The board that runs the Employees Retirement System of Texas will meet Aug. 25 to set what retired state workers will pay next year for their Medicare coverage. Anyone who wants to address the trustees has to email a request to the agency by 5 p.m. Aug. 24, the day this article published.
The plan at issue is HealthSelect Medicare Advantage, which the retirement system has offered since 2012 and has bought since 2021 from Sierra Health and Life, a UnitedHealthcare company. Last August the board raised what members pay by 2.3 percent for this year, holding the medical piece down with a negotiated cap of $15 a month. The system told retirees in May that premiums would not move on Sept. 1 and that trustees would vote in August on rates taking effect Jan. 1. A panel discussion with the plan’s administrator comes first.
The contract itself runs out Dec. 31. The system asked for bids in July 2025 on a six-year replacement and got two. According to materials the board posted in May, staff disqualified one bidder, a Humana subsidiary, two weeks before the meeting for failing a minimum requirement. Minutes of that May meeting have not been posted, so the outcome of the award is not confirmed in any public document. The system’s group benefits program covers more than 500,000 state and higher education workers, retirees and family members.
Trustees also weigh a new governance manual and rule changes that would abolish the board’s own vice-chair job, moving the stand-in duty to whoever chairs the audit committee. They elect officers for the year beginning Sept. 1; the chair, Neika Clark, reaches the end of her one-year term Aug. 31, as does the appointed seat held by James Kee. The fiscal 2027 operating budget and the agency’s next request to the Legislature are on the agenda too, under a July instruction from state leaders that agencies build their requests 3 percent below current spending. A quarterly review of the $44 billion trust fund and a private-markets plan for next year close the day.
Watch whether the rate vote lands near this year’s increase, and whether the trustees vote away their own vice-chair post.
Meeting at a glance
- When
- 8:30 a.m. CT Tuesday, August 25, 2026. Board business runs to roughly 1:45 p.m., the joint investment meeting to about 4:55 p.m. and the audit committee to about 5:30 p.m.
- Where
- Employees Retirement System building, 1836 San Jacinto Blvd., ninth-floor Rio Grande Conference Room, Austin.
- Governing body & chair
- Board of Trustees — six members serving six-year terms: three appointed, one each by the governor, the House speaker and the chief justice, and three elected by members and retirees. Neika Clark is chair.
- Format
- In person. To speak, email Kelley Davenport at the agency with the speaker’s name and the agenda item by 5 p.m. Aug. 24.
- Live video
- The system posts video of each agenda item afterward on its board pages and keeps a YouTube channel. A live stream for this meeting is not confirmed.
- Full agenda
- Secretary of State Open Meeting Viewer · board agenda portal
Board members
- Neika Clark — chair; elected seat; term expires 2027.
- Pat Frost, San Antonio — vice chair; governor’s appointee; term to 2030.
- I. Craig Hester — chief justice’s appointee; term expires 2028.
- James “Jim” Kee — House speaker’s appointee; term expires Aug. 31.
- Brian R. Barth — elected seat; re-elected in 2025; term to 2031.
- Stuart Greenfield — elected seat; first retiree elected to the board.
Officers follow the board’s own August 20, 2025 minutes, which record the election of Clark as chair and Frost as vice chair for the year ending August 31, 2026. The agency’s membership page is out of date: it shows only five trustees, omits Frost and still names Brian Barth as chair. Executive director: Porter Wilson. Chief investment officer: David T. Veal. Meeting contact: General Counsel Cynthia Hamilton.