County to see more savings on health insurance

 

[March 27, 2019] 

In February, the Logan County Board heard insurance bids for county employee benefits. 

Insurance consultant for Logan County, Nathan Whiteman, returned in March with updates to health insurance bids.

Whiteman was able to negotiate another 6.26 percent decrease with BlueCross/BlueShield.

Whiteman said this decrease would mean a savings of $55,000 to $65,000 per year for the county.

Most of the county employees are in unions and what the county pays in benefits, including insurances, are negotiated through the union.

The county has twenty non-union individuals on the health plans. The county’s contribution toward those premiums would be $470 per month, which is a $30 savings from the $500 per month last year. Whiteman said the board could decide how to allocate the rest of the funds.

On Tuesday, Welch motioned to continue $500 contribution toward employee medical insurance with remaining [going] toward Health Savings Account, higher rate or lower deductible plans. This motion was unanimously approved.

The board approved Insurance and Legislative Committee Annette Welch’s motion to accept Eyemed as the county's new vision provider with 11 yes votes.

Welch abstained from the vote.

At the Board Workshop on Thursday, March 14th, Whiteman told the board he negotiated a new vision plan with Eyemed that will include network access. The vision plan is less than $2 per month difference in costs from last year.

Welch said May 1st would be the new renewal date for all the county employee insurances.

[Angela Reiners]