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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2004-11-18-HBRC-min HEALTH BENEFITS REVIEW COMMITTEE MINUTES - November 18, 2004 (dcs rev of Roemer draft) Present Deborah Strod (Co-Chair), Tom Rand, Linda Roemer (Recorder), Nancy Meadows Richard Eurich (Appropriations), Paul Hamburger (Appropriations), Evelyn Silber (Personnel Advisory Board), Tom Griffiths (School Committee) Staff Rose Duchame Members of the Public Lorraine Former; Administrative Matters Copies of the Schedule of Benefits for the plans offered by the town were distributed with FY 05 health and dental rates Later, copies of the Memorandum of Understanding between the Coalition and the Town were distributed. Deborah Strod opened the meeting and announced that Margaret Oliva had resigned because of pressing family matters and that she hoped another participant would be added but that in the meantime Nancy Meadows who was the spouse of a town employee could provide some perspective Dick Dougherty cannot make December 15th and alternative dates were discussed, Deborah will check with other committee members but there was a feeling that perhaps it was best to stick with the 15th There will be no meeting on December 29th There will be meetings on January 5th and January 19t1i 2005 Members agreed that it would be much easier on members if we could get a room with a table and Deborah will see about doing this Paul Hamburger reminded members to destroy the original spreadsheet, the electronic version of which, might have made a town employee identifiable It was noted that this was not the case with printed versions of that spreadsheet Lorraine Former requested that she be added to the e-mail list and there was a discussion about whether there would be materials that could not be circulated to the general public Deborah will check on this, it was noted that at some point the committee might have to go into Executive Session. The schedule of the committee was discussed in terms of how much it could get done before it was due to report to the Board of Selectmen. It was agreed that we could only get done what we could get done and that it was very likely that there would be much work to be done after our February report. 1 A question was raised about whether collective bargaining was already taking place and whether it was usually for one year or two years No one on the committee had heard anything about bargaining having started and clarification was needed on the duration of the agreement with the Coalition. Deborah asked the Committee not to request information directly from staff Requests need to go through Linda Vine, and Evelyn will be the point person for data requests from this Committee After some discussion, it was agreed that generally e-mails should go through Deborah and Dick to avoid confusion and multiple e-mails being confusing. E-mails about the Committee should have HBRC in the header to help people keep track. Paul reported that he had distributed 3 worksheets by e-mail last night and it was made known that a more detailed report could be obtained from GBS The Committee was reminded that the benefits consultant would be available to the Committee but that we needed to be efficient in the use of his time and that we needed to detail what specific information we wanted from him. Minutes The minutes of the meeting of November 3rd were amended so that Section 5b of the minutes reads "In its initial report, the Committee will present possible options or recommendations These can be short- and long-term." A Section 5d was added stating that it was part of the charge of the Committee to see if costs could be reduced for both the Town and participants The Minutes were then accepted as amended. Discussion There was a discussion of the difficulty of getting diagnostic information and the value of preventive services that might be provided. Currently, the town only provides flu shots Other services, such as yoga, are available from Blue Cross with participants paying the cost. Deborah outlined a schedule of topics and dates as follows 12/1/04 Options in the Industry—HSAs, HRAs, FSAs (the town has HSAs) What other towns are doing and their pricing 12/15/04 Costs—claim data Consumer-directed care 1/5/05 Self insurance, Reinsurance 2 What are options 1/19/05 Report Drafting 2/2/05 Report to Board of Selectmen With 40 minutes left, the Committee discussed with Rose a number of issues and obtained information which members lacked. • Employees are vested after 10 years and are then eligible to receive retiree benefits • The state requires that teachers receive retiree benefits after 10 years and that it is the responsibility of the last town from whom the individual worked to provide them • Some retirees, although a decreasing number, are not eligible for Medicare Those that are not Medicare eligible do not shift to a senior plan on retirement but stay in the employee plan, paying the same percentage Some employees become eligible for Medicare because they have a second job or because their spouse is eligible • Individual vs family plan. Because employment by the town is seen as unlikely to change, families tend to choose the town plan rather than a plan provided by another entity Some employees choose individual plans but they have to choose a family plan when there are children. • A question was raised about whether being self-insured we get the same discounts from providers as if we were part of an insurance plan. It was suggested that this was probably the case • The opt-out program was explained to the committee members • Rose explained the history of the two groups (West Suburban and MIIA) to which Lexington had belonged and the reasons why they were unsatisfactory the large size of the Lexington group but only one vote and, in the latter case, the failure to obtain promised reinsurance • The history of reinsurance limits and costs was also discussed. It was noted that this was a balancing act between cost and returns • The Town is required to provide benefits to anyone who works 20 hours or more It was noted that possible strategies included changing the health/dental plans or their designs, changing the percentage paid by town and participants, structure of HSAs,FSAs,HRAs, collective benefits purchasing (in some other way than the experience with West Suburban and MIIA), change self-insurance level at which the Town gets reimbursed (was 75k, went up to 90, perhaps 150 or 200k would be a compromise), decreasing the number of participants, improving the health of participants, and helping participants to be smarter users of services Our approach is to look at the current status, its history, and lay out current options and their consequences (positive and negative) 3