Schaumburg: No incentive to fire Casler for medical bills

The village of Schaumburg and its insurance company continued Tuesday to counter former police director Richard Casler's claim that he was fired because of high medical bills from his cancer treatment.

They said the very purpose of group insurance is to minimize the impact of an individual, leaving no incentive to try to get rid of even a costly one.

Casler has speculated village officials learned from his insurance claims that he's been treated for non-Hodgkin lymphoma since 2007.

He said he was given no explicit reason for his firing and was asked to sign a severance agreement limiting him to 18 months of insurance coverage, even though he qualified for lifetime coverage. Casler refused to sign the agreement.

Schaumburg Village Manager Ken Fritz described that as a quickly corrected paperwork error.

Fritz wouldn't give reasons for Casler's dismissal, as it's a personnel matter, but strongly denied any financial motive.

The village's self-funded insurance pool is administrated by Corporate Benefit Consultants in Des Plaines.

"In my 25 to 30 years in this field, I've never had any client try to do (fire someone to save money on insurance)," said Mike Traina, a firm principal.

While some small shop might recognize a benefit in trying to rid itself of a worker with high insurance bills, Traina said, an employer the size of Schaumburg would probably not feel an impact and certainly wouldn't think such an illegal action could escape notice.

Casler suggested that trying financial times might provide greater incentive to cut costs through all available means.

But Traina feels even today's economy isn't enough incentive for most employers to try what Casler's suggesting occurred.

"You don't find incentive to break federal law, not to mention that it's unethical," Traina said.

Both Fritz and Traina said employers can feel an impact if a great number of employees all incur high medical bills at the same time, but that this is a situation neither caused nor fixed by an individual.

In companies where this does occur, they basically have to weather the storm and hope claims go down in the following year, Traina said.

"That's what insurance is for, to take on risk," he added.

Casler spent 34 years with Schaumburg police and became chief in 1999. When he became eligible for retirement in 2001, he was kept on as department head by making him the civilian director.

Since then, Casler's annual salary has exceeded $100,000 while he's also drawn a $70,000-per-year pension.