County negotiating insurance coverage in hopes of saving tax dollars
County officials are now in the throes of negotiating all of their insurance coverage in hopes of saving taxpayer dollars.
The commissioners received good news this week when their worker's compensation insurance consultant
By bumping up the deductible, the county will save about
The county's risk management consultant
Utah Bailey, the county's safety director, said they deploy all manner of training, everything from safe driving to Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation to try to keep insurance claims at a minimum. But maybe more importantly, they analyze the claims that come in to see if a different process, procedure or even equipment is needed to address a particular problem.
About a dozen years ago, they noticed they were getting a good number of claims for back and other injuries at the Care Facility. They took an inventory of equipment and how employees had been trained to lift people and made some adjustments, including using a grant from the
Bailey said they approach every workers comp claim as an opportunity to create a safer environment for every employee.
"We look at the trends, we don't call them accident investigations because that just puts people at unease," he said. "We want to look at it as an analysis; you know, what caused this? Was it a process, was it an action by an employee, was it a procedure that needs to be modified? That's how we got ahead of this."
There are some offices, however, like the sheriff's where accidents and liability and other claims are inevitable. Since 2009 there have been 14 law enforcement liability claims against the sheriff's office with a loss payout of
"It's a violent job out there sometimes," he said. "And corrections is the same way. You have assaultive people come in and there's no training, no mitigation, there's really nothing you can do to get away from that."
But he said it's not like they take a defeatist attitude. Whenever they have a claim, they go back and analyze to see if there is anything that they could have done differently.
And just as law enforcement incidents can be beyond the sheriff's control, County Administrator
While the fact the county's health insurance consortium,
"We're not immune to the forces that are gripping the entire nation in regard to health care. The cost of health care is greatly exceeding inflation. The cost of health care is far exceeding the wage increases that can be granted, they are far exceeding the growth in revenue streams that anybody, governments included, have," Young said. "It's a problem everyone is wrestling with and we're caught in that same wrestling match, if you will."
Unless the county can come up with a new health care plan, it is looking at an almost 13 percent rate hike next year. Last year the commissioners, in a concerted effort to get spouses off their policy to reduce costs, raised some rates and also instituted a smoker's surcharge. A wellness program is also in full swing, with 40 percent participation.
Human Resources Director
"Health insurance is kind of a little bit harder to get a handle on because so much of it is, it's not preventable stuff, it's just the outcome of a bad health situation," he said. "It's nobody's fault really, it just happens."
The commissioners told Davis he and their consultant need to think outside the box and come up with a plan that will mitigate the rate hike.
Commissioner
"I'm not going to penalize our taxpayers and I'm not going to penalize our employees," he said. "So now I'm saying Jim, if you can't come back with something, you need to figure out a way that we can self insure, you need to figure out a way that we can join some other cooperative, some other way, some other fashion, this is our last year, we get out."
Dixon said they are stuck with CEBCO for 2016 but they are going to start working on a new plan for the future.
Young said the health care cost situation not only hits the county's pocketbook, it jeopardizes the county's ability to attract new talent.
"To put the problem in perspective, our employees depend upon good health care and it's definitely a part of our compensation package along with wages and a potential for retirement," he said. "You have to utilize all three in order to obtain and retain quality employees and it is certainly important to have quality employees."
Dixon said the county as a whole has a stake in keeping insurance costs down.
"We can put certain programs in place and certain qualifiers on procedures and how we'd like to see it happen," he said. "It's really the office holders and their personnel that really have the hands on, have the direct impact on that. It's a team effort."
___
(c)2015 the Journal-News (Hamilton, Ohio)
Visit the Journal-News (Hamilton, Ohio) at www.journal-news.com
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Advisor News
Annuity News
Health/Employee Benefits News
Life Insurance News