GALVESTON, Texas - The Center to Eliminate Health Disparities at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston has named Jim Rodriguez as executive director of the Galveston 3-Share Plan health benefits program. Rodriguez, a health care systems administrator from Ohio, will begin work on March 2.
"We are very pleased to have Rodriguez at the helm of the 3-Share Plan," said Barbara Breier, CEHD director. "He brings several decades of professional experience in the health care industry, including vast experience working with health care providers and insurers."
Rodriguez' appointment is the result of a nationwide search.
The 3-Share Plan allows qualified small employers in Galveston County to provide health benefit coverage to their employees at affordable rates. Under the plan, enrolled employers and employees each pay $60 per month. UTMB will pay the third $60 share, using funds from a $1.6 million Houston Endowment grant, as well as institutional funds. Enrollment is expected to begin as early as June.
Rodriguez will report to a board of directors composed of appointed UTMB faculty, clinicians and staff, as well as community members. It is co-chaired by Breier and Dr. John D. Stobo, executive director of Academic Programs for the University of Texas System.
Noting that community involvement and buy-in will be critical to the program's success, Breier said that meeting with small business owners and other community stakeholders will be among Rodriguez' first priorities.
Stobo and Breier have worked together in developing the 3-Share Plan since 2003. The concept was modeled in part on a similar plan in Muskegon, Mich. It is the first such program in Texas. The Galveston plan garnered so much positive attention that it has not only become the model for multi-share benefits programs in other Texas communities, but was also the impetus for including similar programs in Senate Bill 10, the 80th Texas Legislature's omnibus Medicaid reform package.
Because of the Houston Endowment grant, UTMB is not dependent upon the state's Medicaid waiver application to use State Children's Health Insurance Program funds for the third share of the costs and is therefore able to move forward in implementing the 3-Share Plan as a two-year pilot program.
"It is extremely gratifying to see this program, to which so many people at UTMB and in the community have contributed, come to fruition, and also to be recognized throughout the state as a model that other communities can use in developing similar programs," Stobo said. "Programs such as the 3-Share Plan are a necessary first step in addressing the fact that Texas has a larger percentage of uninsured people than any other state and that UTMB provides care for a large number of these patients. We are pleased and proud to be able to take that step."