CHARLESTON, W.Va. — At the apex of a health and financial crisis, the Public Employees Insurance Agency is — for the time being — predicting stability.
During a PEIA Finance Board meeting that was conducted by telephone on Thursday afternoon, officials drew two conclusions:
- Although coronavirus-related insurance claims could spike, financially that could be offset by fewer claims this year for elective procedures. The anticipation is that people will put those off or that they might not even be allowed by medical providers to do them because the healthcare system is focused on the virus.
- And although the financial world has been rocked by response to the virus, PEIA’s investments have been conservative and might not be hit hard, comparatively. Advisers agreed that situation is fluid and needs to be monitored.
“Everything’s really fluid right now. We’re going to have to ride it out,” said Jason Haught, the chief financial officer for PEIA.
“We’re good with our reserves. We just have to ride it out until markets stabilize after the pandemic.”
He also suggested costs related to coronavirus claims might be balanced out by people opting out of other medical procedures.
“Not only do we think the members are going to stay away from healthcare for elective surgeries,” Haught said, “there are some facilities across the nation that are not allowing elective procedures at this time.”
Reached for a telephone interview after the meeting, Administration Secretary Allan McVey agreed with those two conclusions.
“You’ve got PEIA funds invested mainly in the bond market and even money market accounts,” said McVey, who leads the finance board meetings.
“They’re very safe and very conservative. So we don’t see a big change occurring in that. You could have some reductions but we’re not anticipating it at this point.”
And he agreed that healthcare costs may balance out, despite the national health crisis.
“Those costs probably will be a wash,” McVey said. “We’re not going to have some services being rendered while we deal with costs for coronavirus. Right now it’s not projected to be much in addition to the cost PEIA is having now or within budget.”
The finance board met via conference call because of the prevailing advice to conduct “social distancing.”
“This is brand new ground for everybody in this country,” McVey said.
As the meeting concluded, he told participants he hopes to gather in person for the next meeting on June 25.
“I’d still like to see everyone and I hope you feel the same,” McVey told the board.