2/14/1995 - Laserfiche WebLink

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M Chairman Macht questioned a mechanism for recovering costs when an illness began under one contract and was transferred to another contract, and Director Price advised that no provision was made for this contingency. He did not know of any plan which contains a provision of that sort. County Attorney Vitunac asked if the plan were self-funded and Director Price responded that it is not self-funded but is called a "minimum premium" plan. To the extent that each department is charged each month for the number of single and dependent employees in that department, the plan is self-funded because that money goes directly into an account which is drawn upon by Acordia in order to pay claims. The plan is funded and departments are charged each month based on this profile of benefits. A minimum premium plan is slightly different from being self-funded in that, if the plan experiences more demand in a given month than was funded by the employer, then the insurance company must absorb this loss. For example, Acordia paid out more claims money in January than was put in the claims account, so Acordia had to be responsible for that differential. County Attorney Vitunac stated that if the Board wanted to repay any of the employees, the funds would have to come out of the Board's own funds, not the insurance company funds. Commissioner Adams questioned whether AIDS was covered and Commissioner Eggert advised that her reference was to home health nursing aides, not the disease. Commissioner Bird commented that he felt our employees are fortunate to have this type of coverage with the County picking up the lion's share; however, he does feel that it is a very important fringe benefit to them and to all of us and anytime there are going to be any significant changes in deductibles or in the amount of coverage, we ought to be made aware of that as clearly as possible. He was not blaming anyone or saying that anyone intentionally misled the Commission, but he recalled that he was delighted at budget time when the big savings in premium was announced. This savings helped the County through a very tight budget year but, at the time, it was not clear to him that the reason for that savings was a reduction in coverages and a change in the percentage that employees pay versus our carrier or our fund. He felt that if we are going to make those kinds of changes, we need to be certain that everyone understands the changes. FEBRUARY 14, 1995 21 Boa 94 pAu,351