BENTONVILLE -- A proposal to bill student-athletes' insurance providers for services they get from athletic trainers could raise more than $100,000 per year for the School District, but would cost families nothing, officials said.

Jeff McGee, the district's head athletic trainer, said Bentonville would be one of the first districts in the country to try such a system if the School Board approves it.

The board heard details of the plan for the first time last week. Administrators likely will ask the board to authorize the plan at the board's next meeting May 19.

The high school's athletic trainers treat student-athletes for a wide variety of aches, injuries and illnesses, McGee said. Students receive those services at no charge and will continue to do so.

The district could bill the students' insurance companies for those services if the parents are comfortable with it. Families that don't want to participate won't have to, said Scott Passmore, athletic director.

"There's no cost to parents," Passmore said. "This is only what the insurance is willing to pay."

Insurance companies would send an explanation of benefits to the families detailing what it paid for the services that were billed. Regardless of how much the insurance company covers, the school won't ask families to pay the remainder.

Students would continue to be treated regardless of whether they have insurance, McGee said.

All money collected from insurance would be managed by the district's business office. It could be used to maintain and update equipment and purchase supplies for the athletic department, Passmore said.

"Our budget just for tape and Band-Aids and ice packs, just your typical first-aid kits, is almost $30,000 a year with the number of kids we have," Passmore said. "We have certain pieces of equipment in our training room that are $16,000 to $20,000 to replace. These (insurance) funds would go toward that."

"We're going to continue to do the exact same things we do," McGee said. "The benefit for us is to be able to take care of those students better."

No other high school in Arkansas bills insurance for athletic training services, McGee said. He told the board a couple of other high schools in the country are looking into it.

Athletic training as a profession has become more sophisticated in the past two decades. It's no longer just about handing out ice and taping ankles, McGee said.

"You have to get a degree from an accredited university," he said. "So there is intensive coursework, plus there are rotations, which is very similar to what a physician goes through. Our training is very much on the level of a physical therapist, plus we have the training that an orthopedic surgeon would have, and a nurse would have. So the newness of the profession itself, and the recent ability to bill for services is so new, that's why we'd be one of the first ones to do it."

Passmore said officials have spent months studying the concept since McGee brought the idea up last fall. Missouri State University in Springfield, Mo., does something similar and has for a while, McGee said, adding he has spoken to officials at that school a few times.

Wendi Cheatham, board president, asked Passmore and McGee whether they've considered testing the concept slowly rather than jumping in all at once.

"What we can control is (the claims) we submit," Passmore said. "We wouldn't have to submit everything."

The proposal reviewed by Marshall Ney, the district's attorney, to ensure it complies with the law, said Sterling Ming, finance director.

School staff will collect insurance information from families at the beginning of the school year during mass physicals, and when injuries occur that require physical therapy, as long as those families are willing to provide it.

McGee calculated how much money the district could collect by examining a typical week of treatments performed by himself and Austin Kerkhover, assistant athletic trainer. That was the week of Oct. 13-19.

During that time they did 26 evaluations of injuries, six concussion evaluations, 36 electrical stimulation treatments, 44 units of rehabilitation exercises and more. Total potential revenue produced from all eligible services that week came out to $15,000, McGee said.

About 90 percent of student-athletes who have surgery do their rehabilitation through the high school's athletic trainers, Passmore said.

Michael Poore, superintendent, told the board last week the proposal is "extremely innovative."

"I think it's an item that actually does a lot of the things you've sought as trying to make sure we continue to find ways to generate revenue in the athletic area, and that allows us to deal with that department on its own," Poore said.