The Public Employees Insurance Agency is doing all right.
Officials reviewed the agency’s current fiscal standing and future projections during a Thursday afternoon meeting of the PEIA Finance Board. It’s getting close to the end of the fiscal year.
PEIA is the insurance hub for state worker, educators and some local government plans.
Chief Financial Officer Jason Haught described a year-to-date surplus driven by strong investment returns and lower-than-expected drug costs.
For fiscal 2026, PEIA is projected to have a surplus of $128.4 million.
PEIA’s ending fund balance is projected to be $345.4 million.
Actuarial updates confirmed that the plan is meeting its required reserves despite a shift toward higher medical expenditures at year-end.
“The good news is the plan is performing better than expected during the first 10 months of this fiscal year that began on July 1, 2025,” said Brent Wolfingbarger, the executive director for PEIA.
“However, our optimism must be guarded by the fact that PEIA has historically experienced higher health care expenditures toward the end of the fiscal year, as members exhaust of deductibles and maximum out of pocket costs.”
He continued by saying, “Additionally, providers can submit claims for services rendered before June 30, for several months afterwards, and those yet to be filed claims could negatively impact the plan’s final fiscal year 2026 financial results.”
The PEIA Finance Board voted to increase salary tiers by $1,800 for fiscal 2027 to try to make sure state employees’ insurance premiums do not rise because of recent legislative pay raises.
“As the board knows,” Wolfingbarger said, “the Legislature voted to pass an across the board pay raise of $1,800 per year for state employees.
“In order to ensure that no state employees would experience premium increases solely due to that raise where they could have went up in a salary tier and then have higher premiums, Governor Morrisey has requested that PEIA adjust its salary tiers upward by that amount to avoid such a result.”
The next PEIA Finance Board meeting is Sept. 24.