YISD Head Meets With Federal Grand Jury

EL PASO, Tx. – The head of one of the city’s largest school districts appears in front of a Federal Grand Jury last week.

Ysleta School District Superintendent Hector Montenegro confirms to ABC-7 that he did go before a federal grand jury.

Mr. Montenegro says, “I was summoned by the Grand Jury and I responded to that request. I can’t say much more than that at this time.”

Montenegro may have testified about his district’s contract with the company that administers the Ysleta medical plan for employees, Access Health Administrators.

There is an on-going federal investigation into the National Center for the Employment of the Disabled (NCED), known now as Ready One.

The investigation is something like a web as theFBI has searched the homes and businesses of people and companies linked to NCED, including Access Health Administrators.

Trustee and Certified Public Accountant Wayne Belisle explains to ABC-7 why he’s always been skeptical of access.

Mr. Belisle tells ABC-7,”It was obvious it wasn’t handled as clean asI would have liked to see… the process had problems.”

YISD Trustee Belisle saysAccess administrator’s bids always raised a red flag to him. Belisle adds, “I never felt that their numbers were good from the very beginning,I felt that their discount numbers were wrong.”

Back in July of 2005 the Ysleta Teacher’s Association said they wanted Access out; holding the third party administrator responsible for sharp cost increases in their health plan.

Mr. Belisle says the problem is Access promised discount percentages that it negotiated with doctors and hospitals, but then didn’t deliver.

Belisle adds, “We had to pass a lot of this to the teachers to the tune of $2-3 million dollars by increasing what we charged them, increasing their deductibles, increasing their co-pays, somebody has to pay for it if we didn’t get the discounts we were promised.”

At the timeAccess President Frank Apodaca toldABC-7 they are just the third party administrator and that the district simply picked a plan they couldn’t afford.

ABC-7 did speak with Access President andCEO Frank Apodaca on the phone Thursday. He champions Ysleta’s health care plan, and in a statement adds: “…the good news is that we have helped YsletaISD create a surplus in the health fund for 2006. That surplus is the result of our recommendations about YISD’s plan design, which the district adopted effective January 1, 2006.”

Mr. Belisle also says, “That’s their argument but my argument has been they signed a contract that guarantees discount percentages in there and they weren’t able for whatever reasons you have to ask them we weren’t able to get those percentages and I never got a good answer as to why.”