This newsletter is in response to the many inquiries and complaints from UT-AAUP faculty concerning the Bethany Ziviski HR announcement of June 1, 2023.
This newsletter is also being sent to President Gregory Postel and Finance VP Matt Schroeder who is also in charge of HR.
On June 1, 2023, Bethany Ziviski, Interim Sr. Associate VP and Chief HR Officer, sent a Memorandum addressed to “Union Leadership” (her words) announcing that UToledo (meaning HR) will be initiating a Dependent Eligibility Verification Assessment for employees who currently participate in UToledo’s healthcare plans.
Employees will be required to again submit marriage licenses, birth certificates, tax returns, and other highly sensitive and confidential documentation to HR. This documentation was previously submitted at least two times to HR. Tim Brakel, UT-AAUP President, emailed Ms. Ziviski on June 5, 2023 noting that the requested confidential documentation was previously submitted to HR, and should be in the possession of HR. She did not reply, but referred the UT-AAUP request to HR Benefits which merely confirmed the original Ziviski announcement.
In the past, this request for dependent documentation was done during the Fall Semester. HR is now requiring submissions to be completed by July 10 when most of the faculty are not on campus. Many are on travel and may not see Ms. Ziviski’s announcement until Fall. Failure to provide the required documents by July 10 will result in suspension of health care benefits for any dependent who has not been verified.
Almost as disturbing, the acceptable documents to verify eligibility are quite narrow, with no provision being made for alternative documents in the event those that are required cannot be obtained in a timely manner. For example, spousal verification requires both a portion of an employee’s 2022 tax return (which should be easy to obtain) as well as a copy of the employee’s marriage certificate (which if one was married a long time ago or outside of the US, may be difficult to obtain). Alternative supporting documentation should be readily allowed, just as the government does when obtaining a driver’s license or a passport.
The UT-AAUP presents the following questions to President Postel and VP Matt Schroeder:
1. Where is the previously submitted confidential employee documentation?
2. Is it in a confidential and secure database? If not, where is it?
3. If confidential documentation was previously submitted by an employee and there have been no changes, why must duplicate confidential documentation be submitted a second or third time? HR should have an electronic copy of prior submissions in a confidential and secure database.
4. Many faculty are away from campus for the Summer, especially since Schroeder has decimated Summer programs. Faculty will not read the HR announcement until Fall. Will these faculty lose their healthcare coverage in July?
5. How many employee dependents were removed from coverage in the last submission? What was the cost savings to UToledo?
6. Has the previously submitted confidential information been turned over to the independent firm, CONSOVA?
7. How much is UToledo paying CONSOVA? UT-AAUP has requested, under the Public Records Act, a copy of the UToledo agreement with CONSOVA.
HR is regularly using independent organizations for HR work. For example, HR is using an outside firm to make decisions on employee FMLA. This involves submission of highly confidential medical information that flows freely between the FMLA contractor and HR. The UT-AAUP has raised questions about the security of FMLA related information and other medical information inside and outside HR.
Meanwhile, a data breach has just been reported at UTMC.
UTMC uses the services of an independent firm, Intellihartx (ITx), Kingsport, Tennessee, for UTMC medical and clinical practices. In two separate June 9, 2023 letters to patients, ITx has just notified UTMC patients that their personal information had been subject to a “data privacy event”. The “event” was caused by another independent firm, FORTRA, retained by ITx as a secure file transfer protocol provider. This event involves a compromise of detailed personal and medical information. The UTMC investigation is still on-going, but according to the two ITx letters, the UTMC data breach is wide-spread. We do not know who hired ITx, but some high-level administrator must be held responsible. According to his very rich UT employment contract, Chris Cooper is in charge of all healthcare operations at UT. He reports directly to Postel on all healthcare matters.
CONSOVA
Is our confidential documentation previously submitted to HR secure? Will the newly submitted documentation be secure? The CONSOVA website states its focus is on detecting and removing dependents and saving clients up to 12%. CONSOVA lists a number of other things they do for clients. Schroeder is focused on cost cutting. Open the CONSOVA website [Consova Corporation – Optimizing Healthcare Cost Containment] and judge for yourself where this is going.
UT-AAUP Executive Board