Request By:
Honorable John J. Slattery, Jr.
General Counsel
Kentucky Education Association
101 W. Walnut Street
Louisville, Kentucky 40202
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Robert L. Chenoweth, Assistant Attorney General
You have asked the Office of the Attorney General to review the 1978 amendment to KRS 161.158. House Bill 231 amends this section of our school laws so as to read as follows, the new language being underscored:
"(1) Each district board of education may form its employes into a group or groups or recognize existing groups for the purpose of obtaining the advantages of group life, disability, medical, and dental insurance or any group insurance plans to aid its employes, as long as the employes continue to be employed by the board of education. Medical and dental group insurance plans obtained under authority of this section may include insurance benefits for the families of the insured group or groups of employes. Any district board of education may pay all or part of the premium on the policies, and may deduct from the salaries of the employes that part of the premium which is to be paid by them and may contract with the insurer to provide the above benefits.
(2) Each district board of education shall adopt policies or regulations which will provide for deductions from salaries of its employes or groups of employes whenever a request is presented to the board by said employes or groups thereof. Such deductions shall be made from salaries earned in at least eight different pay periods, and shall be remitted to the appropriate organization or association as specified by the employes. The deductions may be made for, but are not limited to, membership dues, tax sheltered annuities and group insurance premiums. With the exception of membership dues, the board shall not be required to make more than one remittance, of amounts deducted during a pay period, for a separate type of deduction. Health insurance, life insurance, and tax-sheltered annuities shall be interpreted as separate types of deductions. When amounts have been correctly deducted and remitted by the board, said board shall bear no further responsibility or liability for subsequent transaction.
(3) Payments and deductions made by the board of education under the authority of this section are presumed to be for services rendered and for the benefit of the common schools; and the payments and deductions do not affect the eligibility of any school system to participate in the foundation program as established in KRS chapter 157."
As you noted, under this statute group insurance is not mandatory. You stated, however, that many boards of education have agreed to establish group medical and dental insurance plans for its employees and their families. The question you have presented for our opinion is whether or not a board of education may, under the authority of KRS 161.158 establish a group insurance plan providing optical benefits to employees and their families.
KRS 161.158 is a "fringe benefit" school law. It is permissive in nature and should be should be so construed. As to employees of the schools it permits establishing groups and the purchasing of "group life, disability, medical and dental insurance or any group insurance plans." (Emphasis supplied.) The new language extended consideration to employees' families and limits the plans of insurance authorized to "medical and dental group insurance. " As to any or all of the group plans, the local board may pay all or part of the premiums on the policies.
With the above construction of the statute in mind it strikes us that there are only two types of group insurance plans authorized for an employee's family -- medical and dental. This being so, the conceivable scope and nature of a medical group policy, for example, is of little concern so long as the coverage comes under the singular umbrella of a medical plan. If as an endorsement to a group medical plan, optical care is included, the local board has the discretion to pay all or only a part of the premium cost. The board could decide to pay so much of the group medical insurance plan premium attributable to everything except optical coverage. By like token, the board could pay all of the premium. What we believe the board may not do under the new statute is participate in an optical group insurance plan that existed by itself and not as a part of a medical group insurance plan. The optical coverage must be a part of a group medical insurance plan.