Travis County Commissioners Court

July 10, 2012 - Item 14
Agenda

14, consider and take appropriate action on the following employee health care items for fiscal year 2013 plan year.
This is a multi part item so that's break the parts down.
We have scud these at least twice before and had public opportunities for public comment.
A, assurant dental plan fiscal year 2013 rates, 100% employee paid.
1, dhmo rates remain the same as fiscal year 2012, 2,, ppo and mac plans include a 4% rate increase and 3:00, assurant authorization forms.

>> Thank you, judge.
Cindy peerington, hrmd and john rabb, benefit manager.
We are bringing today the rates for our f.y.
13 renewal.
Some of these are administrative rates, however, the dental plan does impact the employees since it's 100% employee paid.
We haven't had an increase on our dental plan in several years.
Youthization is warranting a -- utilization is warrant ago 4% increase.

>> Questions?
This is the best we can do basically.
Sharon has been with us --

>> For several years.
Probably going on our third year.
Assurant.

>> Move that we approve 14 a.

>> Second.

>> That's subsections 1, 2 and 3.
Mr. Reeferseed, is that relevant to a?

>> B.

>> Discussion on that motion?
All in favor?
That passes by unanimous vote.
Commissioner Eckhardt temporarily off the dais.
B, 14 b, $50,000 basic life and ad&d insurance rates with unum for the benefit of fiscal your 2013 with no increase.
100% county funded.
This is insurance that we -- basic life insurance that we provide employees.

>> Move approval.

>> We've been doing that several years already.

>> Yes, sir.

>> Commissioner Gomez moved approval, Commissioner Davis second.
What do we need to hear?

>> Thank you, judge.
This is $50,000 basic life insurance on every employee that works for Travis County, every benefited employee and matching accidental death and dismemberment.
That's what ad and d stand for.
This is the same rate that we paid last year.
We did have a little bit of an increase last year because of a lot of death claims that we had; however, according to our contract we could not get an increase this year so it remained at .14.

>> And the county has been providing this coverage how long?

>> A very long time.
We did increase it from 25,000 to 50,000 probably five years ago, six years.
I'm guessing.
And I'd have to look.

>> Mr. Reeferseed.

>> Well, physical as opposed as, which is 100% employee paid, why is the -- why is basic life insurance county paid?
In other words, taxpayers paid?
What's the difference?
Am I missing something?

>> Because of the rate we could get.
We can get it dirt cheap if we covered all county employees.
And we started doing that probably 20 years ago.

>> Yes, sir, long before I came.
It is a very basic benefit that almost all employees offer their employees.
It's nothing unusual.

>> Any other questions or comments?

>> In relation to that, why can't we use that marketability or that group advantage on a?
On the dental.
This is for people, you know, you care about, your employees and would not that same advantage be there in kind of a group -- a group effort on that?

>> The cost would be much greater probably.

>> Yes, it would.

>> Historically the county has not provided dental coverage that is county paid.
We have tried to get the best rate we could for the employees, but the employees pick up 100% of the cost.

>> And we have very high participation in the dental rates so the rates that we get from the carriers are pretty good.
Like you say, judge, it's not something that the county has offered as an employer paid product.

>> But by having it bundled, by having a big pool to pull from, we get a lower rate for our employees to purchase.

>> Right.

>> We will note for next year that mr. Reeferseed thinks that the county ought to pick up dental coverage.

>> Well, you know, I'm just trying to follow through on that same logic.
It makes sense.

>> Sure.
Thank you.
Did we vote on that?

>> No.

>> All in favor?
That passes by unanimous vote.

>> And have the report reflect me be in favor of a.
I think I stepped out of the room.

>> C, fringe benefit management company, a division of wage works, fbmc, flexible spending account, fsa, administrative rates for the fsa plan that will have annual limit of $5,000 for unreimbursed medical expenses and a dependent care annual limit of $5,000.
C 1, fsa administrative rate increase of 2.49%, fsa participant, unreimbursed medical and dependent care plans, and 2, qtb, qualified transportation benefit, or health reimbursement account, hra, administrative rate increase of 2.49% per participant.
And was there ever a time when we didn't have acronyms?

>> Not in insurance, judge, sorry.
There are a lot of acronyms in the insurance lingo.
This is our flexible spending account.
There is a slight increase in administrative fees this year.
We do have about 1,085 participants on the flexible spending account.
This is a -- basically a tax shelter where employees can shelter some of their income from taxes and use to pay themselves back with untaxable income for some out of pocket expenses.
This also benefits the county as well because of the social security taxes and fica taxes are saved.
This is something that the county has had in place for many years.
We do have on the qtb, we only have about 15 people participating in the qtb, but it is something that we were asked to implement and the people that are using it I think are saving some tax dollars with it as well.
We do not actually have an hra, however, this is part of the bid we did because we were looking at programs implementing ahr at some point so the admin rates are in there.

>> Move approval.

>> Second.

>> Discussion on the motion?
All in favor?
That passes by unanimous vote.
D, revised language, suggest I can't supplemental life insurance rates for 2013 including no rate increases for the following: 1, employee supplemental life and ad&d, 2, dependent life, 3, additional spouse life, 4, retiree life, 5, short-term disability, 6, long-term disability, and 7, personal protection plan.

>> This is our supplemental life insurance and accident will death and dismemberment.
Spouse life, retiree life and disability plan.
We changed carriers last year for f.y.
12 and went with cigna.
We're on a rate guarantee so there is no increase even thousand our utilization especially on the disability plans has been high but we are on a rate guarantee so we recommend approval of these rates.

>> Move approval.

>> Second.

>> And all of d, the employee pays for the coverage.

>> Yes, sir.

>> Discussion on the motion?
All in favor?
That passes by unanimous vote.
And e, the final subsection, administrative rates for sun life, individual stop loss coverage, no rate increase.
The stop less level is at $225,000 per covered person.
An r.f.p.
Is being released for additional stop loss coverage.
If a different carrier is selected, the rate extension option with sun life will not be exercised.
And stop loss coverage is basic english is.

>> Individual stop loss coverage, the county's plan is responsible for the first $225,000 in claims on every covered individual.
A claim should exceed that on an individual, we get paid back 100% of the money spent over $225,000.
It's a fiduciaryly prudent to have stop loss in place in case we have a number of catastrophic claims. Over the years the threshold has increased as our plan has matured a little bit.

>> And sadly, each year we have a few claims to exceed this limit.

>> I think we probably have three or four right now even at this level.

>> So we insure ourselves above $25,000.

>> It's just a prudent thing to do.

>> Move approval.

>> Second.

>> Discussion on the motion?
All in favor?
That passes by unanimous vote.
Thank you all on doing a fine job.

>> Thank you, judge.

>> You'll keep us posted on e.

>> Yes, sir.

>> What's the deadline on it?

>> We just released the stop loss r.f.p.
This week.
It's going to be out 21 days.
We'll know before 10-1 what's going to happen.

>> Thawmp.
Thank you very much.

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