ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — Orange County Public Schools is steering employees toward a hospital system its own consultant identified as more expensive for inpatient care, according to a draft report obtained by 9 Investigates.
The finding is notable because the district funds its employee health insurance claims. District officials have cited rising health care costs and declining enrollment as reasons for budget cuts, including proposed changes to employee insurance costs.
OCPS says it negotiated a better deal with AdventHealth after receiving the report. Channel 9 requested evidence showing the resulting savings, but the district has not yet provided it.
How the district directs employees toward care
According to district documents, Orange County Public Schools offers an employee health care plan called SureFit with no employee premium for qualifying employee-only coverage. The plan is a narrow-network plan built around AdventHealth.
A draft consultant report dated May 23, 2025, examined inpatient hospital claims from 2023 and 2024. It found AdventHealth’s negotiated inpatient reimbursement amounts were higher than those of the other hospital systems studied when compared with a common Medicare benchmark.
In 2023, AdventHealth’s eligible charges were 347.9% of the study’s Medicare reimbursement benchmark. The report defines eligible charges as negotiated inpatient hospital reimbursement amounts before employee copays.
AdventHealth accounted for 85.1% of SureFit inpatient admissions in 2023 and 88.6% in 2024.
The consultant found no other district plan had a similar concentration of admissions at AdventHealth.
Donovan Pyle, managing partner at Health Compass Consulting, said the consultant’s report shows the school district is incentivizing employees to sign up for the narrow-network plan by offering it without an employee premium, while directing them toward a more expensive hospital system.
“The consequences are tremendous,” Pyle said. “You end up paying a lot more than you should…This is our money and the county and the district have fiduciary responsibility to the taxpayers to solve these problems and get the most value they can for our money.”
He questioned whether the district lacked knowledge of the cost disparity, lacked the bandwidth to address it or faced another obstacle to changing to a narrow-network plan with another hospital system.
“There’s nothing stopping them,” Pyle said. “They could do it. They can roll it out in three months. They can do it, and they would save millions. Without watering down coverage for the employees.”
Charles Larimer, the actuary the district paid $210 an hour to help identify health care savings and who wrote the report, declined to answer questions from 9 Investigates about his draft findings.
But he wrote in the report that he had previously told the district about the cost difference.
“As we have noted in previous years, when we adjust for case mix, AdventHealth continues to be much more expensive than Orlando Regional Health System.”
After adjusting for the types of hospital cases treated, the report found AdventHealth’s eligible charges were approximately 31% higher than Orlando Regional’s in 2023 and 28% higher in 2024.
The study covers inpatient hospital care, rather than the total cost of each insurance plan.
The district had not provided the report or other cost analyses Larimer performed seven weeks after Channel 9’s records request. Channel 9 found the report available for download on the district’s website.
UnitedHealthcare, which is also negotiating its own agreement with AdventHealth Florida, has separately raised concerns about the system’s prices.
On its website addressing those negotiations, the insurer said AdventHealth’s costs were 30% higher than the average of all hospitals in its Florida commercial network and approximately 25% higher than other systems in the Orlando market.
Those figures reflect UnitedHealthcare’s assessment of its own network, rather than the OCPS consultant’s analysis.
Why did the district pick SureFit?
According to marketing documents 9 Investigates found online, Cigna promoted SureFit as creating “a more affordable” health care experience, estimating potential client savings of 11% to 12%.
Records Channel 9 received through a public records request show district officials were presented with projected savings ranging from approximately $6 million to $13.2 million, depending on how many people switched to SureFit from existing plans.
The records also projected claims reductions of 2.6% to 5.6%.
A February 2021 slideshow from Cigna, the district’s third-party health insurance administrator, promoted cost savings, better affordability and opportunities to engage customers and proactively address high-cost conditions.
Pyle said employers should independently verify vendors’ savings claims.
“You can never believe the vendors,” he said. “I mean, like that’s rule number one. Never believe what they’re saying right? It’s got to be independently validated by someone who knows what they are talking about.”
A footnote in Cigna’s marketing materials described the 11% to 12% figure as “potential savings and is not guaranteed.” The estimate came from an internal study comparing its SureFit network with its Open Access Plan.
9 Investigates reached out to both Cigna and AdventHealth last week with written questions about our findings, but we didn’t hear back by publication.
What the district says
OCPS declined to make Beth Curran or another official available for an on-camera interview, citing its impasse with the Orange County Classroom Teachers Association over health care and other issues.
The district told 9 Investigates that it negotiated a better narrow-network arrangement with AdventHealth after receiving the consultant’s report.
Channel 9 asked for evidence that the change reduced district costs. OCPS has not yet provided that documentation.
According to the district’s contract with Cigna, the company also described community sponsorships supporting the Foundation for OCPS and district events, including the Superintendent’s Leadership Summit, the Council of Great City Schools and the Golf Fore Education Tournament.
The company said it had more recently shifted its focus toward the Stellar Awards program and had given more than $100,000 to recognize district teachers, staff and administrators, as well as supporting the Annual Spirit Run and other community events.
Channel 9 also contacted Cigna, which did not respond to questions about the topic.
Effects of cuts
For months, district officials have said declining enrollment and rising health care costs have forced budget reductions. Most recently, the district announced plans to cut $8.5 million in spending this year, including possible staff reductions.
Officials cut more than $8 million in mental health services in April, including positions helping students navigate mental health issues, family crises and food insecurity.
Luciana Flores said she wanted her daughter to attend Meadow Woods Elementary because her sister-in-law worked there. With her daughter managing an eye condition, Flores felt reassured knowing a family member would be nearby.
“As a first time mom, just kind of, it’s hard to let your baby go,” Flores said. “…What if something happens? My sister-in-law goes, she’s gonna grow, she’s going to thrive.”
Then, the district voted in March to close seven schools, including Meadow Woods Elementary.
“It was frustrating because my sister-in-law, she had to find another job, another school,” Flores said. “A lot of teachers either went to another school or they maybe found something else.”
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