio State University, Wilson Learning Consultative and Total Quality Management training programs.

Board of Trustees

Scioto Health Plan is governed by a 13 Member Board of Trustees. As a Not for Profit entity, SHP manages a very lean budget. It has been the objective of the Board to assist in the development of a Strategic Action Plan that will allow them to understand the cost drivers and how they can improve their bottom-line while maintaining competitive benefits.

Benefits Committee

The SHP Board of Trustees formed SEAM (Scioto Employee and Administration Mission), the Trust’s employee committee, a couple of years ago to develop a direct communication link between the Plan and its membership. Each school provides employee and administrative delegates from their District to serve on the committee. SEAM meets periodically to consider the impact of current events and inflationary costs on our Plan budget.

The Trust has continued to engage Shafley Plan Management Services to assess our tools and market options for stabilizing healthcare costs. 94% of the Budget is spent on member claims and SEAM has focused their energies on reducing the cost of a claim in order to manage trend/inflation on your costs:

• Best in Class Provider Discounts
• Best in Class Claim Management Tools
• Diverse Benefit Options

The SEAM Committee will continue to work together with the Plan in an effort to control cost drivers while maintaining competitive benefits for our Members.

Member Employers

Optimal Health Initiatives

40,000 Strong & Growing

Scioto Health Plan has successfully served its members for over 25 years as a non-profit, self-funded health and dental plan.

On September 1, 2012, SHP, along with other self-funded school peer plans in Ohio, completed the merger to form a state-wide consortium: Optimal Health Initiatives.

Optimal Health Initiatives is made up of more than 40,000 members from over 80 public employers located in Ohio and Indiana. Partnering with other public employers gives SHP better purchasing power which means larger discounts and ultimately lower costs for Members.

What does that mean for you?  SHP members did not experience any initial change to their benefits or customer service support due to the merger.

We believe that Optimal Health Initiatives will continue to fulfill our commitment to you, offering optimal health benefits in an ever-changing and complex economy. For more information regarding Optimal Health Initiatives, click here.