Council considers options for health insurance

The Girard City Council is once again looking at its insurance coverage.

This time, it was health insurance, as the council heard a report Tuesday from Jeff Kramer, area representative for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas, the city's current provider.

The city's current insurance policy is due for renewal Aug. 1. The renewal notice represented about an 8 percent overall increase in premium costs.

Kramer presented three options for consideration by the council. The current policy carries a $2,500 deductible for an individual and $5,000 for two or more persons, with an 80/20 co-payment to a maximum of $1,000 for an individual, $2,000 for two or more.

The current policy also provides 100 percent coverage to a maximum of $1,000 per person, a $25 office visit co-payment, prescription drug card and dental coverage.

The renewal proposals would give employees more options to potentially save money on their share of the insurance payments.

“If you wanted to offer multiple options for your employees, you could,” Kramer said. “You could give each employee the option to buy up to a lower deductible, for example.”

The first proposal would offer three different levels of deductible, with consequent increased premium payments, Kramer said. Coverage would otherwise be identical to what city employees currently have.

A second option Kramer called the AffordaBlue Option has a different deductible structure, with levels for $500, $1,000 and $2,000 per individual and $1,500, $3,000 and $6,000 for three or more.

“The other benefits are similar to what you have today,” Kramer said. “The biggest difference is in prescription drug coverage. That's why we can get the lower deductibles.”

With the AffordaBlue plan, covered persons would pay the first $100 of the cost of prescription drugs, then would be charged a discount rate. Employees would be responsible for filing paperwork received from their pharmacist and would receive half what they paid back, Kramer said.

Another difference would be a limit of five office visits per year with a $25 co-payment. At the sixth visit, it would still be covered, but the cost would start applying to regular deductible coverage, Kramer said.

The third option combines high-deductible coverage with institution of health savings accounts. The option meets Internal Revenue Service standards to qualify for the accounts, Kramer said.

With the high deductible option, everything is counted toward matching the annual deductible. Certain preventative and wellness procedures would be covered at 100 percent. Once the deductible is met, the insurance pays 100 percent.

Kramer said he wouldn't suggest the high-deductible insurance as an only option, but would recommend it, in conjunction with any of the other plans.

Council member Sandy Hallacy said she'd like to get input from city employees before making a decision. The rest of the council agreed and, acting on a recommendation from City Administrator Gary Emry, tabled the proposal for further study and discussion at the next council meeting.

In other business, the council:

• Approved the reappointment of Jeffrey Leslie to another term on the Girard Housing Authority board, term to expire June 24, 2012.

• Approved reappointment John Lehman and Steve Thompson to the Girard Industrial Development Board.

• Received a letter from Stacy Sullivan, executive director of the Girard Housing Authority, requesting the city deed the land where the Housing Authority is located at 100 N. Water St. to the agency. The council referred the matter to city attorney Richard Loffswold for further study with an eye toward approving the request.

• Approved payment of an invoice for $2,510 from Fee Insurance Group of Pittsburg for property and liability insurance coverage for the city. The invoice included the addition of Employment Practices Liability insurance to protect the city against potential wrongful termination or sexual harassment lawsuits. The coverage was inadvertently omitted from the initial estimates, Emry said.

• Approved a $1.50 per hour raise for firefighter Terry Ray and accepted the resignation of Mike Kline from the Girard Fire Department. The council authorized Fire Chief Pete Scales to advertise to fill the vacancy.

The council will next meet at 5:30 p.m. Monday in special session to discuss plans for improvements to the city water and waste water systems and other proposed projects. Emry told the board the engineer working on the water system plans would be present with a report.