New benefits don’t satisfy Clark County workers upset by insurance increases

Evening News and The Tribune, The (Jeffersonville, IN)

May 18--CLARK COUNTY -- Facing a handful of Clark County employees disgruntled by higher premiums on their new insurance plan, the county commissioners approved a cost-saving wellness program and a rollover flexible spending plan for employees at its Thursday meeting.

Commissioners President Jack Coffman said that the measures for employees weren't influenced by their opposition to the insurance plan.

"We've been looking at that over a year," he said.

But the changes could still ease the financial burden for employees brought on by the new plan.

Under the plan, which goes into effect Aug. 1, the county government will pay a flat portion of each employee's insurance premium based on the highest deductible plan. In previous years, the county paid a set percentage of each employee's premium. At the same time, the cost for the county's insurance plan has climbed this year by 1.5 percent. This means that most employees on the high deductible plan will only pay approximately $15 to $19 more a month than they did last year, but employees on the two other plans could be paying anywhere from $75 to $303 more per month.

The wellness program, which will require employees to undergo biometric testing, will help them save $40 per month on their premium, or $80 per month if they involve a spouse or an adult child. The new flexible spending plan will allow employees to roll over as much as $500 in health care costs year to year if they don't spend the money in the year prior.

Karen Goodwell, who presented the plan to the commissioners, said that the change to the county's flexible spending plan is meant to encourage more employees to take advantage of it. Currently only 11 do.

Despite the commissioners' actions, most of the meeting's discussion about health care revolved around employees demanding to know why commissioners hadn't sought bids for different insurance plans this year.

Tracey Marino, a Clark County court reporter, said she would look into the wellness program, but that everyone she had spoken to about the commissioners' failure to seek out bids thought their strategy was "asinine." She presented a petition to the commissioners with 193 signatures asking them to go back and do so.

"If you guys are going to decide to cut the portion that the county is going to pay for the insurance, you should at least give the employees options of searching for better prices for us and not making us take such a big hit," Marino said. "That is reasonable to me."

During the meeting, Coffman deferred to the county's insurance broker, Sandy Halstead with AssuredPartners, to explain their decision, despite protests from employees that the commissioners speak for themselves.

According to Halstead, who explained the situation both during the meeting and afterward, sticking with the same insurance provider allowed the county to save more money than it would have otherwise.

Halstead said that it isn't a good idea for self-funded insurance clients such as the county to bid out for various insurance carriers every year. The current carrier -- Humana in Clark County's case --doesn't like it and might not be "kind" to their client in the future. Extra costs are also associated with switching to another carrier. Clark County would have had to pay money to both the new and the old carrier to process claims.

Humana also offered the county $400,000 more in savings not to bid out to other carriers. They also negotiated down from a 5 percent increase to the accepted 1.5 percent increase.

After the meeting, Coffman said that when the county has gone out to bid in the past, it hasn't helped them.

"...No one has been able to give us a good price and service as what our current insurance provider has," he said.

The commissioners also declined to let another insurance broker who came to the meeting, Joe Olson, come up with a new insurance plan for the county. Olson, a former agent of record for Clark County, said that through his own research, he had found a way to save the county $500,000 on their insurance plan. Halstead said after the meeting that Olson's plan was "pure speculation."

Jeremy Snelling, another Clark County employee who wished that the commissioners would have gone over the plan longer, warned other workers at the meeting that the commissioners' decision was "a done deal."

"I'm sorry people," he said. "It's dead in the water. Don't raise your blood pressure or you might have to go to the clinic."

Marino left the meeting dejected. She hadn't known about the commissioners' decision to raise premiums in April until after they decided to.

"I feel like we're beating our heads against the wall," she said. "They didn't give us any other options. They didn't allow the employees input."

Marino may feel down, but Scott Lewis, the commissioners' attorney, said he has heard from other employees who have raised their hopes about the new insurance plan.

The new premium rates are meant to push employees to the high deductible plan. That means a higher maximum out of pocket costs for employees, but examples from AssuredPartners show that the plan could ultimately costs less for them once flexible spending pay and premiums are factored in.

Lewis said he has met with employees currently on on the high deductible plan who say they've saved thousands of dollars, as well as workers on the other plans who were once angry about the changes, but who will now switch because they've found that it will save them money.

No parking in medians

At its Thursday meeting, the Clark County Commissioners also changed an ordinance that will make it illegal for drivers to park in medians on county roads.

Currently, drivers doing so are causing issues for residents and for emergency vehicles that need cleared medians to back out of their driveways or turn around their vehicles.

In other news

--Leslie Curry has been hired as Clark County's new veterans service officer to replace Mark Stinnette, who left to work in the private sector.

--Washington Township Water Corp. is applying for a grant from the Office of Community and Rural Affairs to enact improvements to its water system. Currently, major components of the current water system are no longer useful at 50 years old and the system now has less than one half of the recommended water storage capacity. The water corporation wants to install new storage tanks, a water treatment plant and waterlines.

Danielle Grady is the business and economic development reporter at the News and Tribune. Contact her via email at [email protected] or by phone at 812-206-2137. Follow her on Twitter: @dgrady1222.

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