Health Trust Board Candidates Wanted
Are you interested in serving as a Trustee for the Maine Municipal Employees Health Trust? If so, the Health Trust’s Selection Committee would like to hear from you. There is an anticipated vacancy on the Health Trust Board, for a term that begins January 1, 2024. Interviews will be held for the vacancy in early fall.
An eleven-member Board governs the Health Trust, and oversees its health, dental, short and long-term disability, vision and life insurance plans. The Board typically meets five times a year for half day meetings, with a two-day strategic planning meeting in the summer. Trustees are also expected to serve on one of the Trust’s standing committees that require additional meetings throughout the year.
In order to be considered as a Trustee candidate, you must be employed by a Health Trust participating entity, and you must be enrolled as a participant in one or more of the Health Trust’s benefit plans. You must also have your employer’s, board’s, council’s or commissioners’ support for the commitment necessary to meet the fiduciary obligations of an MMEHT Trustee.
The Health Trust Board governs a complex array of employee benefit programs for local government, county and quasi-municipal employees in an ever-changing insurance market environment. The Health Trust provides employee benefit programs to over 480 public sector employers around the state, with approximately 20,000 employees, dependents and retirees participating in the Trust’s health plans. The Trustees oversee a $190 million dollar program.
The Trust is regulated as a Multiple Employer Welfare Arrangement by the state Bureau of Insurance and is one of the largest self-insured plans in the state. The Board works with a number of professional advisors, including its Plan Administrator (MMA), benefit advisor, actuary, and legal counsel, all of whom assist the Board in governing the Trust. Health Trustees serve as plan fiduciaries and, as such, must administer the Trust’s programs in the interest of Trust participants. The Board is involved in many different functions, including setting annual rates, developing new plan offerings, reviewing third party administrative services, hearing benefit appeals, and analyzing claims trends. Trustees are not compensated, but they are reimbursed for their travel expenses.
If you are interested in serving on the MMEHT Board of Trustees, please send your resume, along with a letter indicating your interest and telling us a bit about yourself and why you wish to serve, to: Dale Olmstead, Chair, Health Trust Selection Committee, c/o Kristy Gould, 60 Community Drive, Augusta, Maine 04330. You may also email the resume and letter to kgould@memun.org. Submissions should be received by August 25, 2023.
If you have questions about the Health Trust Board or serving as a Trustee, or if you would like additional information, please email or call Kristy Gould, Director of Health Trust Services, at kgould@memun.org or 1-800-452-8786.