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Deschutes County Board of Commissioners
1300 NW Wall St., Suite 200, Bend, OR 97701-1960
(541) 388-6570 - Fax (541) 385-3202 - www.deschutes.org
AGENDA REQUEST & STAFF REPORT
For Board Business Meeting of 02/13/08
Please see directions for completing this document on the next page.
DATE: 02/06/08
FROM: Ronda Connor Personnel 385-3215
TITLE OF AGENDA ITEM:
Consideration for approval of EBAC recommendation to implement a separate health benefit plan
offered to part-time benefitted employees.
PUBLIC HEARING ON THIS DATE? No
BACKGROUND AND POLICY IMPLICATIONS:
The Employee Benefits Advisory Committee (EBAC) has proposed to offer an option for part-time
employees to purchase a different health benefit plan for the same monthly premium as full-time
employees currently pay. This would allow those part-time employees to opt out of the current plan
that has a pro -rated premium structure and purchase a different plan with a deductible of $2,500 per
year. All other benefits on this proposed part-time plan remain the same as the current plan in place.
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
The proposed charge to the departments for this plan is approximately $600 per enrolled employee (or
half of what the current monthly premium). This could potentially decrease the charge to the
corresponding department and possibly affect a future adopted budget.
RECOMMENDATION & ACTION REQUESTED:
Board approval of the EBAC recommendation to adopt a $2,500 deductible health benefit plan offered
to part-time benefitted employees effective August 1, 2008.
ATTENDANCE: Dave Kanner and Ronda Connor
DISTRIBUTION OF DOCUMENTS:
N/A
Department of Administrative Services
Dave Kanner, County Administrator
January 7, 2008
TO: Members of the EBAC
FROM: Dave Kanner, county administrator
RE: Part-time insurance benefits
1300 NW Wall St, Suite 200, Bend, OR 97701-1960
[541) 388-6570 - Fax (541) 385-3202
www.co.deschutes.or.us
As I have mulled over the recent discussions regarding health benefits for part-time
employees, I've come to the conclusion that there's no perfect answer and that the path
forward is probably to simply adopt a plan, offer it for a year and then evaluate our actual
experience. Given the size of our reserve and the limited nature of the benefit, I believe
our exposure is fairly minimal if we move forward with what is essentially an
experiment. What's more, according to Ronda, HCC does not require that we fund the
recommended premium at 100%.
To that end, I would propose the following:
1. We offer an alternative health plan to less -than -full-time employees that includes
health, Rx and alternative care benefits with a $2,500 deductible and the same dental and
vision benefits offered to full-time employees.
2. The cost to the departments would be $600 per month per participating employee (or
whatever 50% of the cost of a full-time employee is next year). The cost to the employee
would be $35 per month, or whatever figure we go with next year for all employees.
3. Part-time employees would have to declare which plan they want to participate in prior
to the start of the plan year and would not be permitted to switch during the course of the
plan year. (Question: What happens if a p/t employee leaves county employment during
the course of the plan year and is replaced by a new employee who wants to be on the
other plan?)
4. Each employee would be covered by the stop -loss plan.
According to Ronda, we can track revenues and expenditures attributable to participating
p/t employees and, at the end of the plan year, determine whether this is something we
can continue to offer.
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