Cigna up for 6th year as county health plan manager

Jan. 24--The bids are in, and it looks like an "aggressive" pitch will land Cigna the contract for Hamilton County's employee health insurance for the sixth year in a row.

County commissioners will consider the insurance contract at their Wednesday agenda session and are scheduled to vote the following week. They got a briefing last week from County Mayor Jim Coppinger and human resources staff on the bids from Cigna and BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee.

"It's our responsibility to the taxpayers to take the best offer, and Cigna is the best offer financially," Coppinger said in a later interview.

Health insurance is a roughly $23 million item in Hamilton County's annual county budget. The county is self-insured, but contracts out the plan administration.

Cigna's proposal chops $300,000 in administrative costs and projects more than $235,000 in pharmacy cost savings, even while adding money for employee wellness programs.

Alecia Poe, assistant human resources director, said Cigna saw the county's 1,843 employees as a plum and was "really going after our business."

BlueCross BlueShield said it could save more than $168,000 in administrative costs and $410,000 in medical claims costs, but Poe said the overall numbers came out in Cigna's favor. Plus, she said, staying with the same insurer means less disruption in networks and pharmacy benefits for county workers.

"The beauty of this is there is not going to be any change in the employee health insurance," Coppinger said. "Insurance is the most important benefit employees have."

About 75 percent of county employees saw a big change in their coverage in 2014. Workers hired before September 2006 were under a cushy plan that covered all their costs with no employee contribution. The federal Affordable Care Act put penalties on so-called "Cadillac plans" and those employees were required, like later hires, to cover deductibles and co-pays for hospitalizations.

This year, Coppinger and Poe both expect that any premium increase will be small. Last year's contract was "revenue neutral," Coppinger said.

And county workers themselves have had a large role in keeping costs down, he and Poe said, by using the discount pharmacy, wellness center and clinic the county operates for them. Getting workers regular medical care, lower-cost prescriptions and case management for chronic conditions such as diabetes helps keeps costs under control.

"What we're trying to do is create a sort of medical home for our employees so they can come into the clinic, they can go immediately next door to get their pharmaceuticals and then we have case management," Poe said. "We want them seen and, whatever the symptom is, we want it addressed."

Coppinger added, "Last year's savings is where the employee raise came from. They make it work and we want to be able to give back."

Employee benefit advisers Russ Blakely and Associates worked with the county to evaluate the bids. Brent Wick, with the firm, said the clinic and pharmacy have contributed to "very good trend reductions" in cost and medical usage.

"In the first year of the clinic [2014] we saw an actual slight reduction in cost, which is a monumental achievement."

Contact staff writer Judy Walton at [email protected] or 423-757-6416.

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