Travis County Commissioners Court
Tuesday, May 25, 2010,
Item 22
22 is the one that we meant to discuss. Discuss and take appropriate action on travis county employee benefit plan. A, revise definition of dependents. B, documentation required to substantiate dependent coverage. And, c, dependent audit process and vendor. And i thank both of y'all for your patients. We know y'all were here bright and early this morning to present, but didn't get a chance to.
>> we were eager.
>> [laughter]
>> judge, commissioners, we are here to discuss with you today the update on the definition of dependents, which several months ago the court directed us to review. We have done the review and coincidental to that review the federal rules came out on the definition of their dependents or their definition of dependents. So we have combined both of those. And we are here with you this afternoon to talk about the definitions. Cindy perryington along with the county attorney's office has worked very hard on this, i will let her describe some of the changes.
>> okay.
>> good afternoon, judge, commissioners, cindy perryington, hrmd. This turned out to be a bigger job than we thought it was going to be, but it was something that really needed to happen and we are pleased to present these to you. What will happen is if you approve these revised definitions of dependents, then we will go ahead and revise our plan documents and bring those back to you for approval because there's been a couple of other changes that need to be made in the plan documents anyway, and we're going to update the entire plan document. Basically, what changed is that we -- we in the past had the definitions for -- well, we had -- categories for a legal spouse, a category for domestic partner. Under that domestic partner umbrella we had a couple of different types of categories of dependents. Such as a significant other, maybe a parent that was living in the home with the employee, maybe it was an over-aged child that would otherwise have come off the insurance but was still living at home and dependent. We had a couple of different types of dependent under the domestic partner category. What we have done is separated them out into their own categories. Because as we looked at them, different rules applied. So now we're going to have a category for a legal spouse, we're going to have a category for a common law spouse. In order to be in that category for a common law spouse, you will have had to have gone to the county clerk's office and completed the certificate. It's called a declaration and registration of informal marriage. And both people go to the county clerk's office, complete the form there, it gets put into the system, and thereafter you are treated as a legal spouse, which in terms of benefit plans means that you have the option then to be on the life insurance, if you terminate as a dependent on the plan, you have the option to take cobra. Right now a domestic partner, which is how we considered them before, are not eligible for life insurance. They are not eligible for the pretax treatment of the premium or to go on cobra if they terminate. So it's -- it's a distinction that some employees may be wanting to make in order to give their common law spouse the -- the -- the benefits that they would have as a regular spouse. We are then going to have also a category still for domestic partner and that's same or opposite sex. You will only have to fill out the affidavit, the first time you add the domestic partner on to the plan, not on an annual basis as we do now. There would still be an affidavit, there will still be criteria, but you only have to do it the first time that you add someone on the plan which was the issue that started this whole process. We are then going to --
>> just a second. I want to make sure that it's understood that restriction on benefits for domestic partner is really an i.r.s. Rule. It's not a county rule. I wanted to clarify --
>> also i think that it's important to make the distinction that it's state law that keeps same sex domestic partner from going and getting the same declaration of marriage and affording them those rights. It's the -- the texas probate code that prevents us from --
>> that's a very good point. For the common law spouse it does have to be opposite sex.
>> you can be a common law spouse even without the affidavit. It's just the proving up is easier with the affidavit.
>> for the purposes of our benefit plan, you will need the certificate.
>> the certificate. I'm sorry. I said affidavit. We will have the regular domestic partner category and then we will have something called a sponsor dependent. That ace blood relative of the -- is a blood relative of the employee that they are carrying on their plan as a dependent, such as a married parent or an overage child that is still on, covering them as an adult then. So it's -- it's several different definitions now instead of all under the domestic partner umbrella. Then we moved on to children, because as we were discussing these other topics, where we kept saying well what about the children so and so or what about the category of the children, we had it all detailed out, how we were going to do the children and then the health care affordability act and the health care in education reconciliation act, both of them otherwise known as the act after this, came out and said that we need to treat children differently than we have been doing them in the past. In order -- the whole intent was to make sure that children were covered even those children that were college-aged, coming off of their parents' insurance, but before they really got in the workforce and had established care under an employer, so the first parts of the law says that children 19 and over starting for us this october, 19 and over, will not be subject to preexisting conditions and can stay on the health plan if they don't have other employer sponsored health care. And we've had several clarifications of that portion of it come back to us. What they are really looking for is that child has an older employer, but that employer is not offering health care, they are not looking at the parents' health care as other employer sponsored health care. We are still getting clarifications on this. But our proposal is since we don't do preexisting conditions anyway for any of our people on the health plan and we already cover children up to age 26, we're not going to worry about that particular component of it because in three years, they are all be treated that way anyway. So we're -- we're going to continue to -- to cover children until age 26. Preexisting does not apply to anyone on our plan not just children, but we had to take away some of the criteria on the health plan as we've had in the past. In order to cover a child right now, that child has to be dependent upon you for support, living in your home, not working 20 or more hours a week and be unmarried. All of those criteria, the health care act has taken away. So now basically it's any child, your child, or stepchild, and we've laid out all of the different types of children, you can cover them, but those criteria cannot be applied any further. The biggest difference the employees will see is on how we're treating spouses, domestic partner, sponsored dependent and then in the child area, along with this, we -- needed to clean up what type of documentation that we were asking for. Since we were going to only ask for the domestic partner affidavit on an annual basis and allow them to enroll mid year where they have not been allowed to enroll mid year, we started asking ourselves what kind of documentation is required for this type of person and this type of enrollee. So we went ahead and documented work with the county attorney's office very closely, and laid out what type of documentation is required to bring someone on the plan mid year. This documentation will only be required the first time that someone is entered on the plan. After that, we don't ask for it again unless they are taken off of the plan and maybe come back on the plan at some later date. It's going to be consistent. The same for everybody. And something that we need to get out and educate our employees on what's going to be required. And the other part to this -- well, like for a spouse we're going to look for a marriage certificate. We're going to look for a driver's license. To show that the spouse, the address -- address of the spouse.
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>> > and then last part to this agenda item is the dependent audit. We had talked to the court sometime back about -- about preparing to do a dependent audit. We -- we did -- do an independent audit with the purchasing department to select someone for the independent audit. We are ready to go forward with that so to speak, but we wanted to have enough time to wrap it around open enrollment. That way people will be making their own changes, auditing their own self while they do an open enrollment, then we will do an independent audit right at the end of open enrollment. We need to educate employees on what type of documentation is going to be required. Yes, you're going to have to dig out your major or birth certificates for your children, take care to get the appropriate affidavits if you need an affidavit. We're going to have a third party do this audit so that we are not handling our co-workers hard copy, personal papers, as much as can be -- can be expected. And the -- the third party is not going to handle the hard copies, either. Because these documents are going to be sent to them either by fax or through a secure portal on a website. We don't want someone to end the original birth certificate or marriage certificate to this audit company. They will -- it will be done mostly by e-mail for those employees that don't have access to e-mail and we have been busily identifying who those are, we are going to use the u.s. Postal system to send their letter and let them know what we need from them. T.n.r. Has the largest number of employees that don't have access to e-mail, there's probably 200 or more in t.n.r. Alone that don't have access. So it's going to be kind of a coordination effort between the department, hr and the audit company to make sure those people get everything that they need and that things are handled.
>> what will i guess -- remind us again when open enrollment begins --
>> open enrollment this year is july 19th through august the 20th.
>> july 19th through august 20th.
>> you have a 30 day open enrollment, most people can just complete it at their desk. However we will be out at the service centers in all of our usual spots with our computers helping anyone that needs help. You can always come to h.r. Any day during open enrollment and someone will be available to sit down with you and go over anything that you might have questions on. We do want them to complete all 10 steps or they will default to the co-insured epo employee only and basic life.
>> with these particular changes, especially with having to prove up the necessary documentation, my question is how will we notify -- because that's -- there's going to be a window here, a close window, how will we notify the employees that -- that this -- these type of documentations are expected from you and, you know, you have to have them submitted by such and such a time during open season, whatever, that will kind of give them a head start i guess to make sure that the proper documentation that's required is made available. So it's -- it's a lot of -- there's a lot of little moving parts here, but i want to make sure that -- we want to make sure, all of us, want to make sure that -- that the employees and retirees or whatever of travis county have an opportunity to have enough time, enough time, to -- to adhere the requests that are being made here before the commissioners court. I'm very concerned about that.
>> that's one of the reasons that we wanted some lead time before the audit because cindy has been out doing some training and will be continuing that right up to open enrollment, explaining what documentation is need, what the definition of the dependent is. So training is ongoing. And we'll be sending an e-mail out as soon as i get it off of my desk and back to cindy. We will be communicating with the employees from now through open enrollment.
>> also the audit company is going to send a personalized e-mail to each employee telling them in their particular case the documentation that is needed for so and so child, so and so wife is exactly this. They will get something in writing that tells them exactly what they need. They will have 60 days to produce that to the audit company. What we're trying to do is give them a lead time now in case they need to get a replacement birth certificate or marriage license, which you can do online nowadays no matter what state it's in, you can pretty much go on line and order what you need and it can be mailed to you. We want to give people every opportunity to have all of their ducks in a row before the audit actually starts. Because i agree with you commissioner education here is half the issue. That way we have established a baseline that every single person on our health plan is eligible to be there. When the lcra did this process, they had about 11% of their dependents that weren't really eligible to be on their plan. Harris county just did an audit, they found similar results as well. So it's something that you don't want to do this every year, by any means but you do need to do it from time to time, we have never really done one so we need to establish a baseline.
>> i want to thank y'all for over the years making it progressively easier and easier and even easier for open enrollment for our employees. It really is amazing and we could -- we could migrate some of the wonderful customer service that y'all have developed into as a into some ofthe other areas of y business as well. As i'm looking at this proposal that you all put together with the service provider, a toll free call center or secure website for uploading documents, a secure fax number, periodic e-mail notices, personalized remiengd employees to -- reminding employees to submit documents, what documents to submit, detailed reports to employees, so it's not just if you happen to need -- it's very specific weekly reports, of disenrolled dependents, it's really comprehensive. One question that i had, i imagine since this isn't -- i'm assuming since it isn't in the proposal that it's actually just our existing rules with regard to any penalties for -- for having folks on your plan for which they are not eligible.
>> i'm glad that you brought that up. Because that is something that we wanted to discuss with the court. Our plan at this time is to simply remove the ineligible dependent and if there have been claims paid from 10-1-10, this next october going forward, we're not going to look back. But if there's any claims paid after october the employee would be asked to pay the plan back for those charges. There was a lot of discussion on what the penalty should be. We don't want this to be a punitive exercise in any way. Because i think that it's more education than anything about who is really eligible and who isn't. Turned out there was a lot of confusion out there. So we thought that we would start with our penalty being just removal of the ineligible dependent.
>> i think that is generous and appropriate considering the level of -- of understanding in this area and the flux.
>> any other questions?
>> i have two.
>> okay.
>> so we have selected the sage brush vendor.
>> hrmd
>> [inaudible - no mic]
>> come up here to the mic.
>>
>> [indiscernible]
>> [inaudible - no mic]
>> all right, go ahead.
>> i'm sorry, cyd grimes, purchasing agent. Hrmd knew this company and they said they were qualified and asked that it be exempted from the competitive process.
>> the reason is that the individual that's going to be our contact in account -- and account representative is previously with the employee retirement system here in austin and conducted these audits. I think the experience factor and knowledge of the texas market helps a great deal.
>> okay.
>> especially with this being our first audit.
>> so has the contract been exempted from competition?
>> we got an item, in fact i have it in front of me to bring that to court next week to do the exemption order and barbara wilson has already written a contract and negotiations have already happened. So we will be bringing that back next week for exemption order and contract award.
>> okay.
>> mention was made of a social security -- social security number or social security card?
>> we need --
>> what is required?
>> we need the number. We haven't required in the past to see the actual card. That would probably be up to -- to -- up to the court actually if we want to insist on seeing an actual card. I know a lot of people no longer have their social security cards they just know the number by heart. The most important thing is that we end up with the social security number for the dependents. I don't think seeing the card is -- is the issue as much as if we have a contract number.
>> that's a federally required --
>> okay. I'm in that category myself. I have used the same number forever it seems. But i haven't seen my card in -- in decades.
>> and you are not the only one. However, travis county does require an actual social security card when you become an employee of travis county. It's part of the hiring process. And if you don't have one, when you become an employee of travis county, they send you to get one. So i think most of our employees hopefully will have their card, i'm going to have to hunt for my own as well.
>> 12 years ago i had to hunt for mine when i got employed here, it's hard to get your social security card. Easy to get your birth certificate, hard to get the social security card.
>> i do think we have somewhat of a baseline, because when this was brought up in an e-mail to all of my staff saying that there was talk of an audit coming and if anyone in my office had people on their insurance who is not qualified they need to immediately go to hrmd and in my opinion it's fraud and it's grounds for termination. We had 10% in my office, three people out of 30. So there's a baseline and they are now off of those insurance. So --
>> for employees who have been working here a few years, when they go through open enrollment, they need to know that these new policies apply?
>> right.
>> no matter how long they have been here. But we will apply this prospectively. From open enrollment forward.
>> yes.
>> but whatever the requirements are --
>> we are going to put the new definitions, we're going to put the new definitions right in open enrollment so when you click on child, the definition of a child is going to pop up there or at least a link to where you can go look so there won't be any confusion at the time they were actually hitting the button, what was that, what did they say. Er working with its right now to make those programming changes.
>> one of the benefits assistance is available to answer questions.
>> do we have a document for distribution to employees who request --
>> what i have right now is little booklets, proposed benefit changes, we have included the definitions and some of the documentation, mostly on the -- on the spouses and the children right here. So that we can -- where i'm using this in my training efforts when i'm going out to the departments, but we're going to have it all loaded online. Again, some of that will be included in the e-mail that we send out to the employees as well.
>> okay, is that font large enough to read?
>> [laughter]
>> in the booklet maybe not. Online, we will have 8 and a half by 11 big ones on line.
>> any other questions, comments?
>> will you lend your services to representative doggett as we move forward on all of the health care issues?
>> absolutely. We would appreciate the opportunity. We have a lot of ideas.
>> and we -- we're -- we've been busily educating our spouse each day really, it's a day to day thing with this new law, clarifications coming out on a daily basis. Like when cobra went into effect, there were years of clarifications when it's all said and done. This is a much bigger piece of legislation, we expect to see things change almost on a weekly basis.
>> what action, if any, do you need from us today?
>> we need you to approve the definitions of dependents. We need you to approve the documentation that we're going to be asking for and -- and just -- that we are going to be holding a dependent audit. The contract and all of that will come back with purchasing next week.
>> you need us to give you tentative approval. Of these -- of documentation and the --
>> if we could have final approval that would be best. Because we have to get this in progress.
>> all right. But we have an employee public hearing.
>> we do, on june 16th.
>> at that public hearing, we want to get employee input on all of this. That's why it shouldn't be final.
>> okay.
>> but we ought to approve it for presentation to employees, then get their feedback, then after that public hearing, give final approval. We may make some changes based on input provided by employees.
>> okay.
>> is what we say every year.
>> yes.
>> and --
>> we would be glad to accept tentative approval.
>> i move approval of a, b and c, we look forward to the exemption from the competition, i guess the contract in a and b of the same item --
>>
>> [inaudible - no mic]
>> as soon as possible if we're going to do it. Staff -- what's that expression, moving on down the road? Moving on down the road on selection of the vendor. Let's make it legal. That's the motion. Seconded by commissioner davis. Any more discussion? All in favor? That passes by unanimous vote. Good work, y'all.
>> thank y'all.
>> thanks so much, i know it was a lot of work too.
>> a lot of work, you're right. Thank you.
>> we will make sure that you keep getting your paychecks on time, how's that.
>> maybe they'll ?
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Last Modified:
Tuesday, May 25, 2010 2:35 PM
