Director put on leave, investigation launched, while teachers’ board mulls insurance bids

Oregon Live – by Jeff Manning

A mammoth state insurance contract for 150,000 workers and their families may be decided under the cloud of a Department of Justice investigation.

The Oregon Educators Benefit Board put Director James Raussen on indefinite
leave last week and directed justice department lawyers to investigate Raussen’s actions.

The sudden leadership change comes just as the board tries to select new health insurers. The obscure agency has tremendous power: it decides which insurers provide insurance for 150,000 school district employees and their dependents, making it one of the largest insurance customers in the state.  

More than a week since Raussen was banned from the board’s Salem offices, the reasons for the sudden move remain shrouded in mystery. Among those still in the dark, he says, is Raussen himself. The 45-year-old said he was unaware of any complaints or concerns about his performance before Sept. 9.

“They called me into a room and told me to go home,” he said in a brief interview at his Wilsonville apartment. “It was a surprise to me. There was no prior discussion.”

Unlike some large companies and other large groups, the educators board is not self-insured, meaning it hires private insurance companies to serve its members. It’s big business for Moda and Kaiser Permanente, the two companies that  currently hold the biggest parts of the educators board account.

Moda received $569 million in premium dollars in the 2015-16 fiscal year while Kaiser got $149 million, according to the Oregon Health Authority. Officials  at both companies said they had no knowledge of any investigation and had done nothing improper.

The board will grade the bids it received from insurance companies in October. It hopes to make a final decision on the winning bidders in January.

Officials at the board and its parent agency, the Oregon Health Authority, declined to offer any reasons for its actions against Raussen. In a written statement, health authority officials declared they are “fully committed to ensuring full integrity in the operations” of the board.

Raussen was put on paid leave. He’ll continue to collect his $126,456 annual salary.

Department of Justice spokeswoman Kristina Edmunson confirmed the department will launch an investigation at the board’s request. The department will hire a private law firm to conduct the probe, which officials at the Health Authority said will be completed by the end of October. Edmunson characterized it as a personnel — not criminal  — investigation.

Moda officials said the board’s action came as a complete surprise to
them. “We were not informed by OEBB of the board meeting on Monday and have not been informed since of its outcome,” said Moda spokesman Jonathan Nicholas. “We have not heard of any ‘investigation’ and have been asked no questions about anything by anybody.”

The board hired Raussen last November after a search that took more than a year. A native Ohioan, he served as a Republican representative in the Ohio Legislature between 2003 and 2008, where he chaired a committee dealing with insurance issues. Afterwards, he joined Ohio’s economic development agency for three years.

In 2011, Raussen moved to Chicago to become the city’s managing deputy comptroller, a job that involved responsibility over risk management, insurance and employee benefits, among other things.

Raussen’s boss in the Chicago Comptroller’s Office was Amer Ahmad, who
was later convicted of accepting a $522,000 bribe. Raussen was never implicated.

— Jeff Manning

http://www.oregonlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2016/09/teachers_insurance_board_puts.html

3 thoughts on “Director put on leave, investigation launched, while teachers’ board mulls insurance bids

  1. “In a written statement, health authority officials declared they are “fully committed to ensuring full integrity in the operations” of the board.”

    The only thing these scumbag jewb#tches are fully committed to is fattening their bank accounts.

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