Fresno Unified says allegations in retirees’ complaint were ‘baseless’ and alarming
Fresno Unified denied allegations made by some retirees in a complaint letter and said that the 2023 health insurance changes do not constitute a loss of benefits or a breach of the collective bargaining agreement.
In a statement issued Monday afternoon, the school district insisted that the recent disruption, which left 6,200 retirees in limbo with limited access to the Community Health System since Jan. 1, is a provider network dispute.
“We want to be absolutely clear: qualified retirees are receiving and will continue to receive health insurance coverage,” the district’s statement reads. “The district’s commitment to retiree health benefits has not been eliminated, reduced, or revoked. Everything that was promised to retirees in recognition of their years of service remains intact and continues to be honored today.”
Fresno Unified said in its statement that the allegations in the complaint letter “are baseless, misleading, and have unnecessarily alarmed retirees who understandably care deeply about their health coverage.”
“The only cause for this situation is a provider network dispute,” said Manual Bonilla, president of the teachers’ union.
Two weeks after the disruption, Community Health System agreed to restore partial services, such as clinic visits and prescription refills, to retirees through mid-February, while the hospital system continues to negotiate an agreement with Aetna, Fresno Unified’s for-profit PPO insurer. On Jan. 15, Fresno Unified’s Joint Health Management Board announced that it would give retirees the option to enroll in traditional Medicare with a preferred provider organization, or PPO, as secondary insurance, similar to the plan provided before 2023.
However, the new insurance implementation would not take effect until Jan. 1, 2027, according to district officials.
On Friday, some retirees sent a complaint letter to Fresno Unified, questioning the district’s decision to switch to Aetna’s Medicare Advantage plan in 2023 and accusing Fresno Unified of violating collective bargaining agreements, and abusing the elderly, among others. The retirees demanded that the district immediately cease the Aetna Medicare Advantage Plan and restore retirees’ original coverage, which consisted of traditional Medicare and a district-administered PPO, with no cost-sharing beyond modest co-pays from retirees.
“You have people who are needing cancer treatment, who are needing transplants, literally, their health or their lives are at stake, and to tell them, ‘Well, we’ll correct this in 12 months’ is just insufficient,” said Kevin Little, a Fresno attorney who represents the retirees.
The district has been vague about how retirees would be remedied for their loss of coverage, Little tole The Fresno Bee in an interview last Friday. Some retirees are now spending tens of thousands of dollars out of pocket for time-sensitive treatment because of the lack of an interim plan, he said.
Little said the district’s response to the complaint letter seems more like a publicity piece than a factual narrative.
“No specific ongoing efforts are described, nor is the coverage dispute described in any detail,” Little told The Bee on Monday. “If it’s something that the district is actively working on, why have they told beneficiaries that they have to endure the present situation until next January?”
In the complaint letter, retirees said the district did not seek input from retirees regarding the switch, and they were only notified in early 2023 of the upcoming change.
The district’s governing board adopted the contract with Aetna in June 2023, and the plan was instituted on July 1, 2023, according to board documents.
In the statement, Fresno Unified says the selection of Aetna’s Medicare Advantage plan resulted from a transparent and deliberate process that took nine months. Representatives from Fresno Unified Retiree Association, union leaders, and the district’s administration participated in the process.
In April 2022, the retiree association hired an independent health care consultant, Joanna Smith, CEO of Health Liaison, Inc., to advise on the insurance option, the statement writes.
Smith met with the Fresno Unified’s Joint Health Management Board multiple times before the board voted to move forward with Aetna in October 2022, according to the district.
“From initial approval to active enrollment, implementation occurred over approximately nine months, underscoring the regulatory, operational, and logistical complexity involved,” the statement says.
This story was originally published January 26, 2026 at 5:38 PM.
