Let me begin by saying as a business owner I understand how the pressure from competitive online news services can

present the opportunity for traditional news services like the Houston Chronicle (HC) to become fast and loose with their facts to profit from sensationalism. I was however surprised when I saw the HC article regarding HISD trustee Larry Marshall and his efforts to look for alternative ways to assist the district and the tax payers with ways to control its healthcare spend. In an attempt to see if the HC is still a place that~ould like to_get a_story __ correct, let me present some of the facts to you in hopes that you will write a retraction and focus on the real issue (how much healthcare is costing all of us). First of all this is not an "insurance issue", it's a healthcare issue and ways to reduce the healthcare cost for the district. I have no doubt it was written as insurance issue because I am in the insurance business, but let us at least focus on the correct issue. In case the HC did not know, HISD its teachers and yes the tax payers spends nearly $200 million on healthcare cost each year, and those cost are going nowhere but up. I am a tax payer in this district, my kids attend HISD schools, HISD should be looking at ways to reduce its cost, it would save the jobs of many of its teachers, improve education and reduce the burden on the tax payers. In regards to the Medical Travel Conference and Medical Facilities tour in Costa Rica, I was an invited guest just like Mr. Marshall. I was asked to extend an invitation to others who I felt might have any interest in looking into ways to reduce their healthcare spend for select procedures. More than 200 benefits professionals, business owners and public officials from across -the-US have attended this conference. As best-we can tell, the public official number is less than 2%. Which is really bad because innovation tend to come to public sector last, and with the pressure from article like this, now we know why! I am certain the HC, its benefits manager, board members, and owners would be welcomed to take the same tour to see if you could reduce your cost as well. These trips are mostly funded by a public/private partnership from Costa Rica and other interested countries.

The state of Texas and its residents spend nearly $1 Trillion with "T" on healthcare. The people of my district 146 pay some of the highest cost for healthcare in the state and the nation. Instead of complaining about the new healthcare reform act some of us have elected to take a more proactive role at looking into ways to low those costs. One final issue that has to be corrected is your grossly incorrect statement of my earns from my HISD contract since 2009 of $900,000. I understand Ms. Mellon is not in the insurance business and may not know how we actually generate revenue to take care of familiesand-pay-our-employees,but to say we "earned" $900,000 is a gross mis-statement and in conjunction with such an article grossly leads the public. Tnis is a premium number that HISD pays for its flood insurance to prevent losses from the numerous area floods we get in Harris country each year. Our revenue is a percentage of the premium of $900,000 and is substantially less than the earnings number you reported. All of this $900,000 is sent to FEMA for HISD flood insurance, and some 90 days later our gross revenue is returned. We further have three people who manage the nearly 170 flood policies for HISD. This puts our "earnings" at even less gross revenue. Feel free to contact any insurance agent who handles NFIP flood business for FEMAand they can verify this. We would greatly appreciate if you would write a more accurate story for the public in general; we will have to reduce our earnings further by sending letters and calls to our clients, FEMA, and other business associates to clarify what many of them should know, "just because it in the paper, does not make it the_truth"._",-,= __ ~~~~-~ Sincerely, BLM