Pulaski County is going to check out its options before continuing with its current health insurance options with provider, but exactly how to do that was a topic of debate during a recent joint council and commissioners meeting.
Council Member Rudy DeSabatine felt the county could potentially save hundreds of thousands of dollars by switching companies. “We just had a guy leave who says were getting upside down $2.7 million, and we’re sitting around here thinking we’re not going to rebid the insurance?” DeSabatine asked. “We rebid our business’s insurance every year. What the heck?!”
But County Attorney Kevin Tankersley explained that the county first needs to decide on a list of specifications and invite all interested agencies to bid. “We need to know what deductible do we want for our plans, what plans do we want to offer,” he said. “We have two different plans right now, HSA and PPO. Do we want to offer both anymore, or just an HSA plan? Did we want to have prescriptions? One of the companies that came in a couple years ago, for example, they were going to save us money on prescriptions, which is nice, but it was going to be a mail order system.”
He added that under the current contract, the county shares in the savings when claims are lower than expected for a year, which Tankersley said has resulted in hundreds of thousands of dollars going back to the county. He said Pulaski County currently has a top-tier plan, and one way to save money could be to cut back on some of the benefits.
With all the variables involved, Tankersley suggested that the county could hire an outside consultant that specializes in health insurance to develop various specifications, rather than putting all the work on Auditor Laura Wheeler. In the end, Wheeler agreed to specify that each bid include three coverage options: one that’s identical to the county’s existing plan, as well as two others. She said the process will have to be done quickly, since the contract is up in August.
