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Health program can sue Iowa’s 3 universities for unpaid fees

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March 18th, 2016 by Ric Hanson

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) – Iowa’s public universities aren’t off the hook yet for refusing to pay millions of dollars in fees to a program that subsidizes health insurance for residents with health risks. The Iowa Supreme Court ruled Friday that the Iowa Individual Health Benefit Reinsurance Association can sue the universities to try to collect the unpaid fees. The decision overturned an appeals court, which ruled last year that the association didn’t have the power to sue.

The association contends that the universities, like all state agencies, school districts and municipalities with self-funded health plans, are members and required to pay annual assessments. For years, the schools agreed and paid. But after the University of Iowa became self-insured in 2010, all three universities contended they were not covered by the law and stopped paying.