Savannah River Mission Completion (SRMC) heralded Medicare open season enrollment with letters announcing major health insurance changes to hundreds of SRS retirees.

By Don Moniak

October 19, 2023

In early 2022, a newly formed company called Savannah River Mission Completion (SRMC) was awarded a ten-year contract worth up to $21 billion to process dozens of tons of unstable “liquid” radioactive wastes stored in massive underground “tanks” up to seventy years old at the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Savannah River Site (SRS) into a more stable, manageable solid form for long-term storage and disposal.

SRMC is a consortium composed of three major partner: BWXT Technical Services Group, Inc.; AECOM Energy & Construction, Inc., an Amentum company; and Fluor Federal Services. Both BWXT and Amentum maintain corporate offices in downtown Aiken, and Amentum’s name graces the marquee of the Aiken Performing Arts Center.

SRMC succeeded Savannah River Remediation (SRR), a consortium of Bechtel, BWXT, and AECOM; so SRMC could be viewed as SRR with Fluor instead of Bechtel. SRMC inherited SRR’s pension and healthcare obligations to retirees, an obligation which includes a Health Reimbursement Account (HRA) stipend of $2500 per year for the purchase of additional medicare insurance and other medical needs. The stipend was implemented in 2012 during the last round of major changes in healthcare benefits.(1)

In addition, contractually speaking, SRMC and other SRS contractors are obligated to maintain benefits programs that “support at reasonable cost the effective recruitment and retention of a highly-skilled, motivated, and experienced workforce.” (H-6(B)(1)(b) of the SRMC contract).

A highly skilled and experienced workforce is an essential element for a safety culture necessary in any high consequence-operations; meaning a single major accident can have severe to catastrophic economic and/or environmental, safety, and health repercussions. BWXT proudly boasts of “twelve-high consequence sites managed for the government” on its website homepage.

All DOE major site contractors also are contractually obligated to maintain “Community Commitment” programs involving educational outreach, regional purchasing programs, community support such as charitable giving, and workforce and economic development.

SRMC typically articulates its Community Commitment through a steady stream of news releases from its public relations department. So far this year, the company has issued thirty-three DOE-approved news releases that pertain to community commitment programs— while only dedicating only twelve to technical issues and accomplishments.

SRMC executives such as President Dave Olsen are often shown amidst recipients of SRMC largesse which ultimately derives from federal funding.

Changes to SRMC Retiree Health Plans

Missing from SRMC’s news page is the recent revelation to hundreds of its retirees that their upcoming open Medicare season is being marked by a major change in benefits and coverage, a change that also includes Savannah River Remediation retirees. There is no photo of Mr. Olson smiling with a retiree as part of a public announcement of the big changes to come—in large part because retirees and their families are generally not smiling about the changes, which for many are the second benefits disruption in twelve years.

An August 31st letter from SRMC’s Human Resources Director Ted Myers to company retirees, publicly available on the SRMC website home page, outlines serious changes to health insurance plans. SRMC chose to replace both its insurance broker and HRA agent and to compel retirees under its health coverage system to enlist in a Humana Medicare Advantage Plan or Supplemental Plan in order to keep their stipend. The choices of Advantage Plans are twofold—high deductible Humana or low deductible Humana.

The letter itself is contradictory, starting off with:

“SRMC was notified in late April that Right Opt and HealthEquity would no longer service our contract as of September 27, 2023. Given the short time frame for SRMC to vet and select another provider, we needed to find one of equal or greater quality and service.”

Several paragraphs later, Mr. Myers wrote that both Health Equity and Right Opt were leaving the arena entirely:

“With our current partners (RightOpt and Health Equity) leaving this line of benefit service, SRMC evaluated the options and has selected Via Benefits as our new retiree healthcare partner. Via Benefits is the nation’s oldest and largest private Medicare marketplace and has helped more than 2.3 million retirees evaluate their healthcare options to find coverage that’s right for them.”

However, Health Equity is still in business and boasts of being the “#1 Health Savings Account Administrator;” and according to a similar letter sent to retirees covered by the Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS) and Battelle Savannah River Site (BSRA) health coverage systems, Health Equity will continue to administer and service their retirees’ HRA accounts.

As a result, retirees covered under both the SRNS and BSRA system are only experiencing the minor difficulty of a change in insurer brokers; and are not being compelled to change to Humana-only plans in order to retain their stipends. They are able to keep their existing plans, and not fret about whether a new insurer’s coverage extends to their medical providers. The SRNS and BSRA approach can be viewed in the SRNS August 23, 2023 letter to retirees on this page.

SRMC retirees impacted by the changes, on the other hand, were invited to attend informational meetings at the Amentum Performing Arts Center on October 4th to further learn how to navigate their upcoming health benefits changes from Humana and Via Benefits representatives; changes induced, in part, by consortium partner Amentum.



According to the SRS Retirees Association’s Facebook Group, many retirees never received the letter that included notification of the meeting, and a predictable level of discontent and confusion about the health benefits changes is prevalent.

“Notifications are not too good about benefits right now,” wrote one retiree, who also described having to cancel long-held insurance plans after his family’s Humana enrollment kicked in unexpectedly early.

When WFXG-FOX news in Augusta attempted to report on the meeting, their reporter was ushered out of the building. WFXG‘s report did contain subsequent interviews with departing retirees which further illustrated their level of discontent and anxiety:

“One man says he is being made to choose a new insurance plan, a different one from what he has had for nearly a decade. Another says he isn’t sure why things are changing, but change isn’t easy when it comes to healthcare decisions for himself and his wife.”

WFXG also obtained information from SRMC communications director Dean Campbell, who reportedly minimized the impact by describing “hundreds of former employees” as “a small sector.” Campbell also told WFXG that he was “ unable to share which (benefits) company is leaving and which one will be replacing it,” even though that information is publicly available in the letter to retirees on SRMC’s website.

The treatment afforded retirees contrasts sharply with the images presented in SRMC public relations efforts that portray its Community Commitment in a perennially positive light. SRMC’s public relations has not self-reported on its own efforts to assist retirees in navigating the Medicare maze that is familiar to fellow retirees across the nation.

The necessary assistance for navigating the SRMC changes is being handled much more by the SRS Retirees Association than by the company. Since 2014, the Association has maintained a Resource Center staffed with volunteers who receive Medicare counseling accreditation from the Lower Savannah Council of Governments. While SRMC officials describe the affected parties as a “small sector,” the Resource Center has reportedly “been overwhelmed with calls and emails.”

While it is easy to pin blame on SRMC for its questionable decision to pursue a different path than its SRS contractor colleagues SRNS and BSRA, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has the ultimate responsibility of overseeing these changes. Every year DOE contract administrators review contractor performance to determine the level of bonuses, known as Award Fee Determinations, earned by contractors.

Will DOE find SRMC’s approach to maintaining strong relationships with retirees, which in turn affects the workforce recruitment and retention programs, acceptable, or even desirable due to cost reductions; or will it find a way knock a point or two off the awards fee rating? Does taking care of retirees within the community play any role in the “Community Commitment” contract provision?

Footnote

(1) The First Round of Retiree Benefit Changes

In 2012 DOE allowed its SRS contractors to terminate the generous practice of continuing employee health care benefits for SRS employees following their retirement.

This highly controversial move was covered by the exclusive $2,500 per year trade publication Weapons Complex Monitor. According to its January 13, 2012 report, in 2011 SRS contractors announced plans that “would drop retirees from the site’s standard health plan and instead provide them an unspecified stipend to partially pay for individual health coverage.”

Retirees and their Association fought this effort long and hard, consistently contending that “at the time of retirement they were promised more complete health coverage.” The issue grew to the point of involving U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham and Congressman Joe Wilson.

SRS contractors accustomed to long-time employee loyalty experienced the unpleasant task of explaining the changes to a nearly packed audience of unhappy retirees at USCA’s Etherridge Center. Shortly after, one former worker later captured the mood in a brief Aiken Standard letter to the editor:

“They offered an early retirement package to me, and many others, to reduce the workforce. The carrot was medical coverage. Now they are turning their backs on us. ”

And, in an oped by the Aiken Standard, which has chosen to not cover this latest development, the editorial board wrote:

“The unfortunate thing about the situation was that it took more than a year for these retirees to get these answers, leaving them only a few months to attempt to plan for what could have a significant impact on their future incomes.”

Ultimately, the changes went forth, but with the annual stipend being the latest promise for the future.