Travis County Commissioners Court
Tuesday, June 22, 2010,
Item 16
>> 16 is to consider and take appropriate action on final fiscal year 2011 group benefit health plan changes and rates, effective october 1, 2010: a, all option 1 benefit changes including making nexium ineligible on the pharmacy plan; b, rate changes for both employees and county retirees; c, revised definitions of dependents; and d, documentation required to substantiate dependent coverage.
>> good morning,.
>> good morning, judge, commissioners, we had tentative approval of the items mentioned pending the outcough the public hearing that took place last wednesday. We are here today to request final approval of the items -- a through d.
>> move approval.
>> second.
>> > motion and second to approve. We didn't get any comments to -- to -- to -- care to further discuss any of the options recommended?
>> no.
>>
>> [inaudible - no mic]
>> go ahead.
>> do we have any comments from the public hearing that we had on these particular items? You know, we said that we would get as much information --
>> the comments
>> [multiple voices]
>> i'm sorry?
>> the comments that -- that we were to get this information out to the employees and also retirees, the -- the comment period i mean as far as the comments are concerned, did we make sure that we adequately exhausted those at outreach, i guess, to make sure that what we were bringing forth today has been fully exhausted. That's my question.
>> yes. All of the comments that came in prior to the hearing were combined and given to the court before the hearing, to my knowledge, we have not received any additional comments.
>> no additional --
>> during that training session, i have about 15 employee training sessions talking about this whole topic and once the employees understood what we were trying to do as far as the benefit plan changes in lieu of a rate increase, of course no one is happy about a rate increase, but i think they understood what we were trying to do. Probably the most discussion was on nexium.
>> where did we land on the hearing aids?
>> we're still looking into what the cost would be and how we can negotiate with -- with a vendor. There is some additional aid that could be available through the state, so we're still researching that.
>> okay. I also received an e-mail from -- from a corrections employee regarding shoes.
>> orthotics,.
>> for those who pretty much stand all day. Was that complaint singular or have we gotten it from other employees who do a lot of standing.
>> i received a call from one additional corrections officer, we are looking into how that can be accommodated outside of the health plan.
>> we expect some sort of formal response say within the next 30 days.
>> yes.
>> to both of them?
>> yes.
>> i do think we ought to try to get whatever we can do, you know, investigated. And if -- if there's nothing we can do, then explain why. But as you mentioned if there's something that we can do outside of the plan, seems to me to try to make sense to do it if we can.
>> we will put that together and bring it back before the court.
>> open enrollment, when does it begin?
>> open enrollment begins july 19th through august 20th.
>> july 19th through august 20th.
>> we want everybody to do all 10 steps, especially this year we want them to check step 2 which is where the dependent information lives.
>> i wanted to thank you all for the committee's tremendous efforts through this, running every trap imaginable to try to figure out how to keep the rates low and the -- and the menu of benefits wide and i also wanted to thank the complies for being so educated and up on this topic, so participatory in the face of an inevitable rate increase we simply couldn't avoid. Our employees as usual have just been tremendous help mates in figuring out how to skin this cat.
>> i wanted to say also for people who need nexuim, through the drug company, people that -- at certain --
>> [indiscernible] information online.
>> so if you meet those income level requirements, you can go and they do have a financial assistant available for some folks who may still need that.
>> online.
>>
>> [indiscernible]
>> probably just put in nexium, you can get to the drug company and they have an application there where you can apply for assistance.
>> okay.
>> good, anything else? All in favor? That passes by unanimous vote. That covers 16 a through 16 d.
>> thank you.
>> thank you all very much.
>> thank you all for the good job, good work.
The Closed Caption log for this Commissioners Court agenda item is provided by Travis County Internet Services. Since this file is derived from the Closed Captions created during live cablecasts, there are occasional spelling and grammatical errors. This Closed Caption log is not an official record the Commissioners Court Meeting and cannot be relied on for official purposes. For official records please contact the County Clerk at (512) 854-4722.
Last Modified:
Tuesday, June 22, 2010 1:35 PM
