Some Manatee School District employees warned in error that health insurance was canceled

BRADENTON -- A technical glitch prompted nearly 10 percent of Manatee County School District employees to receive a message that their health insurance was canceled during the winter break.

On Monday, district officials said the glitch was caused by two third-party vendors and has been fixed, and employees should disregard any messages their insurance had been canceled.

The error happened between two third-party vendors the school district contracts with, said Sarah Brown, the district's executive director of human resources. Benefitfocus has an issue with uploading data to Florida Blue, which affected non-union district employees, prompting the cancellation notice to employees. No union employees were affected by the error, Brown said. When the error was realized, district benefits employees began working to correct the problem.

"We were working feverishly over the holiday," Brown said.

Employees were directed to disregard messages from COBRA -- which allows individuals to keep their insurance for a limited time after leaving or losing a job -- and to contact the district and the insurance company with any questions and concerns.

"We realize that the cancellation of coverage has caused inconvenience and undue stress over the holidays," Lesli Strickland, the employee benefits manager for the school district, wrote in an email to employees on Dec. 31.

Meghin Delaney, education reporter, can be reached at 941-745-7081. Follow her on Twitter@MeghinDelaney.

This story was originally published January 4, 2016 at 6:03 PM with the headline "Some Manatee School District employees warned in error that health insurance was canceled ."