Agenda - 11-05-2013 - 5a - Laserfiche WebLink

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19 1 about the plans for hiring administrators for the claims and whether this would be an on-staff 2 person. 3 Tracy McCarty said the insurance company will remain the same. She said that as a 4 self-funded administrator, employees will have the same network with an external party being 5 paid an administrative fee to protect the County against large losses. She said this is not 6 anyone internal. She said this is really only a change in the funding mechanism. She said, as 7 claims come through on a weekly basis, that administrator will request those funds from the 8 County, and the County will fund that. She said anything above the premiums will be retained. 9 Commissioner Rich asked if anyone other than United Healthcare (UHC) had been 10 considered. 11 Tracy McCarty said yes. She said UHC was the lowest and firmest quote. 12 Commissioner Rich said she has concerns with UHC, and she is not supportive of them. 13 Commissioner Price asked if Commissioner Rich's research had suggested any other 14 insurance possibilities. 15 Commissioner Rich said she had looked at Blue Cross Blue Shield, and she was against 16 UHC because the company did not sign on to the Affordable Care Act. 17 Chair Jacobs said the County is operating under a deadline this year, and this 18 discussion can be had next year to change the criteria. He said he voted against UHC in the 19 past, but he realizes that it is late in the game. He said UHC did have a town hall meeting and 20 many concerns were addressed. He said he would like to suggest these town hall meetings be 21 held annually with staff to discuss concerns. 22 Commissioner McKee said he is generally supportive of this; however he questioned the 23 fact that he knows of several counties that go back to the private sector after being self funded. 24 Tracy McCarty said about 90% of the companies her company represents are self 25 funded, and most of the folks who have done this are very positive about it. 26 Commissioner McKee said he attended an ABC board meeting this morning (since the 27 ABC employees are insured with Orange County.) He said the general feeling at that board is 28 that they will be unable to go self funded. He said there were concerns about the County's 29 reasoning. 30 Frank Clifton said you can change the administrator of your policy at anytime. He said 31 that the numbers say that the County and the employees will save roughly $1 million in health 32 insurance costs. He said this can be re-evaluated each year. 33 He noted the disproportionately high number of female employees and said this adds to 34 the risk factor with the health insurance industry. 35 Commissioner Rich referred to the section on pricing premiums on page 353 of the 36 electronic version of the agenda. She asked for the identity of the organization mentioned. 37 Tracy McCarty said these pricing premium recommendations will be made by finance 38 and management. 39 Commissioner Rich referred to page 356 on the electronic version and asked for an 40 explanation of the reference to costs of the contract getting higher over time 41 Tracy McCarty said their self-funded clients have more control over their trend, and 42 client data can be shared. She said there are things built into a fully-insured contract, such as 43 state and federal tax. She said there are charges and profit margins that may not be included 44 in a self funded arrangement. 45 Nicole Clark noted that the dental plan is currently self-funded. 46 Commissioner Gordon said she feels this dental plan is not well compensated, and she 47 questioned if this will be the case with the insurance plan. 48 Nicole Clark said there is no relationship between medical and dental plans. She said 49 this is just the nature of the dental plan, and there is work being done on this issue. She said